1985
United Kingdom
Englishman Sir Clive Sinclair was a man with a glowing reputation. In the early 1980s, he was familiar to most British people. They saw him as an inventor, a businessman, a visionary, and even a genius. Sinclair was always at the cutting edge of technology, having developed some of the earliest handheld calculators and home computers.
In January 1985, he launched one of his most ambitious projects to date—the Sinclair C5, a single-passenger electric vehicle that seemed ideal for city travel. Reporters and television crews were present as the vehicle was unveiled. But a winter launch proved to be a bad call: Observers chuckled as they watched newly purchased C5s skidding on snow and ice or hidden by trucks in heavy traffic. Sales for the C5 slowed
down, and complaints came in of poor steering, lack of power, bad headlights, and discomfort from the lights of oncoming vehicles.
By October 1985, the company producing the C5 was closed. Britain’s resident genius had finally come up with a dud. How did things go so badly wrong? And would it mean “the end of the road” for the future of electric cars?
What Went Wrong?
People in the 1980s were finally beginning to take an interest in recycling, reducing energy consumption, and cutting down on pollution. Many could also remember the fuel shortages and skyrocketing price of gasoline in the 1970s. So an electric vehicle that promised travel at almost no cost—and no pollution—pressed all the right buttons. An even bigger plus, it seemed, was the C5’s inventor. Sir Clive Sinclair was a self-made millionaire who had amassed a fortune with ingenious electronic products and inventions, so his reputation was certainly high—and on the line.
In the early 1980s, Sinclair designed a three-wheeled battery-powered electric vehicle that also had pedals to help on steeper climbs. It was low to the ground, 2½ feet wide and high, and 6 feet 9 inches long. It had front and rear lights and a small trunk. The battery, which took eight hours to charge, would provide a top speed of
15 miles per hour on level ground. The total weight, including the battery, was 99 pounds.
The Sinclair C5 should have given people the freedom to dash off to town, do some shopping or grab a slice of pizza, and head home—all for the cost of a few pennies. But problems began to mount up. The vehicle had no roof (in rainy Britain, of all places), and being so low down meant that drivers often wound up directly behind the exhaust pipes of other cars. Plus drivers had to order special poles that would stick up and alert truck drivers that there was a tiny vehicle down there somewhere.
turning circle
The diameter of the circle (more accurately, semicircle) that a vehicle needs to make in order to do a U-turn.
Pedaling uphill was a chore for many people, especially when the vehicle had just one gear—try riding your bike up a steep hill in the highest gear and then imagine doing it with something that weighed nearly 100 pounds! A wide turning circle and lack of a reverse gear made the C5 hard to maneuver. Customers also complained that their batteries rarely reached their 20-mile range, often conking out after 10 miles or less in the cold.
The writing was on the wall for the Sinclair C5 before it even reached the end of its first winter. Clive Sinclair’s reputation took a hammering, and only 5,000 of the 14,000 vehicles produced were sold. Production stopped in August 1985 and Sinclair Vehicles (the company that produced the C5) closed down for good.
Turn Back the Clock
Sir Clive Sinclair might have shown his genius in giving the world portable calculators and home computers, but he seemed to lose his golden touch with the C5. Three decades on, some people say that he was just ahead of his time and that 21st-century drivers are much more eager to try electric or hybrid cars. The world certainly needs low-pollution cars more than ever, but the C5 had few of the comforts and advantages of today’s full-size hybrid automobiles.
hybrid
A vehicle that has both an electric motor and a gasoline-powered engine, either of which can propel it.
A few changes at the time would have improved life for C5 drivers. The vehicle absolutely needed to have some sort of covering or roof to protect the driver from the elements. Better covering could also have protected drivers from exhaust fumes coming at them at head level.
Sinclair should have developed a set of gears—like normal bicycle gears—as a standard feature to make climbing easier. Likewise, the high-visibility mast (which had only been an option back in 1985) should have been fitted to every C5. The sense of being invisible to other drivers turned many potential buyers off at the time of the vehicle’s launch.
The Sinclair C5 also would have been a better product if its steering had been improved so that its turning circle was reduced. That change, plus the introduction of a reverse electric gear, would have made it much easier to maneuver.
The most important modern change would be to use an improved battery. In the last few decades, batteries have become smaller and more powerful. A modern battery would weigh half as much and provide more than twice as much range and power—which would have certainly helped on those hills. Today’s environmentally friendly electric and hybrid automobiles have successfully earned a growing share of the market. Sinclair’s “failure” has actually inspired much of this success, since manufacturers learned from the mistakes. The measures taken to improve on the C5 should help the health of the planet in the long run.
Silver Lining?
Some of the people who bought Sinclair C5s back in 1985 and then stored them in their garages for 30 years might be in for a pleasant surprise. Collectors are showing a lot of interest in these “failures,” just as American dealers are looking for Edsels (a Ford “flop” from the late 1950s). Used C5s in good condition now fetch more than three times their original price.
