³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

It's been 30 years since the Sinclair C5 was launched in January 1985 - an electric and pedal powered tricycle that went on to become one of the most famous flops in British engineering history.

Sir Clive Sinclair - the inventor who brought desktop calculators and computers into British homes - originally hoped to sell a million of them a year.

But just 17,000 were bought before his vehicle company went into receivership.

So what went wrong?

Barrie Wills, former managing director of Sinclair Vehicles, and Gus Desbarats, who was hired as a designer at the time by Sir Clive, both agreed the "concept was wrong" but the vehicle was "ahead of its time".

This clip is originally from 5 live Daily's 'I Was There' feature on Thursday 8 January 2015.