42" CHEVROLET SERVICE  

Chevrolet was the brainchild of Billy Durant, founder and former head of General Motors. In 1911 Durant hired race driver Louis Chevrolet to design a car. The first Chevrolet was introduced late in 1912. Louis Chevrolet soon left to build the Frontenac, but his name remained. In 1914 a new, smaller and lower-priced Chevrolet was introduced, for the first time bearing the now-familiar bow tie emblem. Durant liked to say he got the idea for the bow tie from a wallpaper pattern in a Paris hotel, but his wife said he got it from something he saw in a Virginia newspaper. By 1915, Chevrolet had four models, three of which sold for under $1000. In June of 1915, Durant began production of the Chevrolet 490, so named because, minus the electric starter, it was priced at $490. Henry Ford responded by lowering the price of the Model T to $440.