New Years Eve 1995 Mike and Bev threw a party at their home and invited the key folks at Corbin to announce that Mike and Tom had decided to go forward with the Sparrow commitment-to design and build a running concept car in less than one year.
The Company was running fairly well, only limited by the outgrown Castroville building and the struggle to fill customers' backorders of motorcycle saddles.
Mike attended an electric vehicle symposium to bring himself up to date on the state of the art. He learned only of two improvements in electric vehicle technology since his involvement twenty years ago. Batteries were still lead-acid cell, but now starved electrolyte rather than liquid, and there was more being done with direct current controllers. There was talk about alternating current electric cars but unfortunately there were no components available to the market for composite car manufacturing.
At the time, very few specifically designed vehicles were on the scene, with the exception of General Motors' EV1. Mike liked the way it looked, but saw the EV1 as being in a completely different category than the idea he was working on.
Mike started running into consultants and manufacturers that preached about designing and building brushless DC motors with controllers. The advantage was that the brushes would be eliminated, which was a maintenance issue and greater motor efficiency. The idea was sound and Mike continued exploring these possibilities. The brushless DC motor has permanent magnets on its rotating shaft rather than the windings. This means that the power in the windings stationary field must be alternated in order to create rotation. This would require a specially designed controller for the electrical car because no off-the-shelf production parts existed.
It seemed to Mike that this would not be a big deal for an electronics company to design. His education was as an electrician with many years working in an electrical engineering capacity, but not electronic design. His background was in electro-mechanical design and repair, with experience in fabrication of chassis, aerodynamics and electrical drive lines.
No hardware was actually developed at Corbin during 1995 but everyone involved became familiar with the art form, and that was important.
Nobody seemed to be on the same trail as Mike. Sparrow would be a unique new way to find a path into the world. Everyone on the team was convinced Corbin's Sparrow would make an improvement in the word.
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