NEWS: GM Applies for 'Zora' Trademark
From Corvette Online: Earlier this month, General Motors applied to trademark “Zora” in the category of “Vehicles and Products for Locomotion by land, air or water.” Zora Arkus-Duntov was Corvettes first chief engineer and helped to bring innovative ideas to early Corvettes. This brings up the question, is General Motors planning a Zora special edition Corvette?
Zora joined the Corvette engineering team in 1953, starting out as the assistant staff engineer. He quickly moved up and became the chief engineer for Corvette up until 1975. Zora’s name is closely associated with early Corvette performance. Zora brought us things like a custom Duntov cam in early Corvettes, which helped break speed records. He also introduced Rochester fuel injection and an independent rear suspension. All of these helped to prepare for a factory Corvette racecar. In fact, when the first Corvette ZR1 debuted in 1970, people thought that it stood for “Zora Racing 1.”
One of Zora’s most well-known projects were the five 1963 Corvette Grand Sport racers. These five racers never made it to the track due to General Motors shutting down corporate sponsored racing. Zora got several racing teams to take these cars out to race and now they are some of the most sought after Corvettes ever.
Zora always dreamed of making a mid-engine Corvette, but his dream never came to life. Thought it is highly unlikely that General Motors will produce a mid-engine Zora edition Corvette, but we can always hope.
Recently, GM received trademarks for 'Stingray' and 'ZR1'. ZR1 was trademarked in 2007 and then brought to production in 2009 and Stingray was trademarked in 2010 and brought into production last year - gives us hope that GM will build a Zora edition Corvette in the next few years. Other recent patents include LTX, LT5, L88, and Turbo-Jet engine names.
We’re hopeful that if GM pulls the trigger on an exclusive Zora edition Corvette it'll be nothing short of astounding - just as the man himself.
By: Joshua Kashinsky Image Source: GM Media
