There is no one in America that doesn’t recognize the now famous Chevy Bowtie. There was a time however, when Chevrolet meant nothing more than a man’s name and had it not been for that man and the ousting of General Motors (GM) founder, the name plate may have never been born.
In 1911 William C. Durant formed Chevrolet with race car driver Louis Chevrolet. The two knew each other as in the years prior to Durant founding GM when he was head of Buick Motor Company and he hired Chevrolet to race his Buicks for him in races that promoted the brand.
In 1913 the Bowtie emblem was born and there is still much speculation as to how it actually came about. Some say that it was formed after Durant saw a wall paper pattern in a French motel that he really liked. Others say it is a fancy Swiss cross meant to pay homage to Louis Chevrolet’s lineage. Whatever the case may be the bowtie has remained largely unchanged since its introduction nearly 100 years ago.
While setting up operations in Toronto, Canada Durant had a chance luncheon with Sam McLaughlin who owned McLaughlin Motor Cars in New York. After lengthy discussions the two agreed that a new line of cars would be built using the Chevrolet name and McLaughlin built bodies. Not three years later the two merged companies were bought out by GM and dubbed General Motors of Canada Ltd.
By 1916 Chevrolet was making enough money to allow Durant to buy the majority number of shares of GM that allowed for him to once again control the company that he founded. In 1917 Durant officially took the title of GM President and merged Chevrolet into GM but kept the name as a subsidiary or division.
In 1918 Durant went to work on forming a car that could keep pace with the Ford Model T that Henry Ford was selling. Chevrolet answered with their Model D. The Model D featured a V-8 engine which came in a four passenger roadster or a five passenger tourer. Also that year Chevrolet began production of its in-line six cylinder overhead value engine. This was a breakthrough in motors as most cars of that time had only flat head motors with very low compression. Chevy’s new innovation had their engines turning out an unheard of 55 horsepower.
GM, lead by Chevrolet had its ups and downs throughout the next few decades, though the ups far outweighed the downs. In 1953 Chevrolet first produced a sports car that would later become a legend in the Corvette. The Corvette, which is still being produced today and is but a couple of years from its 60th birthday is a big reason that Chevrolets began to thrive and kept thriving as the years rolled on.
By 1963 the popularity of the Chevrolet was evident as one out of every ten cars that were sold in the United Sates had a bowtie on it that year. Chevy continues to thrive and despite the recent slow times at GM the division remains the top selling brand for GM year in and year out. With many throw back looks and new innovative features, Chevrolet looks to complete its 100th year as a company next year and continue to take the automotive industry by storm for at least another 100 years thereafter.
