Although his name is stamped on millions of automobiles, Louis Chevrolet, the original designer and namesake of Chevrolet automobiles, is virtually an unknown person. Born on Christmas Day in 1878, in La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, he was the son of a watchmaker. Louis showed a similar mechanical aptitude at an early age, but had little interest in school. Instead, during his childhood years, he raced and built bicycles for which accomplishments he gained both success and popularity. In his first three years as a racer, Louis won 28 competitive events. He built bicycles until he discovered cars and then became an automechanic in the pioneering French automobile industry. He jumped from job to job, gaining valuable experience before emigrating to Montreal, Canada, in 1900.
In Montreal, Louis worked as a chauffeur for six months before heading to New York to pursue his first love: racing. The muscular six-footer easily handled the hard-steering, rough-riding, unpredictable race cars and slowly established his reputation as a mechanic as well as a racer. He won his first road race, at 69 miles per hour, on a cinder track in Morris Park, New York in 1905 - the same year he got married.
!905 was a good year for Louis. While employed by Fiat Motor Company of New York as a mechanic, he was sponsored by Fiat in a series of races, including the famous Vanderbilt Cup Races.
His growing reputation brought him to the attention of William "Billy" Durant, the founder of General Motors, who put Louis' genius to work on the creative designs concepts that drove the famous Buick racing team to greatness.
The most successful of the three racing Chevrolet brothers (the other two were Gaston and Arthur), he went on to win 27 major races, including 10 wins at the Indianapolis 500. At one point, Louis held the world's speed record of 111 miles per hour.
In 1911, Durant left General Motors and privately hired Chevtolet to design a new automobile. This led to the formation, later in 1911, of the Chevrolet Motor Company where, despite little formal education, Louis designed and engineered the first versions of the vehicle, which more than 125 million units later, still bears his name.
Louis envisioned his cars to be "big, powerful and pricey," but Durant a car that could compete with Ford's Model T. This dispute led to Louis' leaving and selling his interest in the company in October, 1913.
Louis Chevrolet would form more companies to produce advanced race cars, designing and building Indy 500 winners for his brother, Gaston (1920), and Tommy Milton (1921), race boat engines and aircraft engines. None of the ventures were financially successful. In 1934, out of charity and a moral obilgation towards the man who gave their best-selling car its name, General Motors put Louis on the payroll. Illness forced him to retire in 1938.
Louis Chevrolet died on June 6, 1941, at the age of 63 from complications resulting from the amputation of his leg. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
