Zip Zap Zoom with Chevrolet 2007
In 1909, William Durant, a successful buggy manufacturer from Flint, Michigan, asked Louis Chevrolet, a well known race car driver, to help design a car for introduction to the public. In 1911, Durant establishes his company. The Chevrolet Motor Car Company enters the turbulent automobile market on November 3. Durant chose to name the company after its designer, Louis Chevrolet, because he liked the sound of the name and because Chevrolet was a prominent name in motor sports.
The bowtie logo of Chevrolet was introduced in 1914. It is said that the logo was inspired by a pattern of wallpaper in a Paris hotel. Reportedly, in 1908, Will Durant detached a small piece and kept it in his wallet, waiting for the day he’d put it to use. The Bowtie became an advertising icon, and is still the marquee of today’s Chevrolet. The year after the logo was finalized, Chevy released its challenge to the Ford Model T, the “490”. The year 1918 was a milestone in the history of Chevy – this is the year when Chevrolet joined General Motors. In 1927, Chevrolet outsold Ford by topping 1 million units for the first time. In all but four of the next 55 years, Chevrolet remained the top-selling American nameplate.
The first Corvette appeared at the 1953 Motorama, and Chevrolet was besieged with requests for a production version. Many skeptics did not believe Chevrolet could offer such a radical design for mass production. Corvette became the first series-production car with a fiberglass body. In 1955, the legendary small-block Chevy V8 was introduced. This innovative engine became one of the most famous Chevy engines ever. The Impala nameplate arrived in 1958, designed to provide a Cadillac “big-car’ look at a Chevrolet price. Impala became an instant hit with the American public.
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