Zora Arkus-Duntov

Destiny often has a hard time happening, seldom more so than in the case of Zora Arkus-Duntov, the champion of the Chevrolet Corvette. He made his way from Brussels to Detroit via Leningrad, the Russian revolution, Berlin, Nazi persecution, along an escape route through Marseilles and Lisbon to New York, eventually taking the Harley Earl-designed 1953 ’Vette under his wing and keeping it there, battling most of his life for its rightful place in American society.

His battle is the stuff of legends. The fact that the Corvette has been with us in one form or another for around 60 years and seven generations is the best testimony to that.

Born in Brussels on Christmas Day 1909, Zora was a year old when his parents, mother Rachel and father Yakov Myseivich Arkus, returned to their hometown of St. Petersburg. Deep malcontent was spreading through Russian society like a rumbling earthquake, which eventually erupted in 1917. By that time, Rachel and Yakov had divorced and a new man had entered her life, Josef Duntov. But it wasn’t until 1927 that the family moved to Berlin, where it was agreed that Zora and his brother Yura would adopt the surname Arkus-Duntov.

Zora—born Zachary—became interested in motorbikes and cars. His first machine was a 350-cc Diamant motorcycle, which he raced and used as quick urban transport on the unsuspecting streets of the German capital. After that he acquired a racing car of sorts, one of two 1922 Bob oval racers with long sloping mudguards, a low-slung pointed tail and built by an obscure manufacturer that has long since disappeared.