Corvettes for Sale: Rare 1980 Corvette Duntov Turbo Offered in the U.K.

Feb 22, 2022

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Corvettes for Sale: Rare 1980 Corvette Duntov Turbo Offered in the U.K.

Photo Credits: handh.co.uk

After his retirement from General Motors in 1975, Corvette Chief Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov wasn’t through tinkering with the legendary sports car he loved so much.

Zora had always pushed – unsuccessfully as it turned out – for Chevy to turbocharge the Corvette. After retiring from GM, Zora finally filled his dream by teaming up with American Custom Industries to produce the Duntov Turbo.

The company originally planned to produce 200 of these cars, but in the end, only 30 wound up leaving the Sylvania, Ohio shop, no doubt due to the minimum price tag of $37,500.

One such Duntov Turbo is apparently on the market, through the H and H company at an auction slated for March 16 at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England.

The H and H website doesn’t include many details about the car, other than that it is rumored to have been turbocharged by ACI, has 20,526 “credible” miles recorded, has a 350 V8 engine with a Martin turbocharger, and was imported into the United Kingdom in 2014.

A potential buyer would be wise to check out the car’s history to make sure it is the “real deal,” but a trip to the internet allowed us to dig up some other interesting details about the Duntov Turbo, in general.

The cars featured a unique fiberglass body with fenders that are six inches wider than stock 1980 Corvettes, along with a power dome hood (or should we say, bonnet?) to provide a visual clue that something special is under there. Duntov Turbos are supposed to have fixed headlights, but this one has the stock hidden ones. Other custom touches are wire wheels inside blackwall tires.

This one has a unique paint job, with white being the dominant color but enhanced with a huge TURBO graphic on the side of the body between the two wheel wells. Also, the top of the car, from the windshield to the rear bumper, is painted a dark red, and the hood has two red stripes outlining the hood bulge.

Of course, the main reason for this car in the first place is its turbocharged 350 engine that has a four PSI turbocharger that increases the factory horsepower to an unspecified level. Other mechanical improvements on Duntov Turbos were Bilstein shocks and a reworked steering box.