Louis Chevrolet Facts
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| Louis Chevrolet |
Louis
Chevrolet (1878-1941) was a fearless automobile racer who displayed little
concern for his own safety when the outcome of a race was in doubt. Chevrolet's
driving skills attracted the attention of auto executive, William Durant. The
two men combined their talents to form the Chevrolet Motor Company. Chevrolet
designed a stylish six-cylinder touring car, which became an immediate
marketing success and proved that his design abilities matched his racing
skills.
Louis Joseph Chevrolet was
born on December 25, 1878 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. He was the second
son of Joseph Felician Chevrolet, a watch and clockmaker, and Angelina Marie
(Mahon) Chevrolet. Young Louis grew up with six brothers and sisters. The
family moved to Beaune, a small town in the Burgundy region of France, when
Louis was about six. His father taught him basic mechanical skills and stressed
the importance of precision in the manufacture of machine parts, which later
contributed to his skill as an engine designer. To help with the family
finances, Chevrolet got a job as a guide in a local wine cellar. Deciding that
the method of decanting wine from one cask to another was too slow, Chevrolet
designed a wine barrel pump, which brought him local accolades and was used in
the Burgundy region for decades.
Bicycle racing was a great
weekend sport in Beaune and this is where Chevrolet developed his interest in
speed. He experimented with gear ratios until he found the one best suited to
his physical ability. While still in his teens and just out of grammar school,
Chevrolet became an apprentice in a bicycle shop. The owner had a 1.25 bhp de
Dion tricycle that was usually broken. Chevrolet bought repair manuals and
worked on the bike in his spare time. He soon found the trouble, sent away for
parts from the manufacturer, and had it in working order. Next, he began
building bicycles in the winter and selling them in the summer to tourists
under the name Frontenac, after the seventeenth century governor of France's
North American colonies. He later used the same name in America for the
automobile company he began. About this time, Chevrolet saw his first
automobile and was fascinated with the new invention.
His bicycle manufacturing
business was not very successful, and Chevrolet became an apprentice at the
Darracq, Hotchkiss, and Dion Bouton auto factories. In 1898, he got a job with
the Mors Auto Company, and was sent to an auto dealership in Montreal, Canada,
in 1899, at the age of twenty-one. Chevrolet worked as a chauffeur-mechanic for
six months and then moved to Brooklyn, New York. He worked for the DeDion
Bouton Motorette Company and soon was given the opportunity to be a substitute
racecar driver for Fiat in New York City. In 1901, after his father's death, he
brought the rest of his family to America. Chevrolet became a citizen in 1915.
In the early days of the
auto industry, car companies got publicity for their products by winning road,
track, hill climbing, and endurance races. Chevrolet got his big break by
defeating Barney Oldfield and Walter Christie, two outstanding racers, at the
old Hippodrome in New York's Morris Park on May 20, 1905. Driving a 90-horse
powered Fiat; he raced around the track at a record-setting 68 miles per hour,
barely slowing down at the curves. Later that year, he beat Walter Christie and
Henry Ford in a one-mile race at Cape May, New Jersey. Also in 1905, he married
Suzanne Treyvoux. They had two sons, Charles Louis and Alfred Joseph.
Joined Buick Racing Team
The twenty-seven year old
Chevrolet became an instant celebrity and eventually attracted the attention of
William Durant, founder of General Motors. Durant invited Chevrolet and his
younger brother, Arthur, to Flint, Michigan, in 1907 to try out for a job as
his chauffeur. In the early days of auto racing, drivers won more glory than
money and often worked in the auto industry to support themselves and their
families. Durant staged a race behind the Buick plant in Flint. Arthur got the
chauffeur's job because he was a more careful driver. Louis Chevrolet, who
easily won the race, was asked to join the Buick racing team. For the next
three years, Chevrolet won many victories for the Buick team, including the
158-mile race for the Yorick Trophy in Lowell, Massachusetts. According to auto
racing historians of the era, the only reason Chevrolet lost a race was because
his equipment failed. Between 1905 and 1920 Chevrolet spent the equivalent of
three years recovering from serious accidents. Because of his many accidents,
he added a stake to the middle of the car. The stake saved his life many times,
but did not save the lives of his riding mechanics. Ultimately, he invented the
roll bar, which is now mandatory in all racecars.
In 1909, Chevrolet opened a
garage in Detroit, Michigan, where he began to design, build, and test four and
six cylinder automobile engines. His friends described him as a perfectionist
and an incredibly hard worker, who usually put in a sixteen-hour workday. He
hated to delegate authority and preferred to do most of the important work himself.
Chevrolet was also described as impatient and quick-tempered. He didn't like
taking orders from others, although he was extremely loyal to his family and
friends.
