Most of our website visitors have seen Gib with us at Daytona, Sebring or Amelia Island’s Concours d’Elegance. He’s a welcome colleague, advisor and personal mentor of George Haddad, Fabulous Restorations owner. We spotted this Fabulous article of a highly respected, lovely man, integral to Corvette race car history. He will always be a major figure in our entourage wherever we may travel, and at 80 something, he’s something alright, certainly someone you’ll never forget. We Love’ya Gib!

He was known as Zora's problem-solver and kindred spirit, and now Gibson "Gib" Hufstader is delighted to see Arkus-Duntov's mid-engine dream hit the streets. Hufstader, 88, became an SAE member in 1957, the year he joined General Motors R&D following studies at the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) and military service at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds. During his 45-year GM career, Hufstader earned seven patents for driveline-related innovations. His passion for motorsports born in 1959 persists. In the 1960s, he assisted Corvette and Camara teams, including Roger Penske's, in both endurance and Trans-Am events. Co-driving the Owens-Corning Corvette at the 1969 12 Hours of Sebring, he scored second in the GT class and 14th overall. Hufstader joined the Corvette group in 1964. During that time, efforts to engineer a viable mid-engine production design persevered at what he describes as the 'hobby' level.

"Zora would ask me to sketch layouts, initially with the Hewland transaxle, then with other arrangements to reduce length," Gib recalls. "A transverse layout using parts of an Oldsmobile Toronado automatic transmission with all-wheel drive capability earned Zora a patent in 1971." The patented mid-engine powertrain layout works as follows:

• Engine transversely positioned behind cockpit with west-east orientation.
• Crank-mounted torque converter drives transverse automatic transmission located ahead of engine via Morse chain.
• Bevel-gear box at transmission's output end drives shaft passing through engine oil pan to rear axle final drive differential.
• (Optional) shaft forward from bevel gear to front-axle final drive differential.
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Hufstader's most memorable project was the Four-Rotor Corvette constructed for the 1973 Paris Salon. "While that three-month effort didn't venture beyond the show car," he noted, "it had ample potential for further development."



Today, Gib's hobby fleet consists of the '67 427 Corvette he campaigns in vintage road racing, an aerobatic Steen's Skybolt biplane, and eight motorcycles-including a 1952 Vincent Black Shadow, a 1974 Ducati 750 Super Sport and a 1956 Triumph 650 Trophy. Look up 'engineer's engineer' in the dictionary and you'll see Gib Hufstader, wearing an engaging smile.