Welcome to the Chevrolet Brothers website!  My name is Billy Dunbar, and like many enthusiasts I became interested in automobiles at an early age.  In grade school I built my fair share of model cars, and also had a father who took me to car shows.  I've always been a fan of automobile racing, and sometime back in the late 1980’s I started collecting autographs of famous race car drivers. 

 

In 2001, I had the chance to acquire a letter that was signed by Louis Chevrolet.  In the process of researching that letter I immediately ran into problems.  To my surprise, very little material was available on Louis Chevrolet.  Undeterred, I rolled up my sleeves, and began digging for anything I could find.  My initial focus was in locating original documentation.  My first big score was in auditing his patent records at the National Archives.  The patent dockets contained not only the abstracts & drawings of his inventions, but also correspondence he had with the government examiners.  One discovery led to another, and by 2013 I had accumulated quite a bit of material.

 

While the idea of writing a book was tempting, I believe that presenting the data on the web is much more appealing.  The photo galleries allows one to step back into time, and to share many of the same sights that the Chevrolet brothers experienced.  The archive of period articles enables people to read accounts of the brother’s exploits as they were originally reported.  Finally, the files of rare letters & documents provides a glimpse of the Chevrolet brothers “in their own words”.  Commentary on this site has been purposely kept to a minimum.  The emphasis here is to let the evidence tell the story, and to allow the viewer to draw their own conclusions.

 

The Chevrolet story is not about assembly lines or smoke stacks.  It is about 3 brothers who were captivated with automobiles, competition, and speed.  While the brothers never became wealthy, they did command a great deal of attention during their lifetimes.  Racing has always been a dangerous sport, and the brothers made enormous sacrifices throughout their careers to reach their goals.  They were truly pioneers, and hopefully this website will lead to a further understanding of their important contributions.