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!
Hey Frank we’re all in this together
If you see my wife, tell her I’ll be home right after the meeting!
“Quando omni flunkus moritati”
It’s beautiful car……eh?
I also had a red 75, these are not a exotic sports car. Yes great condition, but still asking too much.
I like everything except the color
Saw one at a car show. The owner cautioned not to let the battery run down while in the car or the only way out is through the hatchback.
Not quite true. There is a pin on the door ram you can pull and then open the door. I bought one for around $2200 in 1992 as a “bookend” to my DeLorean. It had the AMC drivetrain, hydraulic doors, delaminated top of doors, and was the worst car I ever owned. It quit in a bank drive-up one day. I sold it after about 2 months – rounded my total investment up to the next nearest dollar so I could maintain my goal of never losing money on collector cars (except for one in 2014).
Apparently the owner I talked to didn’t know about that. He liked his car, most that I’ve talked didn’t. Many said it followed that old adage: There are two happy days in the life of a Briklin owner – the day they buy it and the day they sell it.
I thought that these cars were incredibly ugly when they were new, and time has not softened my opinion of them. From what I have been told as well as read about them, they were not very well built either. The asking price seems like a true example of a “pipe dream”, so I will be completely amazed if it sells for anything approaching the asking price, if it sells at all.
Another run don’t walk.
A friend in Bremerton, WA had one for about 4 months after he bought it. Took him close to a year to sell it and take a $2500 bath in the deal. I rode in it many times. What a POS. Period.
They truly are a underpowered overgrown go-kart. The only reason people thought that they were Kool was because of the gull wings. Which were AFU from the gate.
Merry Christmas ya’all!
With the modifications/changes made, this car is NOT a “survivor”.
Is that a Corvette crossmember ? Sure looks like it ?
If you see my wife, tell her I’ll be home right after the meeting!
“Quando omni flunkus moritati”
Frank,
I don’t know that lingo. Please translate.
Thanks
Billy
An online Latin to English translator says “When every flunkus dies.”
Happy holidays, and Nil Carborundum Illegitimate, which loosely means Don’t Let The B*st*rds Grind You Down.” ;)
Thanks for that.
According to Red Green, President of the Possum Lodge, it means “When All Else Fails, Play Dead”
Had one of these about 6 months ago with 26k miles on it. The undercarriage was in far better shape. No engine pictures, drivers door panel missing and headliner falling down on this car. This car should not have needed carpet and seats replaced. Mileage can’t be good or it had water damage? Be careful on this one.
Ya’know people. I have never seen anyone post their physical address like what this seller has done on world wide internet CL. Take that back. Yard sales I have seen. Anyway, it almost feels like the owner wants someone to help themselves to this car.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone! That would eliminate the problem.
Merry Christmas to all! Be safe. God bless.
And phone number too.
Maybe the owner is old school and doesn’t realize kids today learn that it’s O.K. to steal whatever you can’t afford. He thinks folks will come and look at his car if interested in, and the funds to buy it.
“The Ford 351W was used in 1975 because it was EPA exempt(! huh?) and did not need the catalytic converters which would require more design costs for an already struggling company to heat proof the under body of the car.”
Is that a 12 bolt chevy differential i see?! & it’s stock for this car?
Do those straight exh pipes under the rear axle give the engine a little more hp & torque, & make for a louder exhaust?