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1975 Bricklin
Manage episode 317164239 series 3302016
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Our bilingual audio tour explores less well-known stories from the collection, in the voices of the Museum’s volunteers, historians, vehicle experts and more.
Transcript:
The Canadian-built Bricklin SV-1, or Safety Vehicle-One, is one of Canada’s most distinctive cars, and one of Canada’s greatest automotive failures. While the car had some revolutionary passenger safety features, and an unusual construction, it ended up leaving the government of New Brunswick more than 23 million dollars out of pocket when production ended in 1975. Its history aside, though, what made the SV-1 so unusual?
First is the vehicle’s skin; it’s not painted metal or plastic, but coloured acrylic bonded to fibreglass. This meant you could literally buff out minor scratches in the skin. Problem was the glue holding the acrylic together wouldn’t hold in heat and moisture; more than a third of Bricklin bodies had to be thrown out after they fell apart.
Under the skin is a heavy steel chassis fitted with huge bumpers, an armoured fuel tank, and an anti-crush roll cage for the passengers; all genuinely good safety features. But then came the doors; Malcolm Bricklin loved vertically-opening gull-wing doors; they made it easier to get out of the car without blocking passing traffic, and made the side of the car stronger against collisions. Unfortunately, Bricklin also insisted that the doors be powered by pneumatics, a disastrous decision.
Users found that the tiny compressor that ran the doors broke down constantly; opening one door while closing the other could burn out the system. Each door weighed more than 50 pounds; opening them without the compressor was compared to trying to lift a manhole cover one-handed. To top it all off, they leaked constantly in bad weather.
While the SV-1 left a mixed legacy, it was built with good intentions and some of the safety features that made it unusual and complicated to manufacture in the 1970s are standard on cars today, helping to make driving safer.
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