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Share ThisLouis Chevrolet’s successes as a race-car driver influenced his career. The daring and innovative Swiss-born driver’s courage and determination at the wheel of early racing machines gained the attention of pioneering auto industry mover and shaker William C. Durant (1861-1947). The Flint, Michigan-based automaker signed Chevrolet up to drive for his Buick racing team in 1909. A short while later, Durant and Chevrolet formed a partnership to produce an automobile bearing the Chevrolet name. On November 3, 1911, the Chevrolet Motor Car Company was incorporated.
The enigmatic Durant was an interesting character. His biographers portray him as a magnetic industrialist in the spirit of the early 20th century. Both charming and smart, Durant was boundlessly enthusiastic and endlessly open to new business ventures.
Walter P. Chrysler once said of Durant’s legendary magnetism that he could charm a bird off a tree.
Durant was intrigued not only by Chevrolet’s performance as a race-car driver. Louis’ fine French-sounding family name sang of marketability to the entrepreneur. When the irrepressible Durant was ousted from GM in the midst of a 1910 financial crisis, he set out to re-enter the auto industry without missing a beat. Soon, he had an arrangement with Louis Chevrolet to build a car bearing the well-known racer’s name. Just as in 1904, when Durant had stepped into the driver’s seat of David Dunbar Buick’s ailing auto company, the industrialist secured rights to the brand name that came with the agreement.
Chevrolet proved to be a gifted automobile designer. One year after the Chevrolet Motor Car Company was established, the first car to bear his name—a thoroughly contemporary, powerful and luxurious car—rolled out of a pilot factory in Detroit. This $2,100 Chevrolet was introduced as the Type C Six for 1913.
Durant’s plan for the Chevrolet automobile differed from that of his partner. He envisioned the Chevrolet brand on an inexpensive car that would offer significantly more value than the volume leader of the period, while selling for only a bit more money. The four-cylinder “Royal Mail” roadster and “Baby Grand” touring car models Durant introduced at $750 and $875 respectively in mid-1913 set Chevrolet on the road to achieving this goal.
Louis Chevrolet felt his influence slipping away, and perhaps the legendary ‘cigar/cigarette argument’ between him and Durant that abruptly ended their partnership was inevitable. In late 1913, Louis returned to the world of automobile racing, where he would become a legend in the storied history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, both as a driver and as a racecar builder. By 1915, he'd fully disposed of his financial holdings in the Chevrolet Motor Car Co. In the closing months of that same year, Durant introduced his $490 Chevrolet 490 for 1916 into the low-priced car market.
Before 1915 was out, Durant leveraged the strength of his Chevrolet company stock to effectively retake control of General Motors. In 1918, Durant officially merged Chevrolet into GM. However, the ebullient empire builder would lose control of GM yet again in 1920...leaving it to others to build the Chevrolet brand into the auto industry leader he'd intuitively sensed it could become.
