The Bricklin SV-1 was introduced at the National Association of Automobile Dealers convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, US


Saturday 2nd February 1974

The Bricklin SV-1 was introduced at the National Association of Automobile Dealers convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, US. The gull-wing door sports car was assembled in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Manufactured from 1974 until late 1975 for the American market, the car was the creation of Malcolm Bricklin, an American millionaire who had previously founded Subaru of America. The car was designed by Herb Grasse.The Bricklin factory was not able to produce vehicles fast enough to make a profit. As a result, only 2,854 cars were built before the company went into receivership, owing the New Brunswick government $21 million,[citation needed] and less than 3,000 cars were built.

The model name SV-1 was an acronym for “safety vehicle one”. The original idea for the Bricklin SV-1 was a safe and economical sports car, but due to the added weight of the safety features, the car was inefficient and simply a safe sports car.[citation needed] The Bricklin was designed for safety with an integrated roll cage, 5 mph (8.0 km/h) bumpers, and side beams.[citation needed] The body was fibreglass with bonded acrylic in five “safety” colours: white, red, green, orange and suntan.[citation needed] The cars had no cigarette lighter or ashtray “to discourage smoking”.[3] A non-smoker, Malcolm Bricklin believed it was unsafe to smoke and drive. The Bricklin is the only[citation needed] production vehicle in automotive history to have factory powered gull-wing doors that opened and closed at the touch of a button as standard equipment. (The later DeLorean DMC-12’s gull-wing doors operate manually, and the Tesla Model X’s rear doors are referred to as falcon-wing doors rather than gull-wing due to the extra hinge.)


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