Safety Vehicle #1... [PIC]

   Malcolm Bricklin's vision of a 'safety first" sports car became the Bricklin SV-1. So concerned about safety, there were no ash trays or cigarette lighters in the car because THAT was too dangerous! It features a steel roll cage, large energy absorbing urethane bumpers and mostly finished in high visibility colors. The cars weren't painted but rather had a colored acrylic coating boded to the fiberglass panels, so, if you clipped a Bricklin, you could actually tell the owner, "It'll buff out". It also featured hydraulically operated gull wing doors that were very heavy and balky. Although it was powered by V8s, at 3520 lbs it was more of a cruiser rather than a sports car. For the 3 years of production, it was first powered by an AMC 360 cis V8 in 1974 and for '75 to '76, a 351 cid Windsor. In that era, you could only squeeze out about 175 HP out of these heavy cast iron engines. The operating gull wings were a chronic problem with these cars, but the real reason for the failure was that the build cost was more than the car's MSRP and sales numbers were never strong enough to turn a profit. 

   Model by Automodello: