SAE Oregon Presents: Corvette - An Insider's Perspective

4555 North Channel Avenue,Portland OR 97217

30 September, 2021

Description

Join us for a very special event with Corvette historian and industry insider Jerry Burton as he walks us through the history of the car. This event will be in person at Daimler Trucks North America HQ. Dinner will be provided outdoors on the patio by Nicholas Restaurant Lebanese and Mediterranean Cuisine. Please bring your masks for the indoor presentation. 5:00 PM - Dinner and social - On patio 6:00 PM - Presentation - In conference room Description: The Chevrolet Corvette has defied the odds ever since it first launched in 1953 as a mild-mannered sports car more attuned to a boulevard drive than a twisty road. But that changed in a hurry thanks to efforts of a Russian engineer named Zora Arkus-Duntov and his equally talented successors such as Tadge Juechter. Corvette historian and author Jerry Burton guides us through a brief history of Corvette with a special emphasis on the mid-engine evolution of C8. On the eve of the 600-plus horsepower Z06 with its DOHC flat-plane crank V8, Burton explores what keeps Corvette in the conversation against the best sports cars in the world. Our Speaker: Jerry Burton Jerry Burton is an automotive historian and advertising creative director known particularly for his 20-year history as editor and publisher of Corvette Quarterly magazine. During his career Burton wrote many performance-oriented ads for Corvette and Chevrolet. It was in this capacity that he authored the Heartbeat of America theme line for Chevrolet in the mid 1980s. These activities helped spawn his acquaintance and later his friendship with Zora Arkus-Duntov and his wife Elfi. As Jerry came to know Zora personally, his desire to paint an accurate picture of this fascinating and complex man developed into the ultimate biography of Zora Arkus-Duntov: the Legend Behind Corvette. Burton has written several other books including Corvette: America’s Sports Car and he co-authored 100 Years of Chevrolet along with Corvette Stingray: The Mid-Engine Revolution. He appeared recently on the “Car Wars” episode of the History Channel series The Machines That Built America – Snack Sized. An SAE International Section http://saeoregon.org