The Chevy brand is about as iconic as they come, with more than 110 years of history and countless models making their mark around the world. Now, we’re taking a closer look at the man behind the name with the following video documenting the life of Louis Chevrolet.
Louis Chevrolet was born in 1878 in Switzerland, the second son of seven children. From an early age, Chevrolet worked with his father repairing watches to help support his family, which often struggled to make ends meet. When Chevrolet was nine, his family moved to France to help bolster the family business, but the struggles continued, and Chevrolet dropped out of school at the age of 11 to work at a bicycle shop to continue to bring in support. Ever mechanically minded, Chevrolet invented his own bicycle by the age of 16, which he rode to victory in local races, cementing his passion and talent for competition.
In 1897, Louis Chevrolet was called to repair a steam-driven tricycle that belonged to William Kissam Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the wealthiest men in the world at the time. Impressed by Chevrolet’s mechanical skills, Vanderbilt encouraged the young man to go to America to pursue his dreams.
By the age of 21, Louis Chevrolet made it to New York and began working at a local workshop, eventually landing a position at the American branch of Fiat in 1905. At Fiat, Chevrolet was hired to drive for the company’s race team, and his talent behind the wheel and mechanical know-how quickly garnered him quite the reputation.
As Louis Chevrolet’s on-track wins continued to accumulate, he was eventually offered a job with automaker Christie in Philadelphia, where he worked on developing innovative new automotive systems, including early front-wheel drive.
Further racing wins eventually brought Louis Chevrolet to the attention of William Durant, co-founder of GM. Although Durant initially hired Chevrolet to race for Buick, the partnership would lead to something far greater.
Check out the full 18-minute biography below:
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Comments
I feel like louis would be very disappointed and quite disrespected to know that modern day chevy is producing 3 and 4 cylinder under powered garbage instead of pursuing his race and competition dna. He’d honestly probably confuse dodge for chevy since they have more performance vehicles 🤔
I guess the Camaro and Corvette have 3 cylinders..
I do wish a rwd sedan was available from them again..
well yes, the camaro and corvette do have 3 cylinders if we want to get technical. but the trax is a under powered 4 cyl, the shameful “trailblazer” is a underpowered 3 cyl, the equinox is a under powered 4 cyl, and the blazer can be equipped with a under powered 4 cyl. remember when chevy put a corvette motor in basically everything? if that happened today, chevy would’ve been dodge.
Sounds incorrect, anyway the Trax and TB has more power than most competitors in it’s class besides seeing 2 sub compact CUVs racing is like seeing 2 elementary school girls fighting.
When did they put a Corvette motor in “everything”?. I recall the SBC debut in the ’55 standard Chevy before the Vette so I guess the Vette has the Chevy sedan engine?.
its hyperbole 🙄. and i should’ve said gm instead of chevy. but either way, in the late 90s to early 2000s, just about every other vehicle gm made had some basic aspect from the corvette motor.
No it didn’t, the Northstar/Shortstar was offered on most rwd Caddy and fwd Buick, Pontiac, Olds also the 5.3 was an option in the mentioned brands also, no Vette motor. The 6.0 LS6 Vette motor was offered on GTO, TBSS, Saab X-7, but other than that it was a L96 6.0 “truck”, a Northstar/Shortstar or 5.3, few vehicles got Vette engines.
Under powered is relative. The 3.1L V6 in many GM vehicles in the early to mid 90s made around 150 hp… about the same the 1.3L turbo makes now. And it never seemed under powered. Want of more power and need of more power are not the same thing.
With Chevrolet exiting SEMA this year. Louis Chevrolet will be spinning in his grave.
I think you’re underselling GM a bit. The “Blackwing” V-series is a high performance trim offered on both Cadillac sedans, and neither one is just an empty nameplate. Both have serious performance capabilities, and the LT4 received a performance increase for the CT5. The newly available Escalade V-series shows that GM isn’t afraid to play in the performance large SUV/truck segment either, and while it might be a few HP shy of a TRX, it’s definitely no slouch and unmatched in the large SUV segment as far as I’m aware. Yet another performance increase to 682HP and numerous performance upgrades shows it’s definitely no “rinse and repeat.” My guess is that if the Escalade V sells well (which it will), we’ll see a high performance Silverado/Sierra variant within the next year or two.
This is all to say nothing of Corvette, which isn’t just cranking out remakes. The C8 Stingray was and is revolutionary for American sports cars and even European sports cars within its price segment, which explains why it is still selling for tens of thousands over sticker four model years later, despite achieving normal production levels for much of that time. And what the Stingray did for the layout and transmission, the Z06 is going to do all over again for the engine. Watch that car and the rumored twin-turbo ZR1 be a massive success as well.
The only true tragedy I think is the Camaro, which GM seems determined to let die in its current form. But, in the grand scheme, I’d rather have these few remaining years of ICE glory be spent on flat-plane V8’s revving to 8600 RPM, twin-turbo 800HP ZR1’s, and a new high performance Silverado variant, which would at least be something new, instead of another generation of Camaro.
thats true but at the end of the day, those were born performers, with the exception of the escalade v, which despite the performance, is ridiculously expensive.
No matter what anyone thinks, I will always believe GM helped build this country into what’s it is today. Louis Chevrolet was just part of a dream come true for those of us who lived for the next years models of Corvettes, GTOs, Firebirds, Camaros and everything in between. let alone its work trucks, vans and commercial lines that helped businesses survive and our fathers put food on the table. So no matter what mistakes GM makes I think I will stick with them to see the next dream they come up with for those of us who are forever addicted to the BOWTIE.
Hey Camaro Kyle, looks like you are deemed to say that Chevy is worthless.
You say that the Cadillac Escalade V is ridiculously expensive at $149,000 super fully loaded.
How ridiculous is the BMWX7 Alpina at $141,000 and the Mercedes Benz AMG G 63 at $156, 450 or the Tesla Model X at $139,000?
How many of these three can seat 6 and catapult them with an ICE engine at the same time?
Go and shop some place else..
I’m confused as to where you heard me say that. and my point still stands regardless. the escalade is ridiculously expensive. where did you hear that it is fully loaded? or are you just making an assumption?. the other cars you named are no different, not to mention they don’t compete with the escalade. as for shopping somewhere else, i’ve always been open to different performance SUVs under 100k since it was clear that gm didn’t have a strong interest in the segment for some reason, so as of right now the Porsche macan gts and the alfa Romeo stelvio quadrifoglio are my top 2 picks.
The Escalade V is a fully loaded trim. There are only a handful of cosmetic options that can be added.
source?
See gmfleetorderguide(dot)com
Oh and also I am a dealer for Chevrolet and Cadillac and personally have ordered them within GM’s order system, which went live several weeks ago. There are no additional packages or features available to add, only cosmetic add-ons such as a monochromatic emblem and illuminated sill plates. The SUV starts at $150k and pretty much stops at it.
seems legit
Lol well if you don’t believe me on here then send me an email: coleg(at)genesischevy(dot)com.
you don’t think my comment is legit?