Zora Arkus-Duntov: The Legend Behind Corvette (Chevrolet)

Zora's engineering gifts were remarkable, although not always fully appreciated at GM. Though he never stopped rebelling against the culture at GM, Zora remained tirelessly focused for over twenty years on improving the Corvette and making it a legitimate sports car capable of winning races. Burton's book brings us inside the walls of GM and inside the mind of this automotive engineering genius to understand the motivations behind this classic David and Goliath struggle.

Author Jerry Burton, editorial director of Corvette Quarterly, has written the first comprehensive biography of Zora-Arkus Duntov, and illustrated it with hundreds of unpublished photos, blueprints, and archival documents-the majority taken from the Duntovs' personal collection. Burton's research is exhaustive, based on scores of interviews with Zora's friends and colleagues, as well as his widow. In the words of Elfi Duntov, "this book brings back in vivid detail the incredible life that Zora and I lived together."

Anyone who has ever had an interest in Corvettes, automotive engineering, Duntov, or the pursuit of the American dream will find Zora Arkus-Duntov: The Legend Behind Corvette an enlightening and riveting read.

As for great Corvette books?

Well...those are pretty darn rare. Karl Lugvigsen's classic, "Corvette: America's Star-Spangled Sports Car", is one. The late Jim Schefter's, "All Corvettes are Red", is another. Noland Adam's pair of Corvette Restoration and Technical Manuals are two more.

The newest member of truly outstanding Corvette literature is Jerry Burton's biography, "Zora Arkus-Duntov: the Legend Behind the Corvette". Finely-detailed, yet easy-reading, it's a spellbinding life's story of a man who became one of the automotive engineering giants of the 20th Century.

Corvette enthusiasts know Duntov as the guy who snatched Corvette from death at the hands of short-sighted General Motors executives in the early 1950s, then, improved its engineering, performance and image such that it went from a product Chevrolet dealers couldn't sell to the most successful high-performance sports car on earth. A good part of how Corvette became one of the rare automobiles to attain American Icon status is attributable directly to Zora Duntov's vision, personality and hard work.

This book also tells of Duntov's growing up in St. Petersburg during the Russian Revolution when young Zora was a street-wise, risk-taker who sometimes carried a pistol and more than once used it to defend himself. It also tells of newly-married Zora and Elfe's Duntov's frantic escape across southern France just ahead of the Nazi juggernaut in the early days of World War II? You'll read about Duntov's arrival in New York City, just before the U.S. entered WW2, where, inside of three weeks, he borrowed money, started a business and, within months was a runaway success as a defense contractor? The book explains Duntov's initial success in the car business came as a manufacturer of parts for Ford V8 engines? It tells about how he raced Porsches at Le Mans while he engineered Corvettes at GM? You'll learn that Zora was quite the "chick-magnet" jet-setter who hung-out with the high-society, political, entertainment and international motorsports personalities that made news in the 1950s and 1960s? All this and more of Duntov's amazing life is in Burton's book.

Not only was Zora a wonderfully talented and visionary engineer but he had his limitations, too. He cheated on his wife, partied too much, drove too fast and pissed-off half the executives at GM right up to the CEO. He loved the Corvette, worked hard to make it better and strived to promote it, not only to the public, but, also, to the company that was making it because, in the car's early years, half the time, GM didn't know what to do with Corvettes and the rest of the time it didn't want them at all.

Through painstaking research and a affable style, Burton weaves all these colorful aspects of Zora Arkus-Duntov's life into a highly-captivating story. The book is decidedly non-technical, one of its major strong points. Each chapter is a short-story in itself, encompassing a particular period or aspect of Zora's life. The book is remarkably unbiased, covering Duntov's strengths and his weaknesses but expressing few opinions. It's smooth writing style and easy reading make it outstanding entertainment as well as an excellent work of biography.

Even casual students of the history of the American automobile industry must have "Zora Arkus-Duntov" in their library.


If you love Corvettes, this is about the Father of Corvettes   March 1, 2003
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Very very interesting book on the Father (but not creator) of the Corvette. The book brings the legend to life. If you have already put Zora on a Pedestal, then you may not want to read this book as it shows his human side (but does not tarnish it). On the other hand if you want to know the inside story on someone who had a tremendous influence on automotive history, then read this book. If you want to learn about how the Corvette happened and grew, then this book is for you.