The Safest Car to Ever Fail

          "The insurance companies keep track of these things and no one has ever died in a Bricklin," said James Helmer of the short lived Canadian made automobile. James owns a safety orange 1975 Bricklin SV-1, the only model ever manufactured by the company.
          "Malcolm Bricklin earned a fortune in the hardware business and at age 26 he retired," explained James. "He wanted to build a super car but he wanted it to be safe." In fact, the SV in the car's name stands for Safety Vehicle.

          Make it safe, Bricklin did. The gull wing doors weigh 200 pounds each because of reinforcements including a 190 pound steel beam. There was a steel cage around the cockpit as well as one around the gas tank. The car featured 200 pound steel bumpers on gas activated shocks that not only withstood a certified safety crash at 50 miles per hour (as opposed to the five miles per hour that is required) in both front and back but the car wasn't even dented after the tests.
          James bought his Bricklin 13 years ago "because I always wanted one when I was growing up."
          The car has an amazing 3700 original miles on it, making it the lowest mileage Bricklin on the road. "I don't drive it very often," said James, making the obvious point. "I'll take it to a couple of shows but mostly I keep it in the garage.

          When Malcolm Bricklin decided to make his car he went looking for some financial help and got it in Canada. "The car was built in Ontario," said James. When the car was first announced, Bricklin received 100,000 initial orders. The problem was that he was relying on other manufacturers to provide most of the parts and when they didn't come through Bricklin couldn't fill those orders.
          "People would get tired of waiting around for their car and move on to something else," explained James.
          The one area Bricklin maintained control was with the body panels. "There's no pain on these cars," said James. "It's acrylic bonded to the fiberglass. If you get a scratch on it you just buff it out." In fact the color was the only option available on the SV-1. In fact, there were only five colors available.

          When the car first came out in 1974 it sported an American Motors V-8 360 but AMC couldn't keep up with what Bricklin planned to produced and so he switched to a 351 Windsor Ford V-8 the following year. That's the engine James has in his SV-1.
          Bricklin never was able to get any financial traction with his car and before the 1976 run the company went into receivership. Technically there were some 1976 cars released, those were assembled by a company who bought up the remaining parts and finished the cars that were sitting on the assembly line.
          A number of factors contributed to the rapid decline and failure of Bricklin. There were rumors that the car cost three times more to build than it was sold to dealers for. Add to that the fact that Malcolm Bricklin had a habit of putting friends and family who had no idea what they were doing in positions of control and disaster was just waiting to happen.

          "There's a reason you build cars in Detroit. They know how to build cars. They have people who work on them and know how to build them. Bricklin built his in Ontario with an untrained work force who couldn't do the job," explained James.
          James points out that his SV-1 is serial number 1714 and was completed on May 29, 1975. The company went into bankruptcy in September of that year.
          Today there are an estimated 500 Bricklin SV-1 cars on the road of the under 2900 that were manufactured. Still, with the problems and short life, Bricklin managed to make a very safe car.
          "If you see one on the road, it's not the car you want to run into," said James. "It's the car you want to be in."