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National Corvette Museum

Bowling Green, Kentucky

The Heart of Corvette Country

Zora Arkus-Duntov, born in Belgium, was a Engineer. Zora was quite taken with the "New" 1953 Corvette after seeing it displayed in New York at the GM Motorama Show. He would soon approach GM's Ed Cole with suggestions and engineering proposals relating to the new Corvette.  Chevrolet needless to say was so impressed with Zora that he was offered the job as Assistant Staff Engineer.  His work on the Corvette would later earn him the title, Corvette Chief Engineer and garnering the nickname, "Father of the Corvette".  Zora's ideas and perceptions of what the Corvette should be paved the road to Corvettes Success. He developed the Small Block V8 for use in the Corvette in 1955 along with his Duntov Cam and Fuel injection that would become a Corvette option in 1957. Not content to just engineer the improvements he needed to experience them. Zora was not new to racing so naturally he wanted to develop  and drive Racing Versions of his Corvette. He successfully campaigned the Corvette until Chevrolet decided to stop their involvement in Factory Racing. About the same time, in 1963, the other hand of Chevrolet was heavily involved with introducing the Grand Sport Program, which consisted of building light weight, 1800 pound Racing Corvettes that could compete internationally, using a 377 Cu. In. Aluminum V8 engines and Twin Spark Plug Cylinder Heads producing 550 H.P. Eventually the Racing Ban would stop the Grand Sport Program but not before 5 cars were built

Zora retired in 1975 as Corvettes first Chief Engineer passing on the title to Dave McLellan. Even after his retirement Zora stayed very active within the Corvette Community. He died on April 21, 1996. Zora and his wife Elfi, Corvettes First Lady, both have their ashes entombed in the Museum

The Blue Fully Option 1974 Corvette shown above, is the only Corvette that Zora had ever owned. Originally Green, he had it repainted and as you would expect made a few Performance Enhancements to it. Zora and Elfi drove it regularly to Corvette functions until Corvette Collector, Les Bieri offered Zora $100,000 for it in 1989. Mr. Bieri kept the car until shortly after Zora's passing. He then decided to donate the Corvette to the Museum as a Tribute to the "Father of the Corvette"

Tommy Morrison's "Mobil 1" LT5 ZR-1 Corvette set and broke many Endurance and Speed Records in 1990. One of the records broken was the 24 hour High Speed Endurance record that was set by Ab Jenkins in 1940. Morrison averaged 175 plus MPH in a Corvette. Ab held that Record for 50 years. He averaged 161.8 MPH driving the Mormon Meteor

The Corvette Museum is Home to the only Surviving example of a 1983 Corvette. The lone '83 Corvette, usually kept in the Sky Dome, escaped the Sink Hole catastrophe without any damage. Due to 6 month's worth of engineering delays and GM's wanting to get the New Generation Corvette right, it was decided not to produce a 1983 Corvette. The All New Corvette would debut as a 1984 model. Chevrolet built 40 proto-type 1983 cars. Being non-production cars they could not be sold. After testing GM had them all destroyed except for the Museum Car.

Not all Engineering Cars are as lucky as this 1983 Corvette. Most of them are Snuffed Out once their purpose is spent. The Proto-Type 1989 ZR-1 Cars were no different. They were to be destroyed after testing and evaluation was completed. Testing began and ended in England at the hands of Lotus. Lotus was contracted by GM to developed the LT-5  engines for use in the ZR-1 Corvette. Lotus was suppose to destroy the Proto-Type cars, they did... but not the way GM would have done it. Supposedly they were merely Run Over by a Tractor and then Shoved Down a Hill. As story's spread and interest among Corvette Enthusiast grew the "Destroyed 1989 ZR-1 Cars" made their way back to the states in various stages of completeness. Most of them have been reassembled while others were used for parts or are awaiting a future resurrecting