Picture credits
The drawings are our own. The photos are from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licences (Attribution, or Attribution-ShareAlike).
Photos
1985 Sinclair C5.jpg
by Vauxford, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Sinclair C5 at Coventry Motor Museum.jpg
by Ben Sutherland, CC BY 2.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes.
Rear entrance to the former Hoover factory - geograph.org.uk - 4001527.jpg
by Ian S, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Sinclair C5 at Coventry Motor Museum (2).jpg
by Ben Sutherland, CC BY 2.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes.
Sinclair C5 motor.jpg
by Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Sinclair C5 sectioned.jpg
by Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Sinclair C5 chassis.jpg
by Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Sinclair C5 rear view.jpg
by Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Sinclair C5 with high vis mast.jpg
by Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Alexandra Palace East Court entrance - 2022-09-02.jpg
by The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Sinclair C5 driver.jpg
by Adam, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
A Sinclair C5.JPG
by Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Sinclair C5 jet engine.jpg
by Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and resized; no other changes. Shared here under the same licence.
Our own drawings
- Diagram of the four tests in the 1983 Regulations for an electrically assisted tricycle: kerbside weight of 60 kg at most, pedals that can propel it, an electric motor of no more than 0.25 kW, and no power above 15 mph. An arrow leads to a box saying such a machine was treated as a pedal cycle, not a motor vehicle, so a rider aged 14 or over needed no licence, road tax, compulsory insurance or helmet.
Our own drawing - Simplified side view of a Sinclair C5, front on the left: a long low wedge-shaped body with a small front wheel and a larger rear wheel, pedals and a lamp in the nose, a steering bar beside the seat linked to the front fork, a chain running from the pedals back to the rear axle, a motor and gearbox by one rear wheel, and a lockable boot behind the seat.
Our own drawing - Bar chart of range figures in miles: Sinclair claimed up to 20; the National Motor Museum gives 24 on one charge; BBC Future gives 18.7; the Guardian in 1985 said the battery could give out after anything from 11 to 25; the AA’s 1985 test gave a typical 10, and 6.5 on a cold day in poor conditions.
Our own drawing - Bar chart of how many C5s were built and sold. Built: 14,000 (Science Museum Group), about 12,000 assembled by August 1985 (Welsh royal commission), around 15,000 (estimate by Sam Rowell of the C5 Depot). Sold: 4,500 (Science Museum Group), fewer than 9,000 by the end of 1985 (National Motor Museum), 17,000 bought (BBC Radio 5 Live). Unsold: 6,000 admitted in May 1985 and 4,500 at liquidation in November 1985 (Adamson and Kennedy).
Our own drawing - Top view of a lorry cab and trailer next to a kerb on the left. Two shaded areas mark where the test drivers could not see a C5: just ahead of the cab, and just to the nearside of the cab.
Our own drawing
The drawings are simplified teaching drawings, not to scale, made from the sourced descriptions on this site. Useless the eraser is the network’s own mascot. Fonts: Bricolage Grotesque, Newsreader and Kalam (SIL Open Font Licence), served from this site.