Founded by Louis Chevrolet and the deposed president (William C Durant) of General Motors in 1911. Chevrolet developed alone, but in secret Durant was buying back General Motors shares, and he had control of his old company by 1916 and then put Chevrolet into GM in 1917. Chevrolet was to be the entry brand of GM facing Ford. Chevrolet had a V8-engined car back in 1918, but it was the small-block V8 of 1955 that gave Chevrolet a lead in the market place, such that in 1963 ten per cent of all new cars sold in the United States was a Chevrolet. Despite being General Motors' entry level brand (against Plymouth and Ford), Chevrolet did not shy away from innovation, such as the small-block V8 in 1955, fuel injection in 1957, and models such as the Corvette (1953), and rear-engined Corvair (1960).