Zora Arkus-Duntov was relieved of his duties at GM in 1975 , but he wasn’t keen to officially retire just yet. Instead of simply spending his days on the golf greens, Zora was keen to find a way to turn his vision of a turbocharged Corvette into reality.
He found Bob Schuller, owner of American Custom Industries (ACI), and together they finally created Duntov’s dream car, now known as the Duntov Turbo Convertible. Unfortunately for Duntov, ACI, and Corvette fans everywhere, it didn’t catch on. Yet the memory remains.
What we have here is a tribute to the failed Duntov Convertible. A previous owner contacted ACI in 1982 and asked Schuller to supply him with the parts needed to build the Duntov Convertible, which were all white over red.
The donor car was a 1973 hardtop with brown paint and a tan interior– in other words, nowhere close to a Duntov. Keen to make it work the owner hacked off the roof and refinished their creation in black over grey.
Unlike the “original” Duntov Convertible (which in itself was a modified Corvette), this this Zora-inspired Corvette also features a host of other upgrades:
- Magnacharger twin supercharger
- Dakota Digital gauges
- Chrome Z06 wheels
- Custom interior accents with carbon fiber and brushed aluminum
- Power steering
- Power brakes with stainless steel calipers with drilled and slotted zinc rotors
- Hooker side exhaust with custom chrome shields and new black Stayfast top.
Under the hood you get a 350 cubic-inch V8 mated to a 700R4 automatic transmission with overdrive. No expenses were spared, according to the listing. Unfortunately, it’s very likely that the seller won’t get their money back. A “real” Duntov Convertible was up for grabs late last year for just $25,000.
Head over to the Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach, FL, between April 17-19 if this is your kind of strange.
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