====== Production, suppliers and identification ====== ===== Where and how it was built ===== * **Assembler:** Hoover plc, Merthyr Tydfil (Pentrebach), South Wales. C5s were built in building **MP7**, a separate new 40,000 sq ft hall connected to the main washing-machine factory by a tunnel. * **Line capacity:** two lines at about 50–56 vehicles an hour. Hoover quoted up to 8,000 a week and 200,000 a year. Hoover's own service planning assumed 4,000 a week. * **Assembly time:** about **one man-hour per vehicle**. * **Chassis:** two Lotus-designed steel pressings from **Willenhall Manufacturing** (West Midlands) were **spot-welded automatically at Hoover** and painted to pass a **90-hour salt-spray test**. * **Body:** the two polypropylene mouldings were joined by **resistance tape welding**. An electrically heated tape goes round the rim of the lower half, the halves are jigged together, and the current is switched on for about **70 seconds**. The weld line is hidden under the **yellow reflective stripe**. Completed shells went by overhead conveyor to a "marriage station" and were bolted to the pre-assembled chassis and drive unit. * **End-of-line test:** a rolling road with a mechanical arm simulating the driver's weight. It checked motor no-load and stall current, stall protection and reset, the load indicator, the battery gauge, pod current draw and the brakes. * **Packing:** each C5 was boxed in a large carton with the charger, tool kit and literature, and loaded straight onto container lorries. Distribution centres were at Hayes (Middlesex), Preston and Oxford. ===== Principal suppliers ===== ^ Component ^ Supplier ^ | Chassis, gearbox and axle design; prototypes; testing | Lotus Cars, Norfolk | | Chassis pressings | Willenhall Manufacturing, West Midlands | | Body mouldings | Linpac Mouldings, Winsford, Cheshire | | Body mould tools (about £750,000) | J.J. Harvey, Manchester | | Polypropylene | ICI (Propathene) | | Motor | Polymotor, Italy (Philips group) | | Gearbox gears (glass-filled nylon) | Mikron UK, Huddersfield | | Rear axle (step-swaged steel tube) | Torrington, Coventry | | Control electronics | AB Electronics, Wales | | Pod ULA (semi-custom IC) | Ferranti | | Motor relay | Ital-Amec, Italy | | Battery | Oldham Batteries | | Battery charger | Stellar Components, Maldon, Essex (named on the charger guarantee) | | Cycle parts (wheels, chain, freewheel, brakes, levers, pedals, forks, tyres) | Sourced through JHF Cycles Distributors: Italian wheels and Saccon bars; Taiwanese forks and pedals; Vee Rubber tyres from Thailand | | Electronics design | MetaLab / Sinclair Research (Perran Newman) | | Shipping box (engineered fibreboard) | Bowater Containers, Newport | The launch magazine //C5 Driver// (Jan 1985) carries adverts from suppliers that confirm their roles: * **Polymotor Italiana S.p.A.** (Casella, Genoa; Philips group): "designer and manufacturer of the electric vehicle motor". * **Mikron (UK) Ltd**, Kirkheaton, Huddersfield: "designed and supplied the gearing system". * **Lin Pac Mouldings**: upper body, lower body and boot mouldings. * **J.J. Harvey**: made the models and mould tools, using four steel blocks weighing 45 tons in total, finished by spark erosion. * **AB Electronic Products Group**, Abercynon: electronics. * **Stellar Components**, Maldon: chargers. SinclairC5.com credits the design to "Selmar". * **Oldham Batteries**, Manchester: battery. * **Bowater Containers**: the box. ===== Body facts ===== * The upper shell weighs about **5.5 kg** and the lower about **4.25 kg**. //The Engineer// called it the largest injection moulding of its type in mass production. * Drag area (Cd·A) is about **0.23 m²**, from Exeter University wind-tunnel work. * The colour is moulded in, so scratches don't show a different colour underneath. The body needs no polishing. * The body is mounted on the chassis with **four bolts and rubber bump mounts**. There is no separate suspension; ride comes from chassis flex, the mounts and the tyres. ===== Identification ===== * **Vehicle serial number plate:** item 18 on the handbook's "Know your vehicle" diagram. The handbook asks owners to record the serial number, master-switch key number, battery serial number and charger serial number. * **Examples:** ^ Museum Wales object ^ Fleet/body number ^ Serial number ^ | 86.189I | 2250 | V 100051003366 | | 1996.111/1 | 2320 | V 100050201863 | * No published key to the serial-number format has been found. **Can you help?** If you own a C5, please add your serial number, the colour of your boot lid and motor housing, and any date stamps to a community register so the numbering can be decoded. * **Features that help date a C5:** * **Boot lid:** grey on early and pre-production vehicles; white on later production. * **Motor end assembly:** brown plastic on early motors (brittle); pale yellow/white on later ones. * **Retrofits:** a motor support bracket or metal retaining plate, the chain-tensioner rework, a rear brake heat plate. * **Second-battery hole:** some C5s ("original 2-battery machines") have a square cut-out in the right-hand moulding with a grommet, for the second-battery wiring. * **Harness:** the standard harness or the "alternative" one (a 6-connector cluster under the tunnel). * **Lotus prototypes** are **GRP** (fibreglass), not polypropylene, and differ in dozens of details. Examples include hand-cut decals, a 6-spoke front wheel, 35 psi tyres, a blue metal control box and a toggle main switch. See John Dunne's "Lotus C5 prototype" article on c5owners.com. * **Unsold-stock and boxed examples** still turn up. They usually come with a sealed handbook, charger and tool kit. ===== Production numbers ===== * About 2,500 had been built by the launch. Total output was about **12,000** (RCAHMW, Twist & Go) or **14,000** (Wikipedia, citing the receivers and the press). * About **4,500 were sold** by Sinclair Vehicles before receivership. Ellar (Surplus Goods) later sold nearly 7,000 more. * Production ended in **August 1985**. ===== Sources ===== * //The Engineer//, "Sinclair C5 trike takes to the roads", 17 Jan 1985, pp. 36–37 (scan on c5owners.com). * //The Unofficial Sinclair C5 Service Manual//, "Manufacture and Test". * Frank Clements' recollections (c5owners.com); Museum Wales object records; RCAHMW, "The Sinclair C5 & Merthyr Tydfil"; Wikipedia.