Remembering 'Father of the Corvette' - The Detroit News

Through seven generations, the Corvette has created a legacy of success on the race track, a performance parts program that rivals any in the auto industry and legions of devoted fans. “General Motors is riding high on the Corvette now,” said car guy Ken Lingenfelter, owner of the Lingenfelter Collection and Lingenfelter Performance Engineering. He’s the man that put the Z in Z06. “Frankly, Corvette wouldn’t not be what it is today if he hadn’t been part of the project,” said Lingenfelter, who has about 250 cars in his collection, including Arkus-Duntov’s most famous Corvette. As Dream Cruise week heats up and hundreds of Corvette owners prepare to cruise Woodward Avenue on Wednesday in their annual charity car show and ride, there’s no better time to reflect on the legacy of the young engineer who immigrated to the U.... “Zora was the foremost champion of the car during its fragile early days back in the ’50s,” said Jerry Burton, author of “Zora Arkus-Duntov: The Legend Behind Corvette. “In a high-volume car company like Chevrolet, the emphasis was on selling station wagons and family cars and not low-volume sports cars,” said Burton. “A lot of people at GM and Chevrolet didn’t understand what the car did. The first Corvette was introduced to the world in January 1953. The car was named after the nimble Naval escort ship and was powered by a 150-horsepower, “Blue Flame” six-cylinder engine. Source: www.detroitnews.com