“The Dare-Devil Frenchman”

19.12.2010

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As early as July 16, 1895, the “Journal de Beaune” reported a cycling race whose winner was the fearless Louis Chevrolet. Some 10 years later, in May 1905, Chevrolet’s name first appeared in press reports in connection with motorized races. Driving a massive Fiat racer at Morris Park, N.Y., Chevrolet broke the track’s flying-mile record with a 68-mph (109.7 km/h) run. He then went on to win a three-mile flying-start race at the same event.

The next year, during the 1906 speed trials at Ormond Beach, Fla., Chevrolet drove a French-built Darracq race car, powered by what was at the time a spectacularly powerful 200-hp V-8, to a then world-record speed of 118.7 mph (191.5 km/h).

On March 5, 1909, Chevrolet was engaged as a driver for William C. “Billy” Durant’s famed Buick racing team. Subsequently, Chevrolet’s successes as a race car driver multiplied. While brothers Arthur and Gaston would also race professionally, Louis generally lead the Chevrolet team when they competed together.

Despite all of the spectacular successes, Chevrolet paid a price for his racing career. Celebrated in the American press as “the dare-devil Frenchman,” he is said to have spent nearly three years in hospital beds as the result of various accidents. When the youngest Chevrolet brother, Gaston, died as the result of a racing accident in 1920, Louis vowed to never race again.