1975 Bricklin SV-1 review from North America

The SV-1 had an air conditioning system that could best be described as marginal. The manually operated windows would occasionally leave their tracks and fall into the framework of the gull-wing door. The VDO gauges on the car resembled an F-14 Tomcat, but were as inaccurate as a Russian missile.

In 1974 Malcolm Bricklin introduced his "safety vehicle one" to the world. The Bricklin SV-1 was to be the first sports car that was engineered to keep you alive while you drove suicidal.

The only problem was that this car couldn't reach suicidal speeds.

The skin of the car resembled a Datsun Z car that had finally grown up. Its gull-wing doors emulated the Mercedes-Benz 300 series, but its performance was more like that of a Ford Granada, from whence the chassis and drive train came.

You could easily impress friends with a speedometer that had more error than a weather forecast. However, you had not better tangle with even the most docile Corvette.

One evening I made the unfortunate choice of challenging a 1976 Chevrolet Corvette to a drag race when I had a friend in the Bricklin.

Anyone who knows anything about Corvettes knows that the '76 was one of the slower of the modern 'Vettes. Not only did this fellow leave my Bricklin, he also gave me a "thumbs down" sign while doing so.

The entire charade made me realize that the SV-1 was more akin to a VW powered kit car than the Ford Corvette it pretended to be.