The STRANGE Sports Car Designed To CRUSH The Corvette - The Bricklin SV-1

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In this Rare Cars documentary, we go in depth into one of the most underappreciated American/Canadian cars of all time, the Bricklin SV-1
The Bricklin SV-1 is one of the most interesting cars ever, a sports car that was designed to have a safety focus at the same time. This is an interesting combination as we all know lots of us don't tend to drive sports cars in the most "safe" manner.
But, nonetheless the Bricklin SV-1 is probably one of the most interesting cars that we have covered on the channel, and one of the most affordable to purchase today!
This video aims to provide a short history of this unique and rare car so you can learn about them in a quick, easy to digest video.
*Note, we are not historians. If you see an error in our research then please mention it in the comments!
For business inquiries or other inquiries, reach out to: [e-mail]

[@rarecars3336]

Constructive Criticism Thread! How we can we make our next video better, comment below 😀👍

[@willythewave]

You can make your videos better by NOT saying on all your videos " A car that was Car Designed To CRUSH" another car. You make good videos but I HATE click bait! I am not subscribed to you and will NEVER be subscribed to you as long as you keep doing that. STOP with click bait titles.

[@rarecars3336]

@@willythewave this car was a competitor to the corvette and was tested in comparison with the corvette as such in period by publications. No click bait here.

[@SV1Bricklin]

Very well done ! I’m fortunate to own a 1974 4spd car. And also recently attended Mr. Bricklin’s 85th birthday celebration! What a great guy !!

[@FalconChief1222]

I bought Bricklin #1600 in 2014 after seeing it featured in Hagerty magazine. I love the car! The doors were converted to pneumatic by Terry Tanner by the original owner, they can be adjusted to open in under 3 seconds. It has just under 34K original miles! I plan to have Bob Hoffman do some restoration work on her this summer. The value of this car is only going to go up. I plan to keep mine for quite a while.

[@joellamoureux7914]

I love the Brick! The rear end is rather sad. The entire remainder was absolutely fantastic. I can't think of what would look better though.

[@timpalmer7934]

I’ve owned my Bricklin since 1984 and still love it. It’s always an attention getter at car shows.

[@rarecars3336]

I've never personally seen one on the road but I really want too! Such a cool piece of history!

[@frauhansencom]

Hi... me too... but since 2021.. My one is a 74

[@DavidCormier-er7em]

I am from New Brunswick Canada a fun fact about the Brooklyn when the company went tits up John DeLorean bought the plans and all the engineering for the sv2 which later became the DeLorean

[@shortattentionspangarage1312]

I like your style, specifically the video lengths. They don't need to be 25 minutes to get the whole story (unless you're a greedy content creator who need to monetize their channel), so thank you.

[@rarecars3336]

Thank you! I try and make them concise as I know people have busy schedules!

[@numjro]

OH MY GOD A BRICKLIN VIDEO!!!

[@rarecars3336]

YESSSSS

[@IowaBudgetRCBashers]

Malcolm Bricklin was a genius.

[@johnkeviljr9625]

I wouldn’t say this car was Strange at all. Its design was better than anything out of Detroit.

[@IowaBudgetRCBashers]

I’d love to have one of the 304 amc powered Bricklin’s

[@DSC800]

New Brunswick only chipped in $5MM to get the plant started? That's only about $30MM today. By "only" I mean it doesn't seem like they risked that much compared to what it would take today. Also, I saw on another KZbin vid that the workers would qualify for a year of unemployment if they worked just 12 weeks. So basically just when they were taught how to do their job they had an incentive to quit, and that's what they did. Malcolm Bricklin gets a bad rap for the failure of the SV1 but there were other factors working against him. I lusted after these cars as a teen in the late '70's and those gull wings were sexy as hell.

[@gtracer6629]

I drove a Bricklin when they first came out. Actually did a road test and photo shoot with one of them, complete with a fashion model. The car drove like a pig with lipstick. I knew right away that it was never going be a challenger to the Corvette. At the time I was very familiar with the Corvette as I drove one on the street and also was racing one in SCCA.

[@lazmotron]

Great car, great video.

[@detroit8v715]

The lack of other investors besides the Canadian government to fund the project, Malcolm's lack of car building experience, lack of management organization were the main reasons for the company's downfall, not build or design problems. The build quality was an issue but did improve on the last good 600 cars off the line. The company had a back order for 40,000 cars, meaning it sold reasonably well. 2900 cars were built. I had a '74 automatic and loved it.

