Chevrolet is marking its 100th anniversary this week. To celebrate, we’re republishing two posts per day from our blog archives, each one plucked from a different decade of the marque’s long existence.
We’ve received word that Francophone racing driver Louis Chevrolet and Mr. William Crapo Durant have chosen to go into business together in the hopes of constructing a new motorcar. The Kaiser’s man Benz may have been first, but your humble scribes at Car and Driver, the Sportsman’s Car Illustrated are damned if those wily Germans will get the better of us!
With his work for the Italians at Fiat—a nation now capable of building mighty aero engines that power flying machines capable of bombing the Turk—the Swiss-born Mr. Chevrolet brings international flair and savior-faire to the endeavor. Mr. Durant, on the other hand, has a powerful business mind, as well as a reputation as a dilettante and a rapscallion. He of course was the mind behind General Motors, which currently owns Buick, Oldsmobile, Ewing, Oakland, Cartercar and Cadillac, as well as the Reliance and Rapid motor-truck brands. Forced out of the company last year, he apparently sees this new Chevrolet marque as a way back into the industry.
Their new product, which has been in the works for months now, is the six-cylinder Series C Classic Six. Reports say the new car is capable of a lollapalooza sixty-five miles-per-hour! The engine behind this breathtaking speed for a road-going vehicle is a 299-cubic-inch side-valve engine creating a respectable forty horse-power. It features a compressed-air starter, making broken arms from hand-cranking incidents a thing of the past! What have you got to say to that, Blitzen Benz?
We hear Mr. Chevrolet is very proud of the new car, though we get the feeling that Mr. Durant isn’t so happy—he sees the future in a vehicle for Joe Rube; an automobile not unlike Mr. Ford’s Model T. We would not be surprised if the two wind up parting ways. Both are industrious sorts, though it wouldn’t shock our systems if the motor-obsessed Mr. Chevrolet winds up whiling away his days as a mechanic and that the risk-taking Mr. Durant loses it all and finds employment in a bowling-alley. —D.G. Johnson-Pinkerton IV, World-Famous Elixir Concoctor and Motor-Racing Impresario
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment