THE SPARROW STORY
Corbin Concept Vehicles From the 1970s Through Corbin Motors and Beyond
This gallery collects some of the more interesting and unusual vehicle designs to come out of Corbin over the decades. Some reached prototype stage, some went into production and some never left the drawing board. The projects span the 1970s electric motorcycle era, the Corbin Motors period and work done in the years since.
From the Sparrow archive. Product plans, events and availability described here belong to the original historical period.
Where the concepts came from
Corbin's design history runs in several threads. The earliest work was in electric motorcycles, including the Quicksilver land speed machine of 1974. The Sparrow itself grew from a 1994 idea for a small single-seat commuter and passed through test mules, the 1996 Alpha car and the 1997 Beta cars before production. During the Corbin Motors years, from roughly 2000 to 2003, Mike Corbin worked with automotive designer Don Varner on micro-vehicle concepts such as an inner-city delivery van and on the Merlin roadster.
Later projects include the gas-powered Raven of 2005, the electric Kombi micro-van built for KLD, and the new Sparrow prototype. The gallery is best read as a record of ideas rather than a catalogue, with the team's own caveat that a shelved design is never entirely finished.