A seasoned automobile racer and highly respected self-taught engineer, Louis Chevrolet was born in Switzerland on Dec. 25, 1878 and moved to France with his family as a child.
He repaired coaches and bicycles, until one day he was sent to the "Hôtel de la Poste" to repair a steam-driven tricycle belonging to an American. This must have been the moment when Chevrolet fell in love twice. He fell in love with automobiles, and also with the idea of emigrating to America.
He immigrated to North America in 1900. By 1902, his younger brothers, Arthur and Gaston, had joined him. As early as 1905, Louis Chevrolet was winning notice as a fearless driver of the brutally primitive racing cars of the period.
In 1905, Chevrolet started work with Fiat, but again he did not stay long. A year later he moved to Philadelphia to work for Walter Christie.
In the meantime, Louis' fascination with engines had reached yet another dimension – carried away with the notion of speed, he became a racing driver.
He became a member of William C. Billy Durant's famed Buick racing team in 1909. Working with a designer in a rented loft in Detroit during 1910, Louis Chevrolet began to lay out the plans for the prototype car that would bear his name.
Looking to build a new automobile after leaving GM, the irrepressible Billy Durant made a deal with Louis Chevrolet to produce the well-known racer’s dream car. In 1912, Louis Chevrolet‘s $2,150 Series C “Classic Six,” a luxurious high-performance six-cylinder model, hit the streets of Detroit.
The Chevrolet Motor Company was incorporated on November 3, 1911, and Durant leased a plant on Detroit's West Grand Boulevard for building his Chevrolet car. Two other companies, the Little Motor Car Company and the Mason Motor Company, started in Flint, Michigan, that year and became part of the foundation of Chevrolet.
In late 1913, Louis Chevrolet parted company with Billy Durant, leaving behind the rights to produce cars bearing his name. In 1913, Durant moved the Chevrolet manufacturing cooperation from Detroit to Flint, next to the Little Factory and more than double output to 5987 cars.
Billy Durant, in late 1915, introduced the Chevrolet 490 into the low-priced field.
By 1919 and after a series of oustings and reinstatements, Durant became president of GM and Chevrolet went on to quickly become leader in sales as a General Motors Subdivision.
History of Chevrolet car
