A Video History of the 1974-76 Bricklin

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Virtually forgotten today, the Bricklin SV-1 was one of the major automotive stories of the 1970s. Here’s an excellent documentary retracing the steps of the Safety Sports Car

 

At a leisurely 45 minutes, this documentary is longer than a Russian novel by internet standards, as we say, but for you devoted students of automotive history, it’s more than worth it. (Bookmark it and view it in multiple sessions if you must.) Produced by History Television of Canada in partnership with the Canadian Television Fund, the film takes a deeper dive into the Bricklin story than anything we’ve seen to date.

In many ways the 1974-76 Bricklin parallels the story of another ill-famed sports car of  roughly the same era, the 1981-83 DeLorean. Both cars were launched by smooth-talking corporate hype artists, and both were embraced by political leaders desperate to generate badly needed jobs and grow their local economies. (The DeLorean was built in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Bricklin in New Brunswick, Canada.) Both cars sported glamorous gullwing doors, and both featured a novel form of body construction: stainless steel for the DeLorean and a hybrid acrylic/fiberglass process for the Bricklin. And both manufacturers were spectacular failures, of course.

However: We would never suggest that Malcolm Bricklin, the namesake and founder of the Bricklin SV-1, wasn’t an intriguing character in his own right, and that his Safety Sports Car isn’t a fascinating tale all by itself. Without further ado, here’s the Bricklin story. Video below.

 

7 thoughts on “A Video History of the 1974-76 Bricklin”

  1. This posted documentary regarding the ill-fated Bricklin automobile is fascinating. As a volunteer in the restoration shop of the National Museum of Transportation of St. Louis I am familiar with the Bricklin as there is a fine example in the museum collection on which I have been privileged to work. Thanks to Mac’s Motor City Garage for its continuing and excellent presentation of interesting and significant items of automotive history.

    • Correction to my previous Comment. My memory is faulty, the automobile owned by the National Museum of Transportation is a Bradley electric with a very similar physical appearance. Bricklin , Bradley , DeLorean — all very interesting automotive iterations. Sorry for my error , Jonathan B. Richards

    • W
      ell worth watching, especially in regard to all the Marques which have come and now gone. Also a good history of ‘hard times in the Maritimes’ and all the fast talkin’ carpet baggers who managed to slicker us. Actually the car itself doesn’t look that bad after watching the video…

  5. Designing a car that offers safety, affordability, AND actual quality is not easy. But even though the car was a business failure, there is still a kind of “cult” following around it. With just 3000 Bricklins out there you can imagine the model is not exactly common. Which is why we at Corsia were genuinely interested in it when a client approached us to ship it for them: https://www.corsia.us/the-story-of-a-canadian-native-1975-bricklin-sv-1 🙂

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