1916 Chevrolet Series H Touring

Louis Chevrolet and ousted-General Motors founder William C. Durant founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company on November 3rd, 1911. On May 2nd, 1918, Durant used the company to acquire a controlling stake in General Motors with a reverse merger. Durant would assume the presidency of General Motors upon the resignation of his friend and former employee, Charles W. Nash, who purchased the Thomas B. Jeffery Co., going on to produce the Nash automobile in 1917.

Durant signed a contract with the Gardner Buggy Co. of St. Louis to build his price leader, the 490. Later in the year, assembly plants were opened in Fort Worth, Texas, and Bay City, Michigan; the Warner Gear Co. of Toledo, Ohio, was added and converted into a Chevrolet factory. Another plant was added in Oakland, California, by the end of the year. With this new facility, Chevrolet production escalated to 70,000 vehicles.

With the increased production, Chevrolet came close to matching the price of the Ford Model T.

The four-cylinder Baby Grand and Royal Mail models were introduced in late 1913 as 1914 models and continued to offer them through 1916. In 1914, Chevrolet first used the 'bowtie emblem' on the H and L series models. The Series H, Model H-4 Baby Grand had a base price of $720.

This particular example, a Baby Grand Touring model, wears an older restoration. It is finished in white with a black top and interior. It has a comb clutch, a three-speed sliding gear transmission, and an overhead valve four-cylinder engine.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2016