Want to drive the results of a mad scientist-type car designer’s vision, but not put all your kids’ college funds at risk? Then a Bricklin SV-1 might be your ticket. Check out this listing here on craigslist for a low-miles example with what looks like an “all the money” price of $35K. If you come to terms on this one, you’ll retrieve it from Natrona, PA, which is very close to where it was originally sent as dealer stock. This tip comes to us via sharp-eyed Tony Primo, whose finds are always much appreciated.
This particular 1975 Bricklin is the very definition of “go find another,” as in, if you’ve been thinking of one of these, this is your chance to act on perhaps the best previously undiscovered gem out there. Six thousand miles, all-original exterior, mechanicals apparently unmolested including 351-CID engine. The only changes are new seat covers and carpet, simply because sitting on the showroom floor, which this car apparently did for some time, caused sun damage. Add to that failed door actuators that have been remedied with air-actuated units at the direction of a remote key fob, and you’ve got nothing to do but pull into the local cruise-in on a Thursday night and answer questions about a car that many attendees will never have seen the likes of before.
The Bricklin SV-1 was a gull-winged two-seater long after the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL made the look famous and fairly well before the DeLorean thrust such a configuration into the popular imagination. Of course, Bricklin never had a movie franchise like Back to the Future to propel it to cult status. So why should you care about this car? Because in the long run of entrepreneur car makers that runs from Tucker to Musk, Malcolm Malcolm Bricklin figures as more than a footnote. His real success was in laying the foundation for Subaru cars to succeed in the US market, and, just to prove his out of the box thinking, the Yugo, but how about this: the Bricklin was assembled in Saint John, New Brunswick. Why? Because the province needed industrial manufacturing after transitioning from a mil economy (water-powered, as in Marysville, where my grandfather milled cotton for his whole working life) and the Bricklin story looked like success.
In the end, only about 3,000 cars were produced, but if you’re up for keeping history alive, this one is one of the best. Any Maritimers out there feel like being the one to curate the history of automobile manufacturing in good old NB?
Interesting it has staggered rear shocks & exhaust pipes that go UNDER the rear axle! – is that stock?
Unless that radio has tubes inside, why wouldn’t it work? Maybe the seller means that just the mechanical! digital clock in the radio unit no longer works – that i could see.
I always dug that cheezy AMC shifter in these things. The Safety Car that would eventually bonk you on the head with it’s gullwing doors. But, these things rattled apart faster than a Yugo. So finding one in this condition is amazing.
There are several at Bricklin Autosport in Rochester with one with just 165 miles on it & 2 others with 454 miles & 909 miles on them. 2 of the latter 3 still have the hydraulic door setup. The 454 mile one is the last one made.
I could just imagine what they & the others they have would cost.
The AMC Pacer also ran its exhaust pipe under the rear axle, so it has been done on some cars. Of course the Bricklin predates the Pacer and its running gear is based on the AMC Hornet, as is some of the interior hardware such as window cranks and automatic trans shift.
Hey Brian – The Canadian Automotive Museum YouTube channel has a one-hour presentation on the Bricklin and I will bet my Tims Double-Double coffee and maple donut the CBC archives will have some interesting information.
Keep your stick on the ice!
It’s beautiful car……eh?