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Bricklin produced just one vehicle in the company's short existence and while there were flaws in the car and the company's strategy as a whole, the Bricklin SV-1 is now regarded as a classic. In many ways, it was the forerunner to some successful models that followed from other brands. Produced between 1974 and 1976, those flaws were to swiftly contribute to its downfall.

Bricklin was the brainchild of its founder, Malcolm Bricklin, the American millionaire who founded Subaru in the United States. His vision was to build an exciting sports car that introduced a strong safety element, hence the name of his project, SV-1 – Safety vehicle one. Despite having a near six litre engine, there was a desire for economy as well as safety. This was intended to be a car that was fun to drive, while being safe and affordable to buy and run.

The safety features, therefore, included an integrated roll cage, 5 mph bumpers and side beams. Bricklin even had ashtrays and cigarette lighters removed to discourage smoking in the car and the end result was a safe vehicle, but as a sports car, it was disappointingly inefficient. The Bricklin SV-1 certainly looked the part and it owes its futuristic design to some TV Science Fiction of the 1970s. In 1972, Herb Grasse, the designer of the original Batmobile, designed three prototype, Bricklin style vehicles that he took to banks and potential investors. The cars became a joint venture between Grasse and the Bricklin Corporation and eventually, the first SV-1 rolled off the production line in 1974.

The most distinctive feature of the SV-1 is its gull wing doors that give it that futuristic look and feel. In that sense, it's almost a forerunner to the Delorean DMC-12, which came along a little later and was moderately more successful. In 1974, the very first year that the SV-1 was produced, 774 of the vehicles were made but already, the company was running into trouble. It seemed that while consumers loved the look of the car, drivers were already becoming disillusioned with performance that made it feel like an everyday saloon car to drive.

Moreover, the company quickly discovered that they couldn't produce vehicles fast enough to turn over any sort of profit. The company continued to produce in 1975 but in 1976, only a handful of cars made it off the production line before the Bricklin Corporation went into receivership. There was a brief 'stay of execution' for the car when the remaining spare parts were taken from the factory and produced as 1976 models by Consolidated Motors of Ohio, but when the parts ran out, so did the brief life of the Bricklin SV-1.

In the present day, the car is still that frustrating juxtaposition that is was in the 1970s. It's wonderful to look at but it isn't particularly great to drive. That hasn't stopped a healthy interest in the car, however, with an owners' club set up and with remaining models becoming rarer, prices are increasing all the time. In the end, this leaves the SV-1 with a mixed legacy, but nobody can deny that visually, this is a stunning car.