In my last blog post I spoke about the infamous Yugo that made it to U.S. shores in the 80s from beautiful, scenic Yugoslavia. I mentioned Malcolm Bricklin, an eccentric automotive entrepreneur who was responsible for bringing the Yugo to America. Believe it or not, the Yugo was not Bricklin’s only foray into the auto market. That honor goes to the Bricklin SV-1, a gullwing, fiberglass sports car with a very interesting and wacky story.
The SV-1 was the brainchild of Malcolm Bricklin who sought to produce a small, affordable and safe gullwing sports car. Usually, the words affordable and gullwing sports car don’t go along with one another and the SV-1 was no exception. It was for all intents and purposes a commercial failure. To fully explain how Bricklin got the money to dump into the SV-1, it is important to note that Bricklin did indeed have one extremely successful business venture, a little company called Subaru of America. That’s right, the man famous for building and importing wacky cars is the reason Subaru came to the United States.
Enough about Bricklin, let me tell you about the car itself. I must admit it does look very cool. The sleek, aerodynamic appearance gives it an expensive, exotic flair. The body is constructed from acrylic reinforced fiberglass which is quite durable and lightweight (the car weighed around 20 pounds less than a corvette of the same year). This material was meant to give the car a “safety” reputation, an ideal that was core to Bricklin’s sales model. In fact, the SV in SV-1 stands for Safety Vehicle. The models were powered by either AMC or Ford V8s and made decent power accelerating the lightweight SV-1 from 0-60 in 7.2 seconds (very respectable at the time). In theory, the SV-1 was a fairly smart venture: safe, fast, innovative. So why did it fail?
The failure of the SV-1 can be attributed to a variety of factors. Mainly, Bricklin sought outside consulting or contracting for basically every aspect of the car. The designers were brought in from various universities and companies, the dies for the body panels were contracted out and most of the mechanical components were too. This was incredibly expensive and was subject to a variety of supply chain issues. Additionally, the market Bricklin was trying to dominate with his new car was quite niche and nothing about his car was particularly extraordinary especially for the premium he was charging. Shoddy build quality was a problem and most consumers would rather purchase a corvette for almost a grand less.
So now whenever you see a Subaru take a bit of time and think about a wacky, plastic car that could’ve been the next big thing.
I don’t know much about cars, but this was a very interesting read. The SV-1 looks pretty cool, if a little wacky in the front, but I think that can be attributed to 80s design differences. I think it could have been pretty great if not for the expensive cost, which is unfortunate. We could have all been driving around that sick car, but unfortunately what with the build quality it does make sense that consumers would rather purchase something else. My mom drives a Subaru, so this is going to be stuck in my head for probably the next few years. Great job.