Classic project [Time Out Blueprint]

BRAINCHILD OF the extraordinarily rich and bafflingly eccentric Sir Clive Sinclair, the eponymous C5 three-wheeled battery electric vehicle was neither as visionary nor as revolutionary as its inventor had envisaged. In fact, from the moment it was launched thirty years ago at a shimmering media event in London???s Alexandra Palace, the C5 was a complete disaster. Most of the review units that had been supplied to journalists refused to work, while the bitterly cold weather ensured that the members of the press that did make it around the test circuit labelled it ???an unqualified disaster.???