The design of the Corvette can be traced back to three gentleman: Harley Earl, Zachary (Zora) Arkus and Larry Shinoda.

Harley Earl

In 1927, General Motors decided to hire designer Harley Earl to compete with Ford Motors top position in the automotive world. Harley Earl loved sports cars, and returning GI's after World War II were bringing home tiny yet fast MGs and Jaguars. Earl told GM that they needed to build a sports car if they wanted to surpass Ford. The final result was the 1953 Corvette.

Harley Earl was born November 22, 1893 in California. His father, J.W. Earl was a coach builder and ran the Earl Automotive Works. Harley Earl began his studies at Stanford University but dropped out to study design with his father at Earl Automotive Works. Earl Automotive Works was a custom design shop whose clients were movie stars of the 1920s. By age of 30 Harley Earl was wining and dining with some of the biggest celebrities of the time.

In 1927, Earl Automotive Works was sold to Cadillac's west coast distributor Don Lee and Harley Earl was hired to supervise the newly created Art and Color Section at General Motors.

Earl spent 10 years establishing the outlines of automobile design. In 1937, Earl changed his Art and Color Section name to Style Section. One of the ways Earl helped show his models and creations was by two types of design methods. One was a two dimensional rough sketch and the other was a three dimensional clay model. These clay models are still used today by almost all major car makers. When Earl retired from GM in 1959, he left behind a design legacy using chrome, two tone paint, tail fins, hardtops and wrap around windshields. His designs stunned the traditional automotive world.

Zachary (Zora) Arkus

Zachary (Zora) Arkus was born in Belgium on December 25, 1909. His father was a Russian born mining engineer, and his mother was a medical student in Brussels. After the family returned to their hometown of Leningrad, Zora's parents divorced. His mother?s boyfriend, Josef Duntov, another mining engineer, had move into the household. Out of respect, Zora and his brother Yura took on the last name of Arkus-Duntov.

In 1927, Zora and his family moved to Berlin. His boyhood dream was to become a streetcar His first motorized vehicle was a 350cc motorcycle, which he rode at nearby racetracks. Fearing for his safety, his parents insisted he trade the cycle in for an automobile. Zora sold his motorcycle and bought a race car. The car was a fendered motorcycle called a "Bob". The Bob was set up for oval track racing. It had no front brakes and very little in the rear.

In 1934, Zora graduated form the Institute of Charlottenburg. He began writing engineering papers in the German motor publication Auto Motor und Sport. In 1939 he married Elfi Wolff and the next day Zora and his brother joined the French Air Force. When France surrendered, Zora obtained exit visas from the Spanish consulate in Marseilles, not only for Elfi and himself, but for his brother and parents as well. Five days later, Elfi met up with Zora and his family and later they boarded a ship out of Portugal bound for New York City.

In Manhattan, the two brothers set up the Ardun Company which supplied parts to the military and also manufactured aluminum heads for the flathead Ford V8 engine. In 1951 Zora left America for England to work on the Allard sports car, co-driving it at Le Mans in 1952 and in 1953. He also won victories at Le Mans in 1954 and 1955 while driving an 1100cc Porsche Spyder.

In 1953 Zora had returned to New York and saw the Motorama Corvette on display in New York. Zora found the car to be incredible, but was disappointed with the engine. He wrote Chevrolet chief engineer Ed Cole and included a technical paper which proposed a method of determining a car's top speed. Chevrolet was so impressed that engineer Maurice Olley invited Zora to come to Detroit. On May 1, 1953, Zora Arkus-Duntov started at Chevrolet as an assistant staff engineer.

Shortly after starting work for Chevrolet, Zora began laying out the strategy that Chevrolet would use to create one of the most successful performance parts programs in the automotive industry. In the process, he would change the Corvette from a flashy roadster into a full-blown sports car. After introducing the small-block V8 engine to the Corvette in 1955, he set out to prove the engine by charging up Pikes Peak in 1956 in prototype Chevy and setting a stock car record. Not satisfied, he took a Corvette to Daytona Beach the same year and hit a record setting 150 MPH. Zora also developed the famous Duntov high-lift camshaft and helped bring fuel injection to the Corvette in 1957.

