No doubt, one of the coolest cars ever. Almost as cool as the DeLorean in Back To The Future. The Bricklin SV-1 was a futuristic, Canadian two-seat sports car built from 1974 to late 1975 — and “fun fact’ — the car’s name is an abbreviation for “safety vehicle one”. It had issues, but still one of the 70’s coolest.
The SV-1 was one of the most sylish coupes of the mid-70s. This heavy, ”safe” sportster was powered by a 351-cubic inch Ford Windsor V-8 engine and was welcomed with a ton of fanfare. Oddly, quirky Malcolm Bricklin in designing the SV-1 and in an interesting effort to discourage smoking, didn’t include an ashtray or lighter in the car. While the public loved the modern design, the hand-operated 100-lb. gullwing doors turned out to be just one of the many problems the SV-1 suffered. The bodies were made of super day-glo colored, dent-resistant plastic, like PlaySkool furniture — that degraded quickly over time. And while the aggressive stance of the SV-1 made it look fast, it wasn’t. The resin panels and compressible bumpers added hundreds of pounds to the weight of the car. The emissions standards of the day limited the SV-1’s inefficient V8 engines, and eventually became the crushing blow for Bricklin. Bottom line: the SV-1 was safe only because it ended up being ridiculously slow. Less than 3,000 of the sleek-wedge coupes were built. Problems? Yes. But I still love it.
