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BRICKLIN Sports Car

egkellyegkelly Member Posts: 17
in General
Just checking on EBAY-I found several Bricklins for sale at modest prices ($3,500-$5,000). It seems that most of these cars have had a lot of money put into them (new engines, carbs, paint jobs, etc.) There doesn't seem to be any great interest in them-is the bricklin a "dog" as far as collectability goes? How many of these were made originally, and how are they as daily drivers. They look a lot like the SAAB "Sonnet"-which was a real mutt! Finally, will these cars appreciate to any degree?
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  • blarg1blarg1 Member Posts: 59
    My cousin had a Bricklin. He bought it from a guy in mid restoration/assembly. That guy's wife couldnt stand having car parts in the house, lawn, garage, bedroom. My cousin thought it would be a cool car. Being both young and dumb he bought it, but couldn't make the time or dough to fix it. So it sat at the curb for a year. Lefy a nice rust stain in the pavement. Finally the city wanted to repave the road and the car had to go.

    A week before construction, the project foreman saw it and bought it for $2000. I paid for "delivery" myself, meaning the flatbed wrecker scooped it up and all the other parts and dropped it off. The foreman neved looked at the thing, just bought it.

    As far as I know, the car is in this dude's garage, makes a nice work bench/shelving unit.
    You may have seen it in E-bay?

    The Brick was a curse when it ran, ate car batteries like mini shredded wheat. Blew three engines shortly after installation, ate a tranny on the 405 freeway in LA at rush hour. Ate gas, thanks to the Ford 351 windsor never had power thanks to the 1974 Californis smog equipment. Hp was probably about 120, and the car was heavy.

    You would get more use out of a 1989 buick. About as collectible too.

    So, I ask you friend, are you as young and/or as dumb as my cousin?
    Total price of ownership, $10K, drove 500 miles, sat dormant for a year.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    They would make nice play stations in a park for kids, or you could fill it with geraniums.

    If that car sells on Ebay for $5,000, my jaw will drop to the floor and I will consider mankind unredeemable.
  • ls1v8ls1v8 Member Posts: 34
    Bricklin sports car!!!

    Along Shifty's lline of thought.... We had a guy in our Trailer Park who had one in his yard. It was so offensive the neighbors got together hooked it up to Billy Bobs mud bogger, and towed it into the retention/sewage pond. The only casualty was a one-holer got knocked over...but we set it right.

    All you can see now is those little tiny gullwing doors bobbing up and down when some one flushes.
  • rea98drea98d Member Posts: 982
    I WANT ONE!!!!!

    Oh, yeah, what do they