While Clive Sinclair was definitely a lateral thinker, the C5 was not one of his best…
But from the very day of its launch on 10 January 1985, the Sinclair C5 became a national joke – the press branding it a toy, and a dangerous one at that.
And that, frankly, was a fair assessment. I recall one morning watching one of these contraptions wobbling its way through Bedminster. Now anyone who thinks that riding a motorcycle poses risk will blanch at one of these contraptions. They were awful. Too low to the ground, restricted to 15mph and that weird steering mechanism involving an awkward riding position – basically you sat on the steering and rode with your hands down by your bum. Nope, not a suitable vehicle for using on the roads.
Much of the criticism it received was justified; the extremely low driving position made C5s difficult for other motorists to spot, and the fact that its top speed was restricted by law to 15mph increased its vulnerability in fast-flowing traffic.
Not much of it was justified; all of it was justified. Sinclair was clearly having a brain fart the day he came up with that one.
But motoring journalist Sam Dawson – who road-tested the C5 for Classic and Sport Car Magazine in 2010 – says that much of the vitriol towards it was utterly undeserved.
“It’s actually incredibly fun to drive! Lotus had a hand in its design and it shows; it handles very nimbly, and the fact that your bum is virtually on the road makes you feel as though you’re going much faster than 15mph.
“You do feel vulnerable, but the safety concerns could have been addressed if it wasn’t for the fact that it was already doomed as a national joke.
“I think the media hype harmed it. The press were expecting a car, whereas the C5 was just a fun way of getting around.”
Given that the safety concerns sprang from the basic design, overcoming them would have required a complete redesign – another vehicle entirely, in fact. As for fun; if wobbling about on a busy high street in the gutter, vulnerable and invisible to other traffic is your idea of fun, well, go for it…
No, the Sinclair C5 was horrible. Completely horrible and it received derision precisely because it was so awful. Its short life was due entirely to poor design and was an example of the market killing off something that had no reason to exist. The media didn’t kill it, the fact that it was dreadful did that all by itself. The media merely reflected the well deserved derision expressed by pretty much everyone who clapped eyes upon one. I don’t miss it and certainly do not see one and think nostalgically for the eighties – a Honda 740 Four or a Laverda Jota, yeah, but not a Sinclair C5. That abortion is gone and best forgotten.
I hear on the grapevine that the Chinese have come up with a bit of new sport/leisure equipment.
It takes up about the same room as five people and is too large to store in most homes. It is intrinsically unstable yet gets damaged if laid on the ground.
With a bit of practice most reasonably fit people can make it go in a straight line, plus or minus one and a half metres on each side. It is underbraked, yet if the brakes are applied without care you will be thrown off.
It is unpractical to carry anything larger than a water bottle on it. It is nearly invisible seen from front or rear.
It is a crime vector. Stealing one is the first step into crime for most youngsters, (forty percent of these devices are stolen anyway). It is a useful tool for getting into greater crimes, allowing easy surveying of unsecured houses, cars or handbags.
Fortunately there is no way our stick-in-the-mud politicians will EVER allow them to be imported into this country and absolutely NO WAY they will ever be considered to be a credible means of transport with people living 15-30 miles from their workplaces.
A friend acquired a very tatty C5 last year and asked me to see if it could be resurrected for his kids to play with (on his private drive, before you start panicking). I did manage to get some life out of the motor with a bit of jury rigging, and a spare car battery, but it would have needed a lot of work and expense to make a proper job. I managed to convince him it wasn’t worth it – fortunately he agreed…
My dad won a C5 in a competition when they first came out and I was a little kid. We messed about with it for a bit in the house and then he swapped it for a microwave.
That was probably much more use.
I remember when the C5 was launched a newspaper or the BBC got Stirling Moss to road test it in London. His verdict?
“It scares me shitless old boy! You are so low to the ground no-one can see you, it has no speed to get you out of difficulties, you are going to be asphyxiated by everybody else’s exhaust fumes and crushed like a bug without anyone noticing…”
They ended up being sold to Holiday Camps as fun getabouts. But now they’ve got those gyroscopic pogo stick runabout thingies, which actually do work, nobody in their right mind would touch one.