Louis was born on Christmas Day in 1878 in Switzerland. The family moved to France 9 years later. At age 11 he started working in a bicycle shop where he learned mechanics One day he was sent to a Hotel to fix a guests steam driven bike which he successfully repaired and so impressed the owner, one of the millionaire Vanderbilts that he encouraged Louis to come to America where there was lots of work for him.
He moved to Paris and started working on automobiles in the workshop at Darracq. With his earnings he made a trip to Canada where he worked as a mechanic for a few months, eventually moving to New York and got employment with a company selling De Dion-Bouton which soon after closed down putting him out of a job. At this point he had married Suzanne Treyvoux and had two sons Charles and Alfred. In the meantime Louis was so fascinated with engines he started thinking of being a race car driver. He soon was titled- Fearless Louis Chevrolet and by 1905 has set a world speed record of 191kph in a car that he had built himself. He suffered an accident though that caused him three years in bed recuperating and shortly after his brother Gaston died in a racing accident and Louis never set foot in a race car again.
His racing career though was noticed by Billy Durant, founder of General Motors, as Louis had also driven several Buicks to victory. By 1911 Durant and Chevrolet formed the Chevrolet Company in Detroit. The first cars built in 1911-1912 were The Chevrolet Classic six. These grand, top end cars were what Chevrolet wanted but not Billy Durant and by 1914 Durant bought out Chevrolet, name and all and started producing cars in 1914 to compete against Fords popular Model T.
Chevrolet tried other forms of work and tried to design a new large engine but his health was failing. Eventually he took a job and was back working for awhile as a mechanic in the very plant he helped build.
Chevrolet fell seriously ill with a brain hemorrhage and died on June 6, 1941 at age 63.
Durant, who had lost control of General Motors used his Chevrolet shares to regain control and Chevrolet became part of GM in 1918.
Louis would never know that his name has graced millions upon millions of cars, all over the world and the famous Chevrolet logo has become one of the most recognized logos of all time.
Couple of things you might find interesting... Popular thought is that while vacationing in Paris, Durant saw a wallpaper design that he liked which became Chevys logo
The reason Durant and Chevrolet broke up was Billy chastised Louis for always having a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth and that he should take up cigars. Louis was so upset he stormed out never to return.
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