The 'E' Type Forum

... in best Top Gear manner, I held a race today.

No 1 is a Sinclair C5, totally original, driven by a Mercedes E-Class old battery.

No 2 is a street-garbage find, a 1971 Velosolex, on 1:25 fuel.

And the winner is.... the Sinclair ! In fact it is faster then the Velosolex.
This however made me think- the Sincie features a 250 W hoover motor, and if even that is faster, then it must mean the Velosolex delivers about 0.5 hp or less. The brochure claims 0.8 hp for it...

So, comclusion: buy a tuning cylinder for the Velosolex.

Carsten (92 kilo)

Ah....the Sinclair C5....it came out when I was at university and the local electricity board show room (who remembers them?) Had one you could hire for a pound. The council insisted it had a huge flag pole fixed to it....and no...I never did hire it

Ah, C5's are fun to drive. Really ! I swapped mine for a bottle of wine, fitted a conventional battery, and drive it from time to time. I had youngsters shouting "0 0 3.5" to me, because of the looks of the thing. Others asked wether it was a prototype for a new electrical bike-thingie. Which I had to deny, because it's in fact from 1985....

Felix for sure grew up in mine, loves it, and often drives it. For a child, it is a perfect toy. Drive your own, not too fast nor tooo slow- lots of fun.

Carsten

I believe they are quite collectable now...an idea before its time really as high energy density lithium batteries were still in early development so Clive was stuck with lead acid technology...

"Sir" Clive

Carsten

I remember taking a trip to the Isle of Cumbrae with three pals when C5s were a new thing. One of the cycle shops in Millport had a small fleet of them for hire. Three of us got C5s and one of our party, who had just treated himself to a new Escort XR3i, was designated our emergency recovery man. This was just as well as all three C5s ran out of juice before we'd completed the 10.25 mile perimeter road. In fairness they weren't being driven with economy in mind! If memory serves correctly, the XR ended up pulling a train of C5s lashed together with trouser belts and old bits of rope. Happy Days.

http://www.millport.org/

Cool story !

I still believe a proper 3-gear box is missing in a C5. It has no / just one gear. Uphill is hell.

But downhill on flat gravel, marvellous, it sliiiiiiiiiides...you can actually go sideways in it. I did !

And I have some 136 Ah in mine, which helps driving it for an hour or so, until the motor becomes too hot. Which it does.

Carsten