Outside of Henry Ford, Billy Durant was the biggest automobile maker of early-century America. He built his own network of car factories, served as Buick’s president, and then left to found General Motors. At the head of GM he made acquisition after acquisition, not all of them wise, and was forced to step down. Once again free to pursue his vision, he approached Swiss immigrant Louis Chevrolet, who already had several well-regarded cars in the racing circuit, about the creation of a new kind of car, one that would bear Chevrolet’s name.

On this day, November 3, in 1911, Louis Chevrolet and Billy Durant founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company.

The exact division of labor is not known, but Chevrolet most likely designed the car while Durant funded it. Production began in the factories of the Corcoran Light Company factory building on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, leased for two years. It took another year to start building their first model, and another three to create the first real Chevrolet, but Durant never gave up on his dream, finally realized in 1915 when he reacquired General Motors.