Corvette C8 has Zora’s Face on the Belly Pan

Zora Arkus-Duntov first suggested a mid-engine Corvette, so his face belongs on the C8.

Pretty much everyone who cares about the automotive industry knows that the 2020 C8 Corvette is the first in the history of the legendary sports car to have the engine mounted behind the driver. Many of those same people know that the first man to envision a Corvette with the engine mounted towards the rear of the vehicle was Zora Arkus-Duntov. “Zora”, as he is better known today, helped the Corvette gain its early popularity, pushing for stronger V8 engines, promoting motorsports programs and transforming the car in ways that attracted buyers.

Sadly, Zora passed away in 1996, well before the C8 Corvette was anywhere near the first stages of development, so he never got to see his vision come to life. However, his role in the evolutionary change of the Corvette over the years is not lost on the current design team. His likeness was included on the first test car to be shown in New York City. More recently, the profile of his face was showcased in the corner of the C8 windshield.

According to CorvetteBlogger, the face of Zora Arkus-Duntov has most recently shown up on the belly pan that protects the undercarriage of the C8 Chevrolet Corvette.

C8 Corvette Undercarriage

A C8 Corvette owner named Ryan Jaycox took his 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to the dealership. While there, the car was up on the lift, giving the owner a chance to check out the undercarriage. Due to the belly pan system that covers pretty much everything under the car, there isn’t much to see, but Jaycox noticed something interesting. He shared his findings with the C8 Corvette Owners Group.

“Today was the first time I’ve been under my C8 and I thought this was AWESOME, check out what’s stamped on the bottom.”

Stamped into the protective belly pan of the C8 Corvette is the face of Zora Arkus-Duntov as viewed from the side. Oddly, Jaycox couldn’t recall exactly where on the car the logo was found. He stated that it was “towards the center of the bottom”, but we cannot see it in the video that he also shared. While most people may not ever see this small image, it is another “Easter egg” that pays tribute to the man who helped to make the Corvette what it is today.

More Zora

The first clear connection between Zora Arkus-Duntov appeared on the camouflaged C8 test car that Tadge Juechter and Marry Barra drove through the streets of New York City. That Corvette had the “Zora head logo” in a few spots on the black-and-white design. In the image below, the tiny Zora logo appears on the outward-most corner of the passenger’s side door mirror. The first production-spec nod to Zora appeared on the windshield of the C8, in the passenger’s side lower corner. There may be more “Easter eggs” on the C8, but the big Zora-C8 connection that many people are expecting is a high performance Corvette.

Some rumors suggest that the Zora will have a forced induction V8 with upwards of 1,000 horsepower. Other rumors claim that the big power will be achieved with a combination of a V8 with forced induction and an electric hybrid drive system. In either case, any Corvette that wears the Zora name is surely going to be a legendary performance machine.

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