The Sinclair C5 lives on
Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 10:00 am
First you have to check out what a Sinclair C5 is... they are famous (or infamous) in the UK but you might never have heard of them. This Wiki page explains all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5
Now I've never seen one actually driving around - they were pretty rare even in their day (being a total commercial failure) but at the local supermarket yesterday I was just waiting at the ATM when about five or six of these things came rolling along and started gathering a curious crowd of on-lookers.
I'm sure that lots of people thought they were brand new electric cars with all the talk in the media about such things but were amazed to discover that they were the brain-child of the slightly business-sense-challenged inventor, Sir Clive Sinclair (knighted for services to mad invention).
I doubt also that these things were on a London to Brighton rally as it's 50 miles or more and these things never had that long a range. I secretly thought they were trying to sneak some power from the supermarket to keep them going in the cold weather (it was sub-zero all day yesterday).
They set off out of the car park and presumably were run over by some big 4x4s that couldn't see them so low down on the road. One pilot thoughtfully had added a tall whip rod to the back of his C5 with a Union Jack flag at the top. This served three purposes:
1. It meant other road users would be able to see him and not kill him.
2. He could "fly the flag" for British inventiveness.
3. He could attract wonder at how a dodgem car can work without the overhead power netting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5
Now I've never seen one actually driving around - they were pretty rare even in their day (being a total commercial failure) but at the local supermarket yesterday I was just waiting at the ATM when about five or six of these things came rolling along and started gathering a curious crowd of on-lookers.
I'm sure that lots of people thought they were brand new electric cars with all the talk in the media about such things but were amazed to discover that they were the brain-child of the slightly business-sense-challenged inventor, Sir Clive Sinclair (knighted for services to mad invention).
I doubt also that these things were on a London to Brighton rally as it's 50 miles or more and these things never had that long a range. I secretly thought they were trying to sneak some power from the supermarket to keep them going in the cold weather (it was sub-zero all day yesterday).
They set off out of the car park and presumably were run over by some big 4x4s that couldn't see them so low down on the road. One pilot thoughtfully had added a tall whip rod to the back of his C5 with a Union Jack flag at the top. This served three purposes:
1. It meant other road users would be able to see him and not kill him.
2. He could "fly the flag" for British inventiveness.
3. He could attract wonder at how a dodgem car can work without the overhead power netting.