Designed First Chevrolet Automobile
When Durant was forced out
of General Motors in 1910 because of a stockholders' dispute, Chevrolet
followed him and offered to design a small, luxurious touring car. The result
was a six-cylinder automobile (named the Chevrolet) that demonstrated his skill
as a designer. The new car, which was priced at a high $2,150, sold 3,000 units
in 1912. It made a profit of $1.3 million on the sale of 16,000 vehicles in the
next two years. His car had the counterbalanced crankshaft, the first gearshift
lever in the middle of the floor, and the first out-of-the-way emergency brake,
under the dashboard. Chevrolet decided to leave the company in 1914 when Durant
added a cheaper car to the Chevrolet nameplate, in order to compete with Ford.
He did not want to be associated with inexpensive cars, and he was anxious to
return to racing. He sold his stock in the Chevrolet automobile to Durant,
before it had appreciated in value.
Founded Frontenac Motor Car Company
Chevrolet became a
successful independent designer of racecars. He founded the Frontenac Motor
Company in 1914 and built four racecars. All three Chevrolet brothers entered
the 1916 Indiana 500 classic, but none of his Frontenacs finished the race. In
1915, Chevrolet constructed a new car, the Cornelian, for the Blood Brothers
Machine Company. He had begun to work with alloys instead of steel. He
emphasized the importance of better power-to-weight ratios, with a small
four-cylinder vehicle, weighing less than 1,000 pounds. From 1916 to 1919 most
industrial countries were involved with the production of materials to support
the war in Europe. Chevrolet began to experiment with airplane engines. He also
served as vice president and chief engineer for American Motors.
After the war ended,
Chevrolet returned to the racing business. He nearly caused a disaster for
himself and his racers when he picked up his new vanadium steel steering arms
before they had been heat-treated. All of the steering arms failed except the
one on the car driven by his brother, Gaston. His 1920 straight eight-cylinder
Frontenac won the Indianapolis race with Gaston at the wheel. This was the
first American-built car to win a race at the Indianapolis Derby since 1912.
American racing fans went wild. Chevrolet continued to race until his younger
brother, Gaston, was killed in a Los Angeles race in November 1920. Another
Chevrolet-designed car, a Monroe-Frontenac, driven by Tommy Milton, won the
Indianapolis race in 1921.
Soon after this, the
Frontenac Motor Company failed and C. W. VanRanst, a former Duesenberg
engineer, convinced the Chevrolet brothers to build and sell special cylinder
heads for souped-up Model-T Fords, called Fronty-Fords. At their peak, they
turned out sixty heads a day. When the Model A came out, the Chevrolet brothers
were put out of business.
Chevrolet was not an astute
businessman. In addition to being unable to benefit from the impressive growth
of the Chevrolet Motor Company and its subsequent integration with General
Motors, he also lost a large amount of money in his attempt to produce a line
of Frontenac passenger cars.
Allan A. Ryan and the Stutz Motorcar Company
invested one million dollars to produce a new line of Frontenac passenger cars
as part of the Stutz line. The depression of 1922 cut short production and
Chevrolet had to assume all the debt acquired by Ryan's Frontenanc Corporation
of Delaware. However, he held the U.S. patent for inventing the flexible
steering wheel and was the first manufacturer to install four-wheel brakes on a
car. He also had a brief involvement with Albert Champion, who founded the
Champion and AC spark plug empires. Instead of making a fortune with Champion,
the two men had a monumental argument over a personal matter, which led to a
physical altercation.
Although automobiles were
his enduring passion, Chevrolet had other interests as well. He experimented
with speedboat racing in 1925, and won a regatta in Miami, Florida. He also
enjoyed trapshooting and golf, at which he won many amateur tournaments.
Built Prototype for the Modern Airplane Industry
The Chevrolet brothers
began producing an efficient aircraft engine called the Chevrolair 333. Bad
management ended that business and caused a rift between the brothers.
Chevrolet then joined Baltimore Ford dealer, Glenn L. Martin, in new aircraft
company, but lost out to Martin in the stock market crash of 1929. Martin later
built a successful company around this engine, which he called the Martin 4-333
or the Martin bomber. In 1934, Chevrolet became a consultant at the Chevrolet
division of General Motors, where he remained until he suffered a cerebral
hemorrhage and was forced[RV1] to retire in 1938.
His later years were marked
by sadness. His eldest son died in 1934. Most of his memorabilia and
engineering drawings were destroyed when his sister's home in New Jersey
burned. Chevrolet died on a visit to Detroit, Michigan from his retirement home
in Florida on June 6, 1941. He was buried next to his brother, Gaston, at the
Holy Cross Cemetery near the Indianapolis Speedway. His pioneering achievements
were recognized in 1969, when Chevrolet was elected to the Automotive Hall of
Fame.
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| Modelo 57 Chev Bel Air |
With affection,
Ruben
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