Malcolm Bricklin poses with his gull-winged sports car, the Bricklin SV1, during the Toronto International Auto Show in Toronto, June 24, 1975.Hamilton Spectator
The story of the Bricklin SV-1, the futuristic Canadian-made gull-wing sports car, is one of a flamboyant politician and an auto industry disrupter. Central to the car being built was a change in tariffs for the North American auto sector.
Sound familiar?
The parallels between this 1970s tale and today aren’t lost on historian Dimitry Anastakis, author of Dream Car: Malcolm Bricklin’s Fantastic SV1 and the End of Industrial Modernity.
His latest book examines the Bricklin SV-1, the auto industry and two principal characters: American car entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin and the late Richard Hatfield, New Brunswick’s longest-serving premier, who helped bring the vehicle to market in the mid-1970s. The Bricklin SV-1 – an abbreviation for “safety vehicle one” – was built in New Brunswick to take advantage of a tariff-free North America and an integrated economic auto industry because of the Canada-U.S. Auto Pact signed in 1965.
“One of the key reasons that Malcolm shows up in New Brunswick and is willing to build cars solely for sale in the United States and Canada is because there are no tariffs any more,” says Anastakis, the L.R. Wilson and R.J. Currie chair in Canadian business history at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
While the book was released last year, Anastakis says the story is “weirdly connected, in a roundabout way,” to today given the current Canada-U.S. trade war focused in part on the auto sector and two of the world’s most dominant figures, U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla Inc. chief executive Elon Musk.
Richard Hatfield, left foreground, in Hartland, N.B., in 1975 with the Bricklin automobile.
Anastakis describes Bricklin as a “disrupter” in the car-manufacturing industry (he helped bring Subaru to America in 1968 and tried to bring Chinese EVs to North America in the 2000s), similar to Musk, while he says Hatfield had a flamboyant style that resembles Trump.
“It might be 1974 compared to 2025 but the dynamics are so similar,” Anastakis says. “There’s a lot that people can learn from this book even though it’s a perky, offbeat story, which is part of its charm, but there are other fundamental lessons of how our societies have evolved.”
Dream Car: Malcolm Bricklin’s Fantastic SV1 and the End of Industrial Modernity, by historian Dimitry Anastakis.Supplied
The SV-1 was groundbreaking at the time with its sleek, aerodynamic design, gull-wing doors and V8 engine. However, production stopped within 24 months because of a lack of funding and production problems at its plants in Saint John and Minto, New Brunswick. Less than 3,000 vehicles were made before production ended and the company ultimately went bankrupt in 1975.
“Lots of people have thought about, dreamt about and scribbled their own car design on a piece of paper, but very few people have had the gumption to try and pull it off and build their own car,” Anastakis says, referring to both Bricklin and Musk.
A hand-drawn black and white Bricklin SV1 side profile illustration with Herb Grasse’s signature on the bottom right corner.Supplied
He says Bricklin, 86, who was interviewed for the book, met Musk in the early 2010s when he was starting Tesla.
“He’s entrepreneurial but also has a reputation of being a little bit of a con artist because he had so many instances of where he’s been sued, as have Trump and Musk,” says Anastakis, referring to Bricklin. “He’s also gone bankrupt as has Trump, lots of times.”
Anastakis also uses the Bricklin SV-1 to explore broader issues around the centrality of vehicles in our daily lives.
The SV1 as a police vehicle in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1975.Supplied
“Automobility in the car is so ubiquitous in our society. It shapes almost every aspect of our lives, how we live, how we work, how we play and how we die,” he says.
It’s also why Anastakis believes Trump is targeting auto tariffs, because he understands how valuable and important the industry is in American society. It’s part of Trump’s “America First” trade policy.
In the book, Anastakis offers an extremely detailed – and at times overwhelming and academic – account of the Bricklin SV-1 and the auto industry’s role in society in the past, present and future. It’s an interesting, well-written and colourful story that explores many themes from risk and entrepreneurship to Canada’s rich manufacturing roots. And perhaps importantly, it reflects modern-day society and illustrates how history does, in fact, repeat itself.
Malcolm Bricklin sitting in an SV1 with open gull-wing doors surrounded by photographers and the press during the launch of his safety car on Aug. 6, 1974.Supplied