Remembering Zora: The Daytona Stories You Haven’t Heard
Part 2 of Our Coverage of the “Zora As We Knew Him” Event Continues
To read Part 1 of the “Zora As We Knew Him” event, CLICK HERE.
George Haddad, owner of Fabulous Restorations in Fort Lauderdale, and George Levy, author, former Autoweek editor, and President of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, came together in 2022 with a brilliant idea. The Corvette story is arguably the longest and richest narrative in Detroit’s automotive history. After seventy years of highs and lows—racing victories, heartbreaks, and multiple trips to the GM chopping block—Corvette has risen to become one of General Motors’ flagship technology leaders.
Corvette history is filled with legendary figures, and none loom larger than Zora Arkus-Duntov, the Godfather of Corvette. Unfortunately, most of the pioneers from those early days are no longer with us. As committed Corvette enthusiasts and historians, Haddad and Levy understood the urgency of getting as many surviving voices “on the record.” Naturally, a storytelling-focused event became the ideal way to preserve those memories. In all of Corvette folklore, no one had more drive, passion, or love for the car than Zora.
Bringing a good idea to life
Haddad and Levy tapped into their deep Corvette connections and assembled a panel of the living “Who’s Who” of the Corvette world. They decided the event should take place in Daytona Beach, Florida, just before Zora Arkus-Duntov’s induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America Class of 2023 on March 7, 2023. The location, the Shores Resort & Spa on Atlantic Avenue, sits on the very beach where NASCAR once held its famous Speed Record trials and its earliest stock car races.
It is also where Duntov, John Fitch, Betty Skelton, and Buck Baker set Corvette speed records in 1956. From the top-floor conference room that hosted the Zora As We Knew Him event, guests could look down at the historic sands and out into the emerald Atlantic, gazing at the place where so much Corvette history unfolded.
Zora’s pals get together for some serious Bench Racing!
Zora’s friends and colleagues on the panel included Tom Peters, Gib Hufstader, Herb Fishel, Ken Lingenfelter, Jerry Thompson, Tony DeLorenzo, and Burt Greenwood. The event ran from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., but the two hours passed faster than Greenwood’s Spirit of Sebring ’76 Corvette. It could have easily continued for another two hours. Although Ken Lingenfelter never met Zora personally, his ownership of the 1954 Duntov Mule Corvette (featured in the February 2023 issue of Vette Vues) and many other historic Corvettes made his perspective valuable. As people filed out, one theme rose above all others: there needs to be another event—and soon.
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Our previous conversation ended with Jerry Thompson thanking Chevrolet Styling for the front-end design of his team’s ’67 L88 race car. According to Jerry, the front end helped the car lift slightly, lighten the steering at speed, and “tighten up their anatomy” on the straightaways. We also learned that when Zora spoke to him, Jerry’s name came out through Zora’s thick accent as “Jelly.” As engineers and racers, Jerry and Tony focused mainly on keeping their hardware alive under the brutal stresses of competition. They especially appreciated that Zora always backed them when they needed engineering fixes for failed parts.
The conversation continues with Gib Hufstader, the privateer field engineer, chiming in
Gib Hufstader: “Jelly, that’s absolutely right (audience laughs, “Jelly” smiles). I used to watch the cars on the long back straights, and they sure had a lot of lift. The fixes on the relay arm assembly that weren’t good enough for endurance racing were integrated into the production Corvettes. Jerry and Tony weren’t the only teams that gave us feedback.
At the 12 Hours of Sebring, Jim Hall’s Chaparral was using an experimental Powerglide automatic transmission that was failing. We discovered a small oil pin that kept popping out because of the extreme heat. It was an easy fix for us, but a good example of the details we learned from racing: bearings, axles, a relay arm, and many other parts. All of the things we fixed went into the production Corvette.”
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Tony DeLorenzo: “The steering relay rod Gib and Jerry mentioned bent when we raced at Daytona; the stress on the suspension was that high on the banks. In the pits, our fix wasn’t pretty, but it worked. We just welded an L-iron to the steering relay rod to strengthen it. Engineering then designed a thicker relay rod that went into the production of Corvettes.”
Ken Lingenfelter: “The passion that Zora, Gib, other engineers, and the racers put into the C1, C2, and C3 cars has improved better and better. Zora was pushing for the mid-engine layout before the 1959 CERV-I mule car was built. It took a lot of mid-engine Corvette concept cars before we got to the C8, an incredible car.”
Jerry Thompson: “Zora was definitely his own man with his own vision of the mid-engine. He made the 1959 mid-engine CERV-I according to the then Indy car specs, except for the engine size. Then Zora and his team used the car for over ten years to test all kinds of engines, suspension settings, brakes, and tire configurations. The CERV-I at one point had a 427 all-aluminum ZL-1 and huge, wide tires.”
“Sometimes Zora would get into trouble with the CERV-I and other Corvettes. The Tech Center was basically two lanes wide and had some banked curves. There was a sign there that said, “Behave” and “Respectability”. I guess Zora didn’t understand the subtlety. He’d take a Corvette or experimental Corvette out on the track and run it up to 150 mph, then get into trouble for being “overly aggressive”.
“One time, Zora came to the gate with the CERV-I, and the guard asked, “Is that you, Zora?” “Yeah,” Zora says. The guard told Zora, “You are barred from the test track, Zora. Sorry.” Zora said, “Ahh, okay…” and drove under the gate with the CERV-I, the car was that low!” (audience laughs)
Gib Hufstader: “We worked with many teams, and many of them thought they had all the answers. There were good teams and not-so-good teams. But Zora helped them all.”
At this point, Tom Peters opened it up to the audience for questions
Question: Gib, concerning the Wankel engine cars, how did Zora handle doing what he didn’t want to do?
