The First Bricklin Concept Car

If you are big fans of the Bricklin SV-1 car, you really have to know how the first Bricklin concept car looks like, how it was planned, and what it takes for Malcolm Bricklin to build this legendary car. Although Bricklin SV-1 is the only Bricklin car, it was considered as a great contribution to automobile industry especially sports cars lovers.

The First Bricklin Concept Car

It was all started when Malcolm Bricklin feels boring about the Subaru 360 and some of the cars available on earth in the ‘60s. He then decided to build his own car that has his own taste. During ‘60s and ‘70s, it is the American muscle cars era. At that time America’s car safety standard is already high, performance is indeed important as one of the criteria to build a car but safety is even more important. Therefore, Bricklin decided to follow his dream and make a car with high performance and exceed all safety standards. That’s where the SV-1 came from, Safety Vehicle 1.

The first Bricklin concept car was built by Bruce Meyers of Meyer Manx dune buggy fame in California. The initial planning is to use Valiant Slant Six engine for the Bricklin SV-1 but it was tossed aside. The second planning for prototype number one is to fit the car with an Argentinean motor with five-speed manual transmission, but it was given up because the engine did not arrive in time. At last, the Bricklin concept car was fittd with an American Motors drivetrain, which was the AMC’s 360-cubic-inch V8 engine.

In 1972, three prototype cars were built. Prototype one, two, and three were a collaboration by Bricklin Vehicle Corporation, Herb Grasse Design (Herb Grasse is the original Batmobile designer), and AVC Engineering.

The first Bricklin concept car – Bricklin SV-1

Bricklin SV-1 was successfully launched in 1974 and productions continue until early 1976. It was assembled in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It is one of the rare sports cars that has gull-wing door with lots of safety features. Only 2854 Bricklin cars were ever built. The car itself was a great success but the factory was not able to produce vehicles fast enough to make earnings therefore resulting the company close down.

Although the Bricklin SV-1 was built with fiberglass body, the car is lack of power due to the weight from all the safety features. The curb weight of the SV-1 is 1574 kg. It is simple a safe sports car with the very cool electric powered gull-wing doors. It requires press of a button to open and close the gull-wing door which the later “Back to the future car” DeLorean DMC-12 doesn’t even has this feature. Today, the first Bricklin concept car or the Bricklin SV-1 has been a legend.