Louis Chevrolet
Louis Chevrolet | |||||||
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Champ Car career | |||||||
54 races run over 9 years | |||||||
Best finish | 2nd (1905) | ||||||
First race | 1905 Morris Park Race #1 (Morris Park) | ||||||
Last race | 1920 Indianapolis 500 (Indianapolis) | ||||||
First win | 1905 Morris Park Race #1 (Morris Park) | ||||||
Last win | 1919 80-mile Race (Tacoma) | ||||||
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Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (December 25, 1878 – June 6, 1941) was an American
Early life
Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was born on December 25, 1878, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a center of watchmaking in northwestern Switzerland.[1] He was the second child of Joseph-Félicien Chevrolet, a watchmaker, and Marie-Anne Angéline Mahon.[2] His family was originally from Bonfol, now in the canton of Jura.[2]
In 1887, Chevrolet left Switzerland along with his father to settle in Beaune, France.[2] There, as a young man, he developed his mechanical skills and interest in bicycle racing. During this period, Chevrolet invented a wine pump, which he built from a defective one-cylinder motor mounted on a three-wheeled bicycle.[3]
Career
Early career
Chevrolet worked at the Roblin mechanics shop in Beaune from around 1889 to 1899.[2] He then moved to Paris, where he worked at various mechanics shops, between 1899 and 1900,[2] before emigrating to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1900 to work as a mechanic. The following year, he moved to New York City, where he worked briefly for a fellow Swiss immigrant's engineering company, then moved to the Brooklyn operations of the French car manufacturer de Dion-Bouton.[3]
In 1905, Chevrolet won his first race, racing a
His racing career continued as he drove for
Chevrolet car company
On November 3, 1911, Chevrolet co-founded the
Chevrolet had differences with Durant over the car's design, and in 1915 sold Durant his share in the company and started McLaughlin's Company in Canada building Chevrolets. By 1916 the trading of Chevrolet stock for GM Holding stock enabled Durant to repurchase a controlling stake in General Motors, and by 1917 the Chevrolet company that Louis had co-founded was merged as a company into General Motors after the outstanding Chevrolet stocks were purchased from McLaughlin in 1918. The McLaughlin Car Company then merged with his Chevrolet Motor Company of Canada Ltd. to become General Motors of Canada Ltd. in 1918, prior to the incorporation of the General Motors Corporation in the United States when General Motors Company of New Jersey dissolved.
Frontenac and American car companies
In 1916, Louis Chevrolet and his brothers founded the Frontenac Motor Corporation to make racing parts for Ford Model Ts.
Also in 1916, American Motors Corporation (unrelated to the later
Auto racing
By the mid-1910s, Chevrolet had shifted into the car racing industry, partnering with Howard E. Blood of Allegan, Michigan, to create the Cornelian racing car, which he used to place 20th in the 1915 Indianapolis 500 automobile race. In 1916, he and his younger brothers Gaston and Arthur Chevrolet started Frontenac Motor Corporation, designing and producing a line of racing cars. They became well known for, among other things, their Fronty-Ford racers.
Chevrolet drove in the Indianapolis 500 four times, with a best finish of 7th in 1919. Both Louis and Gaston competed successfully with racing
Later life
In 1927, Chevrolet launched the aircraft engine construction company Chevrolair, which failed three years later as a result of the Great Depression. He returned to Chevrolet to work as mechanic in the Detroit factories.[15]
Chevrolet died on June 6, 1941, in Detroit due to a heart attack. His atherosclerosis had previously led to a leg amputation. He is buried in the Holy Cross and Saint Joseph Cemetery in
Personal life
In 1905, Chevrolet married Suzanne Treyvoux, daughter of Louis Treyvoux and Marie Burlat.[2] The couple had two sons and a daughter, Clara.
He became a naturalized
Awards and honors
Chevrolet has been inducted into the following halls of fame:
- Automotive Hall of Fame (1969)[18]
- National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (1990)
- International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1992)
- Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (1995)[19]
In addition, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in Speedway, Indiana, features a memorial at the entrance to the building dedicated to the accomplishments of Chevrolet. The memorial, designed by Fred Wellman and sculpted by Adolph Wolter, was created during 1968–1970 and installed in the spring of 1975. The centerpiece of the memorial is a bronze bust of Chevrolet wearing a racing cap and goggles; it rests on a marble and granite square base.
The Swiss national train company, SBB, has named one of its long distance ICN-Trains after Louis Chevrolet. The train family operates primarily on the East-West axis, also serving Chevrolet's home town, La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Motorsports career results
Indianapolis 500 results
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References
- ^ "Louis Chevrolet | Biography & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Louis Chevrolet in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4422-3352-2.
- ^ The Automobile, January 17, 1907, p. 174
- ^ Page from General Motors website. "GM Media Online Chevrolet Middle East : English". Archived from the original on June 19, 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
- ^ Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925 (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.179.
- ^ "Louis Chevrolet, the man". Louis Chevrolet Swiss Watches.
- ^ "Motor Festival Brings Buick Bug from Retirement". Detroit Free Press. Detroit, Michigan. July 28, 1940. p. 39.
- ^ McPhee, John La Place de la Concorde Suisse. New York: Noonday Press (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 1984
- ^ Editorial staff and correspondents (March 1, 1916), "American Motors Corporation formed", Automobile Trade Journal, 20 (9): 108.
- ^ American Motors Corporation (May 15, 1918), "Advertisement", Horseless Age, 44 (4): 7.
- ISBN 978-0854297733.
- ^ "Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941)". media.gm.com. January 1, 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
- ^ "Louis Chevrolet". Genesee County Historical Society. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
- ^ "Gifted race car driver, inventor died penniless and forgotten". Auto News. September 14, 2008. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ^ "Chevrolet brother's grave finally gets a tombstone". Edmonton Journal. November 11, 2011. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
- ^ "Certificate of Death". Seeking Michigan. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2019.
- ^ "Louis Chevrolet". Hall of Fame Inductees. Automotive Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
- ^ Louis Chevrolet at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
- Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925. New York: Bonanza Books, 1950.
- Louis Chevrolet in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- Sinzig, Martin. Louis Chevrolet, der Mann, der dem Chevy seinen Namen gab". Frauenfeld. Verlag Huber, 2011. ISBN 978-3-7193-1566-5
External links
- Louis Chevrolet driver statistics at Racing-Reference
- Louis Chevrolet at VanderbiltCupRaces.com
- Footage of Louis Chevrolet Racing in 1919 includes his accident on YouTube
- Louis Chevrolet at ChevroletBrothers.com