THE SPARROW STORY
Sparrow Ergonomics: Corbin Seating with Heated and Cooled Comfort
Corbin's core business has long been motorcycle saddles, so it was no surprise that the Sparrow received custom Corbin seating. The seat was designed as a fixed, central element of the cabin with an adjustable backrest to suit drivers of different heights.
From the Sparrow archive. Product plans, events and availability described here belong to the original historical period.
Fitting one seat to many drivers
In a single-occupant vehicle the seat is the whole interior, so getting it right matters more than in a conventional car. The Sparrow's seat used an adjustable back angle so that riders of differing stature could find a comfortable and safe position relative to the steering wheel and pedals. The steering column itself tilts, adding a second axis of adjustment.
The seating surface was leather, in keeping with the hand-built, custom character the team intended for the modern prototype.
The Fire and Ice system
The seat also carried Corbin's Fire and Ice system, which provides both heated and cooled seating. Corbin developed this technology for motorcycle saddles and holds United States Patent 6,695,378 for it. In a small cabin with limited climate control capacity, conditioning the seat directly is an efficient way to keep the driver comfortable, since it warms or cools the person rather than the whole volume of air.
As a general point, seat conditioning draws far less power than cabin heating or air conditioning, which is why it is attractive in an electric vehicle where every kilowatt-hour spent on comfort is one not spent on range.
