No Zora Arkus-Duntov no Mid-Engined Corvette Today’s modern Corvette may have ended up in the scrap pile of good ideas that never went anywhere if it hadn’t been for an immigrant with sketchy spelling. Zora Arkus-Duntov, a Russian born in Belgium who came to America on the eve of World War II, managed to work his way into General Motors and became both the car’s first chief engineer and the first champion of the mid-engined Corvette. Harley Earl, father of the Corvette, rightly stands in first place in the car’s history, but Arkus-Duntov is right behind him. He led the push to make the Corvette a real sports car, with fuel injection, an independent rear suspension, and four-wheel disc brakes. Zora Arkus was born on December 25, 1909, in Brussels, Belgium, to parents of Russian-Jewish descent. He would later add “Duntov” to his last name as a tribute to his stepfather. He studied engineering in Germany but preferred hands-on work to the theoretical—a preference that would become a hallmark of his career. From Germany he moved to Paris. After war broke out in Europe in 1939, he enlisted in the French air force. Upon France’s surrender, he left for the United States with his wife, Elfi; his younger brother, Yura; and their mother and stepfather. Arkus-Duntov in the States Once settled in New York City, Arkus-Duntov served as an engineering consultant, eventually forming the Ardun (for Arkus-Duntov) Mechanical Corporation. As the war effort increased, so, too, did Ardun’s military contracts and its profits. After the war, Arkus-Duntov set about finding a new way to make a living, including designing a kit to convert flathead Ford V-8s to an overhead-valve setup, a failed attempt to race in the Indianapolis 500, working with Sydney Allard in England, and racing at Le Mans in 1952. In the fall of that year, he and We update hourly so Please bookmark us and visit often Read More Here https://www.canadacarguys.com/mid-engined-corvette-wouldnt-exist-sans-zora-arkus-duntov/18/07/2019/ Please subscribe to our channel, like this video, and leave your comments below. Thanks for watching