Zora-Arkus-Duntov's Last Interview

[jbedit]

Saw this video interview with Zora Duntov at http://hotrodenginetech.com/zora-arkus- ... interview/. It's a little long and he's a little hard to follow because he was so old at the time and he still had a thick accent, but it was way cool listening to him tell stories about the development of Chevy performance cars and engines in particular. Someone said its been shown before, but I've never seen it and just thought I'd share in case anyone else missed it. I downloaded and saved it in my cool stuff file.

[crazyman]

Thank you...

[BrazilianZ28Camaro]

X2

[rally]

I have a original Hot Rod magazine Dec 1967 with Duntov sitting between 4 Chevy engines he had built and designed. I dont think any of these got approval from the Top at Chevy. But there is three BB Chevy Hemi engines, unreal. If Dontov would of had his way, Chevy would of had a Hemi designed BB and a 327 Hemi Engine. Trust me Chrysler Mopar boys would of seen the last of their dominance of there Hemi Engine. From what i heard Duntov designed the Hemi Head years ago. He was the first form what i heard,

[BrazilianZ28Camaro]

I have a original Hot Rod magazine Dec 1967 with Duntov sitting between 4 Chevy engines he had built and designed.

Any chance to post a pic here?

[panic]

Duntov designed the Hemi Head

Was done before he was born.
You could buy a Harley-Davidson pushrod hemi engine right from a dealer in 1925.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

Interesting how basic of things stuck in his mind like materials and dimensions.

[dfree383]

Number of guys on here who knew him.........

[Engguy]

Thanks for the link, when I was a kid I wanted to meet him.

[rally]

panic who cares about Harley Hemi head. My point is Dontov from what i read designed the first automobile engine hemi head design. Want to talk about bikes, good for you, me i could careless.

[Sir Yun]

I liked the ''my expense account my expense account was rejected'' bit. Seemed a nice guy.

Jag XK6 (1949) engine was a hemi as well and I believe there where quite a few far (as in 30 years +) before that

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

He lived in interesting times of the US auto industry with interesting assignments.
I find it odd though that the big block Chevrolet would be seen as an example of good engineering with the uneven intake port designs and head bolt pattern. I would like to hear a story about how that happened. My guess is the design was done as an experimental prototype for racing where they believed they needed larger ports at the expense of all else with no intention that it would ever see production.

[900HP]

He lived in interesting times of the US auto industry with interesting assignments.
I find it odd though that the big block Chevrolet would be seen as an example of good engineering with the uneven intake port designs and head bolt pattern. I would like to hear a story about how that happened. My guess is the design was done as an experimental prototype for racing where they believed they needed larger ports at the expense of all else with no intention that it would ever see production.

Probably all true ^^^^^^ (don't forget valvetrain angles) but the engine has proven to be quite a good piece over the years and will take a lot of abuse. I am guessing that there are more racing wins (drag,circle, road, pull, whatever) with the small block and big block Chevrolet engines (V8 classes) than all other makes combined. That's just my guess though. Improvements have been made over the years with sym port heads and the like but I think the design has survived rather well.

[dieselgeek]

That was awesome, perfect for viewing over the lunch hour. Thanks for posting!

[Keith Morganstein]

Saw this video interview with Zora Duntov at It's a little long and he's a little hard to follow because he was so old at the time and he still had a thick accent, but it was way cool listening to him tell stories about the development of Chevy performance cars and engines in particular.

The text explained that Duntov had suffered a stroke which explaines his difficulty expressing his thoughts at times during the interview.