The History of the Bricklin SV-1

The Bricklin SV-1 is a two-seat sports car built from 1974 until late 1975. The car was noteworthy for its gull-wing doors and composite bodywork of color-impregnated acrylic resin bonded to fiberglass. Assembly took place in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The name SV-1 is an abbreviation of “safety vehicle one.” Bricklin company literature uses both the SV-1 and SV1 formats. To promote the car’s safety bona fides, the company touted such features as its integrated roll-over structure and energy-absorbing bumpers.

The SV-1 was the creation of Malcolm Bricklin. Prior to his Bricklin, built in New Brunswick, Canada, with a loan from the Canadian government, Bricklin is noted as the first businessman to import the Subaru brand into the U.S. in 1968. The Bricklin Canada assembly plant was located in the Grandview Industrial Park in Saint John, New Brunswick, at 150 Industrial Drive. A separate facility to produce the bodywork was in Minto, New Brunswick.

With the support of New Brunswick premier, Richard Hatfield, the provincial government provided $4.5 million of financing. The government believed that this money would be used to cover expenses incurred to begin the production of cars, when in fact it was used for the engineering and development of the car as well as salaries and operations of the Phoenix-headquartered company.

The SV-1 was the creation of American entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, known in the industry for establishing Subaru of America prior to building the SV-1, and for importing Zastava cars to North America under the Yugo name afterwards.

Bricklin wanted to build a small, affordable sports car with gullwing doors.  Power was to come from a four-cylinder engine from Opel. Bricklin entrusted design of a road-going proof-of-concept car to Bruce Meyers, but responsibility for the design soon transferred to Marshall Hobart. Dick Dean built the car, which was complete by December 1972. This car became known as the Grey Ghost. When completed the car had a six-cylinder Chrysler Slant-6 engine instead of a four. Other features included a rear suspension from a Datsun 510, a braking system that drew parts from Opel, Datsun and Toyota, and a tilting steering wheel from a Chevrolet.

In 1972 the Bricklin Vehicle Corporation began working with Herb Grasse Design and AVC Engineering to redesign and re-engineer the car. Three prototypes were built with assistance from AVC. AVC engineer Tom Monroe would later join Bricklin as Chief Engineer.

Design of the production SV-1 was done by Herb Grasse, a graduate of the ArtCenter College of Design who had earlier been employed by both Chrysler and Ford.  Grasse had also worked with George Barris on the conversion of the 1955 Lincoln Futura show car into the television Batmobile.

Bricklin experienced persistent problems with the composite acrylic/fiberglass body panel technology. The acrylic resin first selected would blister at temperatures as low as 150 °F (65.6 °C).  A substitute resin able to withstand higher temperatures was thinner than the original product, requiring an extra layer of fiberglass in the panel and increasing weight, so Bricklin reverted to the original resin. It was also discovered that ultraviolet light could pass through the acrylic layer, potentially degrading the polyester resins that were used to bond the acrylic to the fiberglass below.

Among the factors blamed for the car’s ultimate demise were ongoing quality control problems, nepotism, supplier shortages, worker absenteeism and a series of price increases that more than doubled the price of the car in two years.

Production of the SV-1 ended with just under 3,000 cars built.  An estimated 1,700 Bricklins were surviving as of 2012.

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The Bricklin SV-1 and the Delorean DMC are on display together

Most people know the name John DeLorean both because of the Back to the Future franchise and the public legal problems of its founder. However, Malcolm Bricklin predates the DeLorean by a few years and is much less known having only produced less than 3,000 vehicles.

Now that Miles Through Time Automotive Museum has been able to pull the DeLorean out of the barn and acquire a Bricklin the museum is able to showcase the two failed gullwing door orphan cars.