Sinclair C5 Restoration - OT No Porsche content !

[impmad2000]

So I bought a Sinclair C5 from my neighbor !
Dirty and unused for many years, but I'd always wanted one and this was cheap !!

It didn't take long to take it to pieces !!
A nice simple chassis under the plastic shell. The tyres were shredded, but basically it was all good.
There was no way I was going to turn on the electrics on until I'd checked them out properly.

Lots of plastic but also some real nice touches. Look at the neat little drum brake ...

There is some rust on the frame, but nothing that can't be fixed.

Here's the first test of the motor.... Good news, it worked after freeing it off.

... and putting CDI boxes to one side for a while, the rest of the electronics worked too !

That's better

With some new tyres and a repainted frame

Its time to start re-assembly

And here you go - Done and working . Not me driving BTW.



Tim

[Ferry Man]

Blimey Tim, that's the shortest restoration thread I've seen on DDK.
Nice work though, looks great!

[TheEasyLife]

Fastest restoration thread ever? Done in 11 pics!!

Like it. I'll have to meet up with you at your favourite field for a spin in the new year.

Cheers

James

[TheEasyLife]

D'oh. Ferryman beat me to it.

[Jonny Hart]

Nice!

Good old Sir Clive. Great ideas with shonky execution. C5 was £399 IIRC. That was a lot of dosh for tricycle.

My dad bought the first Sinclair QL (remember them?) the day it went on sale. He opened the packaging upside-down and all the keys fell off.

[smallspeed]

Awesome work tim!
I remember the QL! Something rather "apple" about the product and especially the packaging!

[964RS]

Nice one Tim, thought you might have hot rodded it though

[Richard]

I bought a C5 for the office, it's great fun especially when you try banking it

Battery flat at the moment

[23e Heure]

Love it - always fancied a C5, even registered on the C5 forum (c5alive) a few years ago.

Sinclair envy must be an 'of our generation' thing.
I had a ZX81 when they first came on sale, and spent entire weekends copying BASIC code from magazines to try and avoid paying for games.

Still plenty of time to hot rod the thing, of course Tim. This could give you some inspiration:

[anglophone1]

I bought one as soon as they appeared, had lost my licence for a year and this seemed like a great way to get from my flat in Fulham to my office in Savile Row.
Only did it a couple of times, a C5 in London traffic was no fun!
It sat around the place for a bit and then I gave it to a charitable foundation who used it and another for fundraising runs.
Brilliant idea, beautifully executed and marketing/ delivery etc. way ahead of it's time.
(it arrived in a box by courier, which pre-Internet etc. seemed astonishing!)
C

[impmad2000]

I plan to Hot Rod the C5. , but to truly appreciate the progress of the mods, I had to start from a tried and tested standard C5. Gas turbine is fine but only made about 60mph. The electric land speed record was held by a C5 at 150mph .... now there's a challenge I have a 2nd motor already, and offer of a running machine motor. Now, where to take this ?

[bjmullan]

Great job Tim. I think KERS is the way forward for your C5. You should contact Williams F1 and get them to loan you one of those flywheel job. Maybe install a push to pass button and launch control

[jamie]

I plan to Hot Rod the C5. , but to truly appreciate the progress of the mods, I had to start from a tried and tested standard C5. Gas turbine is fine but only made about 60mph. The electric land speed record was held by a C5 at 150mph .... now there's a challenge I have a 2nd motor already, and offer of a running machine motor. Now, where to take this ?

I had a go in one that was running 24v (just fitted two batteries, I think). It was quite fun. I remember the steering was a bit nervous at full speed.

Good work on the resto. If anyone was going to do this...