[@thebricklinsv-1chronicles]

Nice video! In less than a dozen minutes, all the pieces of information you covered about this car are relevant. The safety regulations, the original designer Marshall Hobart, the challenge of making a brand new complex car from scratch and changing the engine during the production run to name a few. You however mentioned you would cover more later about the car being made in New Brunswick and the political factor in the downfall of the Bricklin venture, and this was indeed a major factor. Will this be part of another video about the Bricklin? What I would just add to your fine video is the fact that Bricklin owners fixed the troublesome hydraulic doors by converting them to air doors. Kuddos, you did a great job with this documentary!

[@rarecars3336]

Thank you I am glad you felt the video did the car justice, I wasn’t trying to bash the car in the video as I do actually think they are pretty cool! There won’t be another video on the bricklin anytime soon as typically I do just one video per car and well…I got a lot of cars to cover lol

[@BuzzLOLOL]

The Bricklin had 3 engines, it was originally supposed to have a Chevy 350 and cost $6500... then the Dodge 360 engine... Ford 351W engine... $8,000...

[@PowerSurgePerf]

@@BuzzLOLOL It never had a Chevy engine nor was supposed to have a Chevy engine.

[@BuzzLOLOL]

@@PowerSurgePerf - The first proposals claimed it would have a Chevy engine...

[@lawerancelanham]

It looks clearly obvious that DeLorean garnered the design from this.

[@rarecars3336]

You can definitely see similarities, @hooviesgarage has a great video comparing this to a DeLorean!

[@IowaBudgetRCBashers]

Also the build quality had nothing to do with the Bricklin failing, it was the fault of the Canadian government, not following through with the money they were supposed to give, also they were being screwed by amc who couldn’t keep up with giving Bricklin the hornet running gear, seats and other stuff they got from amc, that’s why they switched to ford351W

[@rarecars3336]

The build quality did play a factor as far as all the research that I did, the Canadian government also did play a role

[@xray111xxx]

It takes millions and millions of dollars to get cars right. Bricklin tried to do the impossible, and failed. This car was far from safe too, but any car on the 70s was a joke anyway. Conceptually it was compelling, but a nightmare in reality. Bricklin basically was an opportunist. Love him or hate him for it. Entrepreneur, and what makes the 1 dream one man come alive. DeLorean was another dreamer. His car was garbage too. Lousy power train, and quality issues too. I love these guys wanted to do more. But without the right products, and research, and development, and engineering, and testing, you just aren't going to make a car for the ages. You will be a blip of history for the moment, and nothing more.

[@mry82]

Corvette front clip w/ a Nissan 280ish rear!

[@tristangillis7365]

Woo, Canada is on the map for once!

[@brianmoore3294]

The Bricklin was an interesting car. The last one I saw was at a car show 20 years ago at BMW's Greenville, SC plant. The Corvette has, and had at the time, such a towering legacy it doesn't make sense to consider that the Bricklin may have become an equal to the Corvette. - If only our car didn't fall apart into the trash heap of automotive history in just 2 years, it could have been another Corvette...

[@The_sinner_Jim_Whitney]

It's a shame Bricklin just couldn't last long enough for success. I think these were probably as good a car as Covettes in the same period, and despite lack of money and 5 mph bumpers and such, they still were a fairly good-looking cars. I would love to have another V8 American sports car option out there today, look how far the Corvette has come and imagine how they BOTH would've evolved with each other for competition!

[@rarecars3336]

Totally agree, would love to see someone bring the name back!

[@simmadpaul2880]

Wonder how many people were injured by those doors. Looks like it could do a nice upper cut to the chin and take you clean off your feet. Great safety feature in preventing you from getting in a driving it. 😂

[@patricwell8335]

Funny I'm looking at buying with a LS swap

[@rarecars3336]

That would be a fun ride!

[@johnw3996]

GOOD JOB 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

[@rarecars3336]

Thank you!

[@DougKendig]

Looks like a Datsun, a Fiero, and a Delorean crashed and when they tried to put it back together.. this is what was left..

[@rarecars3336]

Honestly, that isn't too far off LOL

[@lancerevell5979]

And a touch of SAAB Sonnet DNA tossed in too. 👍😎

[@BuzzLOLOL]

Was originally supposed to have an easily hopped up SBC 350" V8... Malcolm Bricklin is still alive...

[@misanthrope22]

Except it predated the DeLorean & the Fiero

[@gregoryleewalker]

I remember seeing these when I was a kid.

[@RojerLockless]

I have #572

[@Schlipperschlopper]

Sadly from 2030 on all combustion cars including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025 on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. Now they want to slow down all the gas station fuel pumps from 20 litre per minute to 2 litre per minute...From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called "Bundes-Abgasbespaßungsverbots- und Kontrollverordnung" in German.

[@frauhansencom]

Cool, i own one..a '74 in suntan... thx for the video!