Corvettes on eBay: 1979 Custom Duntov Turbo Corvette Offered at No Reserve

Oct 11, 2014

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Corvettes on eBay: 1979 Custom Duntov Turbo Corvette Offered at No Reserve

A Duntov Turbo Corvette, one of the lesser-known Corvette models, is up for sale on eBay and is being offered at no reserve.

The Duntov Turbo Corvette was a collaboration between American Custom Industries (ACI) and Zora Arkus-Duntov following Zora’s retirement from General Motors in 1975. The Duntov Turbo Corvette should not be confused with the 1979 Turbo Corvette and the 1980 Turbo Corvette, both of which were General Motors prototypes. General Motors did not participate in either the design or the manufacture of the Duntov Turbo as both were the responsibility of ACI.

ACI has been manufacturing stock replacement and custom fiberglass auto parts for over 39 years and was heavily involved in making the wide body fiberglass parts used on the Greenwood racing Corvettes. As that project was winding down in the mid seventies, Zora was invited to speak at an ACI open house in his new role as a Corvette consultant. Following much discussion, this meeting led to an agreement for ACI to produce a limited run of 200 turbocharged Corvettes with ACI bodywork using Duntov’s name—thus, the Duntov Turbo Corvette was born.

Although most of the Duntov Turbo Corvettes were built in 1980 and 1981, and were white with a red interior, the eBay Turbo is a ’79 painted black with a black interior. The car is number 24 of a total of between 27 and 37 that were actually built. It has less than 10,000 miles on the odometer and comes with A/C, which may not work according to the description, cruise control, power door locks and power windows. The drivetrain includes a Ray-Jay turbocharged L48 and an automatic transmission.

Remember that there were no Chevrolet factory Corvette convertibles in this time frame, so all of the Duntov Turbo Corvettes were converted into convertibles from coupes. All had custom interiors with digital gauges and Epsilon modular wheels. Our ’79 turbo also has a JVC head unit with an Alpine amp.

The owner reminds us that the car has been driven and is not perfect—it has dings in the front and rear fascias, the tach does not work, it could use a new carpet, the exhaust needs a new bracket and the tips need to be re-installed. He also notes that the steering wheel “is bent a little”, but he will throw in another Duntov-signed steering wheel.

The starting bid is $20,000 with a buy it now price of $25,000. As of press time, no bids had been received. If you have a fancy for this one, please act quickly as the bidding ends on Monday, October 13 at 10:32:53 PDT.