CarBrandLogos archive · Chevrolet · 1911

ChevroletSeries C Classic Six

The first car to wear the bowtie was large, expensive and nothing like what came next.

Photo: Trainguy1 · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Chevrolet history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Chevrolet Series C Classic Six, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Sloan Museum at Courtland Center December 2018 14

Origins

Louis Chevrolet was a Swiss-born racing driver working for William Durant, who had been forced out of General Motors in 1910 and needed a new car company. Chevrolet, with the French engineer Etienne Planche, designed the car that would carry his name: the Series C Classic Six, built from 1911 in Detroit and Flint.

Sloan Museum at Courtland Center December 2018 14 · Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

It was a substantial machine — a four-door touring car on a long wheelbase, with a 299-cubic-inch T-head six rated at 40 horsepower, a rear-mounted three-speed transmission and a cone clutch. Equipment included electric lighting and a folding windscreen, and it was priced high enough to compete with established mid-market makes rather than with the Model T.

In production

That was the source of the argument that shaped everything afterwards. Durant wanted volume and low prices, the strategy he intended to use to buy his way back into control of General Motors, and he pushed Chevrolet down-market with the cheaper Series L and Series H. Louis Chevrolet, who wanted to build good cars rather than cheap ones, left the company in 1915 and sold his stake. Durant kept the name, used Chevrolet's profits to regain General Motors in 1916, and the brand became what its founder had refused to make.

At a glance