#48 – Zora Arkus-Duntove
Zora Arkus-Duntove, who the Automotive Hall of Fame has deemed “The father of the performance Corvette” was an engineer for Chevrolet. He first saw the Corvette concept at GM’s 1953 Motorama. Arkus-Duntov loved the design but was disappointed with its power. He wrote to Chevrolet’s chief engineer Ed Cole about his admiration for the vehicle as well as a technical paper how to improve its performance. Chevrolet was impressed and hired him right away to work on the project. Arkus-Duntov continued to work on Corvettes for the next 20 years.