Tried it again last night between thunderstorms, so was just using the width of the drive by the garage, no more than 7 yards to play with and any of 4 cars to hit if i got it slightly wrong but was anxious to conduct the test before it rained again, which it did soon after.. Placed driven wheel in depression in tarmac so that the chain would be under more strain when starting off but accidentally pressed throttle switch before commencing pedalling, there was an almighty cracking noise, which hopefully may have been the chain resettling on every sprocket tooth having just been put back on, and the thing moved off under electric power. I haven't examined the gearbox iternally to see if it broke;it was still seated on the flimsy mount, the metal strap having done its job on that occasion.
I had a Berkeley sports car as a teenager,built down to a weight limit,(63/4 cwt with a 700cc RE motor) but even that badly engineered rubbish was more robust than the C5 appears to be