When you think of sports cars what places come to mind? Modena, Italy... home of Ferrari... Stuttgart, Germany... home of Mercedes... Coventry, England... home of Jaguar?
How about Saint John, New Brunswick???
That's right... back in 1974-75 there was the Bricklin SV-1, with it's fiberglass body and gullwing doors the Bricklin was ahead of it's time. There were only 5 colours available... white, green, orange, red and a weird fleshy brown called "suntan" A factory was set up to produce them by American millionaire Malcolm Bricklin. The sad story of the Bricklin was that less than 3,000 of them were built before they went backrupt... ultimately owing the New Brunswick government $21 million in the process. To add insult to injury, Time magazine included the Bricklin in it's "50 Worst Cars of All Time" list. Doomed from the beginning... Bricklin's still have a loyal following of owners and collectors but are getting harder and harder to find.
One of many oddball tidbits about the Bricklin... it was produced without a cigarette lighter or an ashtray. Founder Bricklin disliked smoking and thought that smoking and driving was a dangerous habit. Forward thinking indeed!
You can read the interesting history about the Bricklin here: http://driving.ca/
How about Saint John, New Brunswick???
That's right... back in 1974-75 there was the Bricklin SV-1, with it's fiberglass body and gullwing doors the Bricklin was ahead of it's time. There were only 5 colours available... white, green, orange, red and a weird fleshy brown called "suntan" A factory was set up to produce them by American millionaire Malcolm Bricklin. The sad story of the Bricklin was that less than 3,000 of them were built before they went backrupt... ultimately owing the New Brunswick government $21 million in the process. To add insult to injury, Time magazine included the Bricklin in it's "50 Worst Cars of All Time" list. Doomed from the beginning... Bricklin's still have a loyal following of owners and collectors but are getting harder and harder to find.
One of many oddball tidbits about the Bricklin... it was produced without a cigarette lighter or an ashtray. Founder Bricklin disliked smoking and thought that smoking and driving was a dangerous habit. Forward thinking indeed!
You can read the interesting history about the Bricklin here: http://driving.ca/
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