Bib Hufstader: “Well, Ed Cole was then President of GM, and he spent a lot of money on a license to develop the Wankel engine for use in production cars. Remember, Cole was one of the lead designers for the first Cadillac overhead-valve engine and the Chief of Engineering for Chevrolet and did the small-block Chevy engine. He was a technology guy. He wanted the Wankel, so that’s what Zora and the rest of us did.
I made a special four-rotor Wankel engine by putting together two two-rotor Wankels that we put into the Four-Rotor Concept Corvette. We didn’t like it because the Wankel engine inherently has too much internal surface area where the rotors spin. It was just not very efficient. It was one of Ed Cole’s last big projects. Overall, it was a big waste of time and money.”
Jerry Thompson: “And it sounded terrible! (audience laughs) No, really! It made a loud, screeching sound. It was just awful and wasn’t as powerful as a big-block.”
Question: How did Zora start the Grand Sport?
Jerry Thompson: “The Grand Sport was being done about sixty feet from my office in what wasn’t much more than a large closet. Zora wanted to keep it under the radar. Everything about it was lightweight, and it was originally called “The Lightweight”. It had a lightweight body, tube frame, chassis components, and an all-aluminum 377-CID small-block. Everything was under wraps as much as possible.
Someone told the 14th floor (GM’s top-level executives) what Zora was doing, and he was told to shut it down. Of course, all of us gearheads just about choked! Zora was dreaming of taking a team of Grand Sports to Le Mans in 1963, the way Briggs Cunningham had done in 1960. But that was never going to happen, so he let the cars slip out the back door so they wouldn’t be destroyed.”
Question: Where would the Corvette be without Zora, and what would he think of the C8?
Jerry Thompson: “You have to remember, all of the 1953 Corvettes were completed by the end of December 1953, and they weren’t selling well. At one point, over 58% weren’t sold! It was looking like the car was a failure. Then, when production started in St. Louis, the unflattering inside joke was that the car was the “St. Louis Ferrari”. At this point, the car was seriously being considered for cancellation. But without Zora there, pushing for performance and racing, the car would have never survived.”
Question: Burt, could you talk about the impact of the C3 wide-body designed for John and you?
Burt Greenwood: “Well, it was a transformational period. In 1973, John Bishop was running IMSA, and to make the races more exciting, he decided to have John and me represent Corvette, and Peter Greg represent Porsche. He also changed the rules to allow the huge, Can-Am-size racing slicks. We were already using the L88 flares, but they wouldn’t be big enough for the oversized racing slicks. All this was after our ’73 Trans-Am Championship, and Zora was very excited.”
“John and Zora talked it over, and John explained that a body kit that would generate more down-force should be considered. But we had no idea what that would look like. One day, designer Randy Wittine (also a member of the National Corvette Museum Fame) would show up at the shop one day to put down some drawings.
We were amazed! Bishop wouldn’t allow hood vents, but no one had ever thought of venting the nose pressure out through the flares. Randy’s drawing also had a bottom wing, that’s how far ahead he was thinking, you know, airflow under the car and all. IMSA made some changes; no front splitter and no bottom wing.”
Jerry Thompson: “Burt, did Chevrolet ever do any wind tunnel testing for the kit design?”
Burt Greenwood: “No, not that I know of. But the design gave a lot of front downforce. (unlike the C2 Sting Ray) At Daytona in 1975, Goodyear clocked the No. 75 car at 236 mph on the back straight! John said the car was a dream on the banks.”
Tom Peters: “Randy Wittine was a foundational designer in the Design 3 Studio, and he did all the graphics on the Greenwood cars. “
Herb Fishel: “Since we’re talking about racers and Corvettes, we should mention Smokey Yunick. Smokey set speed records in Corvettes and with stock car Chevys right out there on the beach (Herb points towards the beach). Back in my youth, I served an apprenticeship under Smokey. There’s a small park across the way from where his “Best Damn Garage in Town” shop was located, and they’ll be putting up a stone and brass monument to Smokey sometime soon.”
Tom Peters: “Folks, we are almost out of time for our tribute event. But before we close, we have a special piece of memorabilia to auction off. A Zora fan volunteered to auction off this 1978 Chevrolet dealership photo poster that was autographed by Zora. George Levy played the part of the auctioneer.
“Do we have $100? Yes! Can we have $200? Thank you, how about $300? We have $300, can I get $400? $500? $600? $700? (One person said, “I’ll go $1,000 if everyone on the panel signs the poster!) $1,000, thank you! Do I have $1,100? Nice, thank you. Can I have $1,200? Yes! $1,200. We’d like $1,300? $1,300? Going once, going twice… SOLD, to Judy Strobe for $1,200!!!”
Before we all knew it, the Zora As We Knew Him event was history
The room was filled with smiles, but we had to hustle out so the Shores Resort & Spa could set up the room for a doctor’s meeting. As everyone dispersed, a small gathering formed at The Shore Resort & Spa’s main entrance. George Haddad’s 1966 Penske Re-Creation was parked at the entrance, where George, Gib Hufstader, and his daughter, Becky, posed for photos next to the re-creation that Gib helped make spot-on accurate. Gib got in the passenger seat, George fired up the mighty L88, and made their way onto Atlantic Avenue, side pipes booming, on their way to George’s enclosed trailer.
The Zora As We Knew Him event was about Zora, Corvettes, and racing.
As Zora’s right-hand man back in the day and a good friend for the rest of Zora’s life, it was a fitting end to a great day for Gib Hufstader and all the men who knew and worked with Zora. The following day, Zora Arkus-Duntov was formally inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, located across the way from Daytona International Speedway. – Scott
To read Part 1 of the “Zora AS We Knew Him” event, CLICK HERE.
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