If you’re still waiting for Elio Motors to finally build the car you ordered back in 2015, I have great news. Even though your Elio will probably never get delivered, you can still mostly live the dream if you’re willing to get your hands dirty and fix up this one-of-about-300 Corbin Sparrow Pizza Butts. And yes, that really is the term people use for this body style.
Currently for sale on Cars & Bids, this Corbin Sparrow is being sold by the Peterson Auto Museum and is in incredible condition considering its age. That’s probably partly because it only has 2,735 kilometres on the odometer. That said, there is one downside — the Sparrow doesn’t run. If you want to get it going again, you’ll have to replace the batteries. So the winning bid and the amount it will actually cost are going to be two wildly different numbers.
Also, the Sparrow only came with an 80km range, so actually, there are two downsides.
Alternatively, instead of replacing the batteries, Cars & Bids suggests doing an engine swap. Maybe you could figure out how to put a Hayabusa engine in there? It would take some work, but imagine being the only person in the world with a Hayabusa-swapped Corbin Sparrow. You’d be the coolest person at every single Cars & Coffee. You’d be drowning in Instagram followers. It might make dating a little harder, but maybe there’s a reason you bought a single-seat car in the first place.
And you could definitely say goodbye to the 120-mph top speed, although I’m not sure that you actually should. Driving a single-seat three-wheeler that originally had a 26-hp electric motor over 120km on a highway sounds like a guaranteed way to die. Throw a little (OK, a lot) of cash at this thing, and turn it into the high-revving speed demon it was never meant to be. Or, you know, just shell out for the new batteries.