You might wonder what the big deal is about a turning circle. Well, not only does it help the driver snuggle into a tight parking space, it sometimes means the difference between being able to turn around in a narrow street or having to back up all the way. And don’t forget that the Sinclair C5 was pretty heavy and had no reverse gear.
Here’s a demonstration of turning circles that you can test yourself, using the widest collection of bikes that you can find.
YOU WILL NEED
➤ Baseball card or similar-size card
➤ Friends to ride bikes
➤ As many bicycles as possible (with wheels of different sizes)
➤ Watering can full of water
➤ Tape measure
TAKE CARE!
You’ll need some open space to do this experiment. Try to find a safe part of a parking lot or even some space in a park (if they allow bikes).
METHOD
1. You’ll be measuring the diameter of a circle, so mark the center of it by putting the baseball card down on the ground.
2. Water the front tire of each person’s bike before their turn so that their track will show up.
3. Ask each friend (who’ll be riding one of the different bikes) to ride up slowly to the card and then do a U-turn by turning clockwise. The winner is the rider with the narrowest turning circle.
4. Anyone who puts a foot down is disqualified.
5. Use the tape measure to decide between close results.
6. Discuss how and why the winner won. Does it tell you anything about how the wheel size affects the turning circle?
WHAT’S UP?
Okay, so you’ve had a bit of fun comparing how tightly you and your friends can make a U-turn, and you have a firsthand experience of what a turning circle is. Now stop for a minute and imagine your grandmother stuck in a dead-end street, trying to get her Sinclair C5 back to the main road. Does the idea of wanting a tighter turning circle seem a little more understandable now? And can you think of anything that the designers could have done with the C5’s wheels to “tighten” that circle?
This combination activity/experiment lets you make your own tabletop wagon, which you’ll power with an energy source—the air from a hair dryer. You’ll see just how effective that energy source is in powering the wagon on varying slopes and flat surfaces based on the size and shape of different sails. You’re looking for the ideal shape to harness the same force to propel the wagon as far as possible.
Remember those slopes that proved to be a big obstacle for the Sinclair C5? The battery didn’t have enough power to push it up a lot of hills, and the “pedal it yourself” feature of the C5 wasn’t all that user-friendly. With a more powerful—or more efficient—battery, it might have made those climbs.
YOU WILL NEED
➤ Three 4- x 6-inch index cards
➤ Clear tape
➤ 3 plastic straws
➤ Life Savers (or similar round candy)
➤ Scissors
➤ Several sheets of plain white paper
➤ Mounting putty (or play dough)
➤ Tape measure
➤ Hair dryer
METHOD
1. Stack the index cards and tape them together using about ½ inch of tape along each side of the cards. (Three layers taped together will add strength to the mini-wagon you’re making.)
2. Put the stack on the floor and place a straw across the narrower side, about ½ inch in from the edge and jutting out the same distance from each side.
3. Stick the straw in place with tape at both ends.
4. Slide a Life Saver onto both jutting ends and then wrap tape around the straws just outside the candies; these will be the wheels, so make sure they can turn and that there’s just enough tape to stop them from sliding off the straw.
5. Use the scissors to cut the straw so just a bit of it (covered in tape) juts out beyond the candy.
6. Repeat Steps 2 to 5 at the other end. You now have a wagon that can roll.
7. Cut the plain white paper into different-size shapes (maybe a circle, rectangle, triangle, and diamond) and cut two ½-inch slits in each shape; the slits should be midway across each shape, about ½ inch from the top and bottom edges.
8. Each of those shapes will be used as a sail for the wagon. Each time you need a sail, you slide the third straw (the “mast”) through the 2 slots and pinch the paper a little so that it forms a curve.
9. Put a small blob of mounting putty on the top of the wagon (the side without the straw “axles” running across it); it should be about an inch in front of the center of the card.
10. Mount a mast and straw on the wagon and place it on a hard floor.
11. Use the tape measure to line up the hair dryer exactly 30 inches behind the wagon and turn it on to low; mark where the wagon finishes.
12. Repeat Steps 10 and 11 with all your shapes, noting how far each wagon travels.
WHAT’S UP?
This uses scientific methods even if it seems to be just a lot of hot air and fun. The force that you or your friends apply to the wagon to power it is constant (because you remained the same distance away each time). That’s your power output—just as vehicles have a power output in the form of the engine, or battery in the case of the C5.
By changing the shape or size of the sail, you’re trying to get the most force (from the dryer) to power the wagon, but too much would tip it over. The scientific method kicks in as you compare how the same power output can produce different results. A larger sail harnesses more of that power up to a “tipping point.” The C5 engineers also experimented with maximizing power output—their methods led to bigger, heavier batteries, but the extra weight offset that advantage.
