Mightabeens
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday September 1, 2000
Not a winged saviour
A few years before De Lorean gave such a snappy name to sports car failure, a man named Malcolm Bricklin demonstrated a similar level of ineptitude with a remarkably similar car. As with the De Lorean DMC-12, the Bricklin SV-1 was an American-conceived, wedge-shaped, gullwing sportster with a body built from unusual materials.
Other parallels were equally astounding: the Bricklin was produced in another country with government backing from that country, was claimed as a safety innovator, had woeful build quality and lost millions. And if that wasn't enough, some backers of the Bricklin went on to put money behind De Lorean.
Malcolm Bricklin - a high-flying, fast-talking entrepreneur - started with a chain of hardware stores, then began importing motor scooters before graduating to cars. He set up Subaru of America in 1968 but his failure to make money from that didn't stop him trying to manufacture a car under his own name. To help the venture along, Bricklin did a deal with the provincial government of New Brunswick, Canada, which would provide capital in return for jobs.
The Bricklin car was eventually unveiled in mid-1974, with a Rambler 5.9-litre V8. Its acrylic and fibreglass body was supported by a heavy perimeter chassis claimed (without much substantiation) to greatly improve occupant protection. The slant on safety was largely because the car wasn't that quick and, anyway, a fuel crisis had arrived so a selfish sports car would be a hard thing to sell.
The slogan was: "The Bricklin Safety Vehicle: You'll think it's ahead of its time, We think it's about time."
Even the gullwing doors were claimed as a virtue because they opened out of the way of cyclists and pedestrians (nonsense - they didn't even open out of the way of the people trying to get in and out of the car).
Malcolm Bricklin claimed to have $100 million worth of advance orders. But the price-tag was escalating, from the original projection of $3,000 to $6,500 on release day - and nearly $10,000 six months later.
The project was so haphazard that the first batch was shipped out of Canada incomplete. "Finishing kits" were sent out, but these didn't cure leaking doors or myriad other problems. After a few months a Ford engine replaced the Rambler V8, probably because bills were not paid and supply had been stopped.
Australia's Motor magazine had its US correspondent file a road-test. "The workmanship of the interior is quite miserable," he wrote. "When I deposited my elbow on the armrest the whole door panel came off. I was horrified to find out the visibility was lousy. For a sports car and even by American standards the Bricklin has miserable brakes ... active safety also seems inadequate for evasive manoeuvres."
It was hardly a surprise when, in October 1975, the gates to the Bricklin company were locked. Bricklin said he needed another $20 million to $25 million to keep the venture afloat. Not even New Brunswick (which had now spent more than five times the originally agreed amount) was that silly.
Some telling statistics: Bricklin said his company would build 10,000 cars in the first year, rising to 50,000 by 1978. Despite his claim to have a huge bank of advance orders, only 2,900 cars were built and more than a third of them remained unsold when the company shut for good.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald