Chevrolet, Cadillac, Durant - pardon my French?

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The automotive industry has seen lots of great characters but upon seeing this lovely shot, dated 1909, of Louis Chevrolet in a Buick racer, we were admittedly a little confused. How did it go, again? He was of French origins like Detroit’s founder Monsieur Cadillac, wasn’t he? Er… not exactly! 

Born in Switzerland, Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was surrounded by fine mechanicals from day one: watches. His birthplace of La Chaux-de-Fonds was and still is the hometown of an incredible number of watchmakers, one of them being his father. Oh, the architect Le Corbusier was also born here, just a few years later. Anyway, the Chevrolets did move to France later on and to French-speaking Canada later still. By that time, young Louis had developed a taste for speed and found it time to move to the US on his own, only to try his luck in the upcoming new motoring industry there. And what would be more suitable than the American De Dion-Bouton branch for him? He was also attracted to racing, first in a FIAT, then as a works driver for Buick, which led to him becoming a friend and associate of Buick owner and General Motors founder William C. Durant (whose mother was also of French descent…).

The Swiss flag or a wallpaper design?

The Chevrolet Motor Company was founded almost exactly 111 years ago in 1911 and from there on the extraordinary life story of Monsieur Chevrolet takes many more interesting twists and turns, eventually leading to a world-leading brand. Remarkably, even after 111 years no one seems to know how Chevrolet's bow-tie logo came about. It’s the remodelled cross of the Swiss flag of Louis Chevrolet’s home country say some. Others believe he had it from the wallpaper design in a Parisian hotel or perhaps from a newspaper advertisement he saw while on holiday in Virginia. We don’t know, but at least we understand how things were with the fascinating Louis - a little bit.

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture archive)

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