The
only Bricklin I ever sat in caught on fire and burned to the axles.
This is notably ironic, since the car's creator — the smooth-talking
Malcolm Bricklin — didn't include an ashtray or lighter in the car, to
discourage smoking. Despite its hand-removing, 100-lb. gullwing doors,
the SV1 was supposed to exemplify the safer car of the future; the name
stands for "Safety Vehicle 1." The bodies were made of brightly colored,
dent-resistant plastic, like PlaySkool furniture. Another safety
feature: incredible, crust-of-the-Earth-cooling slowness. All those
resin panels and compressible bumpers added hundreds of pounds that the
emissions-limited V8's couldn't handle. This thing couldn't outrun the
Rose Bowl Parade. Less than 3,000 of the wedgy
coupes were built, but
Malcolm Bricklin was far from through, as we'll see.