In 1963, Zora launched the Grand Sport program. The idea was to create a special lightweight Corvette weighing only 1,800 pounds and race it on an international circuit. Power for the Grand Sport was to come from an aluminum version of the small block V8, equipped with special twin-plug cylinder heads. At 377ci, output was a projected 550hp at 6,400 RPM. However GM policy prohibited Zora from racing, but not before five Grand Sports were built. These five cars eventually fell into the hands of private owners.

Zora and his wife Elfi test drove many Corvettes together. On a trip from Michigan to Florida, Zora and Elfi drove a Corvette that had new upholstery fabric on the seats. For extra strength, metal fibers were included in the weave. As they were driving along, Elfi noticed a tear in Zora's trousers. By the time they reached their destination, the metal fibers in the fabric had torn Zora's trousers to shreds. After seeing the torn up trousers, the designers went back to the drawing board.

Zora retired in 1975. At 81, Zora Arkus-Duntov was still involved with Corvette. He took part in the rollout of the 1 millionth Corvette at Bowling Green in 1992. He also drove the bulldozer at the ground breaking ceremonies for the National Corvette Museum in 1994. He died late that year.

Larry Shinoda The Corvette Sting Ray, the Z-28 Camaro, and the BOSS 302 Mustang were all designed by one man --Larry Shinoda. A Japanese American from Los Angles, California, Shinoda went to work for Ford Motor Company in 1955. He stayed at Ford for one year, then moved to Packard in 1956. During his time with Packard, the company was in financial trouble. Shinoda left Packard and went to Indianapolis and worked on a Watson built car that won the Indy 500. In September of 1956, Shinoda went to work for General Motors. He began working on a car called the SS. In 1959, the SS became the Stingray. Because GM had banned racing, the Sting Ray did not have a Corvette logo anywhere on it. Shinoda served as mechanic, pit crew, designer and what ever else was needed. The Sting Ray Racer was the foundation for the 1963 Shinoda designed Corvette Sting Ray.

When development began on the 1963 Corvette the split window was designed into the coupe. Designer Bill Mitchell had adopted the Corvette as his own, and the '63 Sting Ray was his special project. Zora-Arkus-Duntov with the help of Mitchell and Shinoda combined efforts to create the Corvette Sting Ray made from 1963 to 1967. It is thought by many to be the best of the Corvettes and the most desirable. Shinoda?s job was to take the Sting Ray racing car, and turn it into a production car. The first model Sting Ray production car was completed in fiberglass for the board of directors meeting and had the "Split Window" the split was a little narrower than on the actual production car, but there was a hatch and the whole back end opened up. The scoops that finally ended up in the front fender, were in front of the rear fenders.

The 1963 Corvette had a style that no other car had. It was a distinctly American Car in contrast to the great European cars of the time. In 1963, for the first time in it's history, Chevrolet would build over 20,000 Corvettes growing to over 27,000 in 1966.

Even in poor health, Larry Shinoda remained active with the Corvette until his death. He designed the "Shinoda Kit" for the C4 Corvette, and was working on producing a limited run of Shinoda designed C5 Corvettes. He was also working with Cragar wheels on a 17", 18" and 20" Shinoda Design series. One of his last projects was the graphic design for the Mid-America traveling Corvette exhibit. Shinoda died November 13, 1997 of a heart attack.

Since the inception of the Corvette in 1953, it was no secret that many within General Motors and Chevrolet wanted to do away with the fiberglass bodied sports car. The car?s sales were low compared to other models. Ed Cole, Zora Arkus-Duntov and Bill Mitchell formed the team that would become Corvette's spokesmen. Bill Mitchell, who replaced Harley Earl as GM's design chief in 1958 was a major supporter of the Corvette. Ed Cole was the primary player in keeping Corvette alive despite a growing number of obstacles, was promoted to Chevrolet general manager in 1956. Zora Arkus-Duntov was Corvettes top engineer in 1957. With this group a talent bonding together, development began in earnest on an all new Corvette in the late 1950s that has lead to the Corvette of today.

But was the Corvette really an American dream? Zachary Arkus was born in Belgium from Russian parents. Larry Shinoda, although born in California, was Japanese. These two men were key figures in the production of car we know today. Let's just hope there are more from where these guys came from to keep the American dream alive.