As a child, his father taught him basic mechanical skills and stressed the importance of precision in making machine parts. As a teenager, he developed an interest in cycling competitions and became an apprentice at a bike shop. In his spare time, he would repair broken bicycles with the help of repair manuals.
In 1898, he got a job with the “Mors Auto Company” and was sent to a car dealership in Montreal, Canada, the following year. He worked as a driver-mechanic for six months and then moved to Brooklyn, New York.
In the United States, he briefly worked for a Swiss immigrant engineering company, then moved to Brooklyn to work with the French automaker “DeDion Bouton Motorette Company.” There he was given the opportunity to be a substitute driver for the Fiat auto racing team in New York City.
Despite having little formal education, he learned automobile design and began designing his own engine for a new car in 1909. He built a valve-driven six-cylinder engine in his own machine shop on Grand River Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan. .
On November 3, 1911, he co-founded the prestigious “Chevrolet Motor Car Company“with Durant and two other investment partners, William Little and Dr. Edwin R. Campbell. But when differences arose between him and Durant over the design of the car, he sold his stake in the company, in 1915, and later founded in Canada the McLaughlin’s company, to build Chevrolets.
In 1916, he and his brothers founded the “Frontenac Motor Corporation“to make racing parts for the Ford Model Ts. But he was not a shrewd businessman and soon the company failed.
He later worked for the Stutz Automobile Company, Indianapolis, and also established a failed aircraft factory. In 1934, he became a consultant in the Chevrolet division of General Motors, where he remained until he suffered a brain hemorrhage and was forced to retire in 1938.
He died on June 6, 1941 in Detroit and was buried in the Santa Cruz and San José Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.