Auto industry / Sports
Louis Chevrolet
1878–1941 · racing driver, engineer, co-founder of Chevrolet
Swiss-born racer who designed the first Chevrolet in a Detroit workshop in 1911 and later returned to the city's factories as a mechanic.
- Born
La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 62- Birth name
- Louis-Joseph Chevrolet
- Detroit years
- 1911–1915, late 1930s–1941
- Field
- Auto industry, Sports
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Chevrolet grew up in Switzerland and France, came to North America in 1900 and made his name as a daring racing driver, including for William C. Durant's Buick team. In 1911 Durant set him up in rented space above a garage on Grand River Avenue in Detroit, where he designed a six-cylinder touring car and tested it on the city's back streets. The Chevrolet Motor Car Company was founded in Detroit that November. Chevrolet wanted a fast, upscale car while Durant wanted a cheap one, and by 1915 Chevrolet had sold his stake and left. He built racing cars and parts with his brothers under the Frontenac name, and their cars won the Indianapolis 500 in 1920 and 1921. The Depression wiped out his money, and in his last years he worked as a mechanic in Chevrolet's Detroit operations. He died in Detroit in 1941 and is buried in Indianapolis.
Highlights
- Co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in Detroit on November 3, 1911
- Designed the first Chevrolet, the Series C Classic Six
- Chevrolet brothers' cars won the Indianapolis 500 in 1920 and 1921
- Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1969
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1911
Chevrolet's Grand River Avenue workshop
Status being checked
Rented space above the D. M. Schulte garage where the first Chevrolet car was designed and built in 1911; exact site not marked.