Zora Arkus-Duntov - Ardun

Ardun

Settled in Manhattan, the two brothers set up Ardun (derived from Arkus and Duntov) which supplied parts to the military and manufactured aluminum overhead valve heads for the Flathead Ford V8 engine. Although the original purpose of the design was to cure the overheating tendencies of flathead designs under heavy load in truck use (due to the long exhaust travel through the block), the new heads enabled the Ford V8 to produce over 300 horsepower. Ardun grew into a 300 employee engineering company with a name as revered as Offenhauser, but the company later went out of business after some questionable financial decisions by a partner that Zora and Yura had taken on. Arkus-Duntov attempted to qualify a Talbot-Lago for the Indianapolis 500 in 1946 and 1947. He failed to make the race both years.

Later, Zora left America for England to do development work on the Allard sports car, co-driving it at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1952 and in 1953.

Driving an 1100 cc Porsche 550 RS Spyder, he also won class victories in 1954 Le Mans and 1955 Le Mans.