While Malcolm Bricklin is maybe most widely known in automotive circles for bringing Subaru (and the Yugo) to the U.S., the insatiable entrepreneur has really began greater than 30 firms, together with the eponymous automobile model Bricklin.
Like a lot of his ventures, Bricklin’s automobile model didn’t final lengthy, however from 1974 to 1975 it managed to churn out a putting sports activities automobile with gullwing doorways, a light-weight composite physique, and V-8 energy.
The automobile is the Bricklin SV-1, and comic Jeff Dunham occurs to personal one. It’s featured within the newest episode of Jay Leno’s net sequence, “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
Dunham’s instance is a 1975 mannequin, which suggests it includes a Ford V-8 as an alternative of the unique AMC V-8 used the earlier mannequin 12 months. The Ford V-8, the favored Windsor, generates roughly 175 hp on this software and is paired with a 3-speed computerized. Drive is to the rear wheels solely.
Unusually for a sports activities automobile, the SV-1 was marketed for its security, along with its efficiency. The SV within the identify really stands for “safety vehicle,” and the automobile has options like an built-in roll cage. Some of the physique panels, together with the entrance and rear fascias, have been additionally designed to soak up the power of low-speed impacts, serving to to stop dents.
As informed within the video, most of the automobile’s accessible colours even have the phrase security of their names, reminiscent of Safety Red, as featured on Dunham’s automobile. In an effort to avoid wasting prices, the vehicles weren’t really painted. Instead, the colour was impregnated within the acrylic resin used for the physique. However, high quality points rapidly emerged, just like the resin blistering at excessive temperatures.
Various different high quality points, along with a rising worth meant the SV-1 was by no means a high vendor. Production, which occurred at a purpose-built plant in Saint John, in Canada’s New Brunswick, is assumed to have totaled lower than 3,000 items.
This article was initially revealed by Motor Authority, an editorial accomplice of ClassicCars.com.
