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Certain gadgets spring to mind when we think about badly designed products and failed launches. But none failed in quite such a costly manner as the De Lorean DMC-12. Back in the early 1970s, when the original plans for the De Lorean were made public, it quickly became the “Big boy’s toy” on every male shopping list. Like all good gadgets it contained a large chunk of new technology and some good old fashioned cosmetic appeal.

Unfortunately for the business man behind this infamous motor vehicle, John De Lorean, many of the new forms of technology that were originally intended to make it into the production vehicle were just not ready. Certain things such as the radical chassis design, which was to be built using a new form of manufacturing process named Elastic Reservoir Moulding (ERM). The patent for ERM was bought by the De Lorean Motor Company at great expense, only for engineers to finally report that the technology was useless for motor vehicle manufacture, and scrapping the entire design concept. Slowly, little by little all of the exciting new features that could have made the car the ultimate male gadget of the late 70s were replaced by run of the mill standard technology. Possibly the only radical design feature that remained in the final production model was the use of a stainless steel skin over a fibreglass panel for the body panelling. This interesting feature kind of backfired as owners of the few De Lorean that were actually made, found out quite quickly that stainless steel was something of a pain to keep clean and maintain.

Most of us remember Doc Brown of Back to the Future fame, and his amazing time travelling De Lorean (possibly the greatest gadget ever) replete with flux capacitor and a dashboard full of esoteric lights. Interestingly enough, all of the four cars that were used in the filming of the original movies had their standard PRV-V6 (Renault produced) power plant ripped out and a more powerful Porsche engine installed. This should give some idea of just how bad the performance was in the original vehicle, if you need to stick a bigger engine into a sports car just to get it up to 88 miles per hour quick enough to keep movie goers entertained, then something must surely be wrong?

The De Lorean did make it into production, although the retail price had risen dramatically from original expectations. The DMC-12 took its name from the fact it was designed to retail at $12,000, but actually went on sale at $25,000 which represented over 100% slip in pricing from concept to launch. Only around 9,000 cars were ever built before the De Lorean Motor Company went bust in 1982, following the arrest of its founder on drug trafficking charges (later disproved). What could have been one of the most innovative and technically exciting motor vehicles of all time became a legend in bad business management and silly ideas.

If you are of a certain age, around mid life crisis age actually, then you are probably going to remember certain things like the Commodore 64, Haircut 100, Swatch Watches and maybe, just maybe, the Sinclair C5.

History has a long line of gregarious characters that have competed for the title of “Craziest Inventor Ever”, and during the late 1970s and early 1980s the UK had a major contender in the form of Sir Clive Sinclair. Quite why the Queen decided to issue him a knighthood has never been truly understood, but it could be the only clue to the fact The Queen of England does actually have a sense of humour.

Sir Clive was actually pretty smart for a while, most home computer enthusiasts of the day would glance lovingly at their ZX81 and quietly inform their visiting Aunty that it was like a calculator but bigger and it could actually play chess. Of course, you also knew you could not demonstrate it to her, as there was only a fifty percent chance the tape drive would actually load that whole 1k of data, and you didn’t want her to think you were any crazier than she already did. Thousands of young computer professionals (geeks to you and I) almost worship Sir Clive back in those days. He followed up with the ZX Spectrum, which became the bedroom accessory to be had by anyone who still had acne spots. It wasn’t until he started messing with the Sinclair QL that people began to realise he really was a very clever person, so it was time to stop liking him.

After being almost solely responsible for the home computer boom, Sir Clive decided it was time to tackle something more challenging. He settled upon designing a means of reducing global pollution and solving traffic congestion in all major cities around the world. After a brief period of time in the development labs he wheeled out the Sinclair C5 (he had to wheel it out, the prototype was made of cardboard). This innovative little vehicle was a cross between a go-kart and a supermarket shopping trolley, with a healthy chunk of golf cart thrown in for good measure.

In reality it was a very good design, the little vehicle could travel at 15km per hour, for an extended period of time. It came with full weather gear and would have made a great commuter vehicle. Unfortunately, the general public took one look at it and laughed, they continued laughing until the C5 was withdrawn from the market, after only 17,000 units had been sold.

The Sinclair C5 is seen as one of the worst launches of new technology ever witnessed in the UK, and is deemed a commercial disaster by financial analysts. The real disaster in this story is the fact that had the public accepted this new form of transportation, they would be living a healthier life that was less harmful to the ecology.