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It's funny how things turn out. In the brochure for the revolutionary new C5, Sinclair Research proudly claimed: "by the early 1990s, Sinclair will have on the roads a range of fast, quiet, astonishingly economical family vehicles." In fact, by the early 1990s, people had all but forgotten about the legend that was Sinclair.
It all started simply enough when Cambridge geek Clive Sinclair invented a pocket calculator (he has been mistakenly credited with inventing the electronic calculator and the digital watch in the past!) From these humble beginnings, Clive went on to develop a more sophisticated pocket calculator, known as the ZX-80. Based on the Z80 chip which now drives millions of Nintendo Game Boys, the ZX-80 spawned a family of home computers, including most famously, the ZX Spectrum. Clive became Britain's answer to Steve Jobs, and as a nerdy, pre-pubescent boy, I believed he could do no wrong.
I remember one time watching Clive Sinclair being interviewed on TV-am. He explained that computers had got as fast as they were going to get, and the real challenge was making them even smaller, and working out where to put the keyboard. I believed him - whatever Clive said was OK by me. So when Clive announced "a new power in personal transport" I was interested.
Back then, women were camped out on Greenham common, campaigning to ban to bomb, and everyone wanted to save the planet, and stop polluting the environment. Clive's solution was simple - everyone should drive around on tiny buggies drive by washing machine engines - when they broke down you could always call our Hoover for technical support. With a top speed of 15mph, getting around town was never a problem with the nippy C5.
In an attempt to get around the law, Sinclair had made the C5 perilously small and exposed - both the the elements, and to other road users. The brochure explained "it needs no licence, no tax, no compulsory insurance and no helment." That's as maybe, but how safe would you feel in one as a ten tonne juggernaught overtake?
I had so badly wanted a C5 - but sadly, at fourteen years old, they were too expensive for my pocket money - £428 plus £29 postage and packing. I think my parents were much relieved that I never got the money together to buy one.
The idea was ahead of its time. Maybe one day we will all drive around in electric cars, but back in the eighties, no one was quite ready for it. In attaching his name to the project, and selling his profitable computer business to Amstrad in order to focus entirely on vehicles, Clive Sinclair revealed an eccentric, visonary dreamer quality to his character. He may not be the greatest business man in the world, but I'll always remember Sinclair research with great affection - who knows, if they'd only got as far as releasing the C10, things could have been very different...
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