Kaoru Sawase Dedicates Career To Life Saving S-AWC The Man affectionately referred to as the God Father of S-AWC shares his story
Kaoru Sawase not only has a doctorate in engineering, but more than 50 patents bearing his name, and the road to all that intellectual property began on a snowy, windy, remote stretch in Northern Japan, where he was born and raised.
Sawase-san, an energetic, engaging story-teller with a thick shock of hair and an obvious love of intellec‑ tual puzzles, pauses as he takes us back to the night he almost died. It was an experience which, in fact, led him to devote his entire professional career to de‑ veloping and continuously striving to perfect what is today Mitsubishi Motor Corporation’s globally-recog‑ nized Super All-Wheel Control system (S-AWC).
As a student, he says -- half-smiling, half-grimacing as he looks back on his night of terror and revelation – I would often drive in near-whiteout conditions, carv‑ ing my way along the side of a cliff. One night, he lost control of his car and came within an inch, literally, of his life. “I almost fell off this snowy winding road, over the cliff,” he says, with a bemusement and relief. Relief, he
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