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In three days Chevy will turn 100 years old and while the company has been remarkably successful, the man who it was named after, remains more or less forgotten. In fact, for the most part they have had very little to do with each other over the course of the last century. One would think that the man the very car was named after would be worth millions, but that is not the case. In fact, Louis Chevrolet left the company in a fit of rage right about the time their first cars rolled of the assembly line. If he had stayed a little longer he would have been rich beyond his wildest dreams, but he didn't, and his story is somewhat lost in history. For a great deal on a used car go to Memphis used car dealers .

Louis Chevrolet was a racer first and foremost. Weirdly enough he was born in France on Christmas Day in 1878. From his earliest days he showed an instant genius for mechanical engineering. One story has him dropping out of grade school and inventing a decanter pump that was used in wineries all across Burgundy. In his teen years he worked on bicycles and would modify the gears for races he was in. He had two brothers, Arthur and Gaston, who all shared an affinity for all things mechanical and the three of them made a name for themselves street racing and touring through America.

In 1905 he became something of a legend. He broke the famous racer Barney Oldfield's world record for the one mile closed course speed. He then went on to set the world speed record of 119 mph. While the record didn't last long Chevrolet's reputation was set in stone and he toured the professional circuit.

Along the way he met Billy Durant, who he partnered with to build a new company that would use Chevrolet's name. While the company bore his name, it also bore his temper. Louis was hard to get along with and had a notorious temper. In September of 1913, after several fights and arguments, he stormed out claiming he had quit. Many conspiracy theorists think that Durant kept intentionally provoking Louis hoping he would quit. He had mainly wanted Chevrolet for his name anyway.

Chevrolet had been formed, and the man it was named after walked away. For the rest of most of his life he raced and worked for different start up car companies, and while he was famous, he was never economically successful.

In the 1930's he was diagnosed with diabetes and things got worse from there. Soon after that one of his sons died and a fire at his sister's house destroyed all of his memorabilia. In the ultimate irony he took a job as a mechanic working at a Chevrolet factory in Detroit. Broke and ill, he suffered a series of strokes and was forced to quit.

It is shame that while Durant made millions, Chevrolet languished in poverty and poor health. Eventually on June 6th 1942, at age 62, Louis Chevrolet died of complications after a leg amputation. He is buried in Indianapolis with his brothers.