Corvette Engineer and Hall of Famer Gib Hufstader Passes Away at Age 94

Working diligently in the shadows behind the first three Corvette chief engineers, including the legendary Zora Arkus-Duntov, was an unsung hero named Gibson “Gib” Hufstader, who passed away at the age of 94 on Sunday.

Veteran journalist Don Sherman paid tribute to Hufstader this week with a column on the hagerty.com website – calling him “Zora’s favorite right-hand man – the engineer who could always be trusted to get the next experiment ready for an auto show or blast flat-out down the straightaway at the proving grounds.”

After joining General Motors in 1950 and spending the first 14 years performing tasks like testing M48 Patton tanks and working on experimental air-suspension systems, Hufstader joined the Corvette team in 1964 and remained a trusted member until he retired in 1995.

During his time with GM, Hufstader contributed in many ways, earning seven U.S. patents and developing lightweight magnesium castings for Corvette production as a design-release engineer specializing in advanced chassis components.

Photo Credit: National Corvette Museum

While it’s no secret that Zora always wanted a mid-engine Corvette, it was Gib who “served as the problem solver, never intimidated by radical engineering concepts,” Sherman writes.

With one hand on the development of Corvette concept cars like the XP-897 and Aerovette, Hufstader also enjoyed his involvement with Corvette racing, even driving Tony DeLorenzo’s Owens-Corning Corvette at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1969 and later competing in vintage races in a ’67 427-powered Corvette he had built.

Fortunately, even after his death, Hufstader may continue to influence future Corvettes since he was known for being a pack rat and left behind “enormous stacks of manila folders stuffed with arcane engineering documents,” according to Sherman, who hopes that material will be donated to the archives of the National Corvette Museum, which recognized Hufstader’s contributions to the Chevy sports car and inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2001.

“While it took 25 more years after he retired for a mid-engine Corvette to achieve production status,” Sherman writes, “there’s no denying that Hufstader’s contributions were instrumental to the C8 Stingray’s success.”

Source:
Hagerty.com

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