Filed under: EV/Plug-in, GM, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, At Witz End
Note: read part one of this story here.
Pause and rebirth
I joined the GM EV effort in April, 1991 and began pulling together a small team of test and development engineers and technicians at GM’s Proving Grounds near Milford, MI.
One vivid early memory was driving the Impact concept car down a long, steep Proving Grounds hill early one August morning on the way to demonstrate it to a meeting of GM’s Board of Directors. There was a sweeping curve near the bottom of this hill that I routinely drove nearly every day on my way to test tracks.
Suddenly, as I sped downhill toward that curve, I remembered that the Impact rolled on skinny, low-rolling-resistance experimental tires, and had almost no brakes. Visions of an expensive career-ending crash flashed through my head. Then I remembered that I could dial up “coast-down” regenerative braking with a rheostat knob between the seats, and that slowed the slippery little bullet enough to make the turn. Whew!
The pause
Sixteen months of hard work later — on Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, 1992 — our fearless leader, Ken Baker, had to tell our Lansing, Mich. Craft Centre plant team, who were preparing to build our breakthrough electric vehicle, that the program had been delayed. Then he had to deliver that same emotional message to his engineers at GM’s Warren, MI Technical Center.
The story continues after the jump.
Continue reading At Witz’ End – EV1 – The Real Story, Part II
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