When Malcom Bricklin was putting together the idea for the SV-1 (Safety Vehicle-1), he might have had safety in mind but in a strange way, he was building a kind of muscle car: he wanted the powertrain to be stout enough to move the car out of danger, he insisted on bright, eye-catching colors so that the cars could be spotted from space, and an integrated roll cage was built into the design. They may have been built by an dreaming safety nazi, but if you heard the specifications, you’d swear that Bricklin was building a credible threat to the Chevrolet Corvette.
Sadly, the Bricklin was a flop, but finding complete ones that are in decent conditions is always a treat, and in the case of this Safety Green SV-1, a one-owner car that was traded in to a Chevrolet dealership, we are actually impressed. Most of the car comes across as Grabber Green, which is pretty neat. With just over 25,000 documented miles on the clock, this 351 Windsor-powered example was bought brand new, driven for a few years and then put into storage for a while. Other than brand-new BF Goodrich tires replacing the original ones, this is about as nice as an unrestored Bricklin can get.
Sad story that after this, Malcom Bricklin brought Yugo to America. What happened?
eBay Link: 1975 Bricklin SV-1
ya know, other than that horrific protruding bumper, it’s a damn good looking body design. If I bought it, I’d just toss the bumper and reshape it to match the rest of the nose nice and clean… give it a nose job basically. And I love the color… c’mon, it screams 1970’s! And as far as the motor, easy hot roddin’ right there… the sky is the limit. But the interior? Ugh, would have to bring it somewhere to replace all that horrible sagging flesh with black and put a nice set of seats in it. I’d buy it in a heartbeat if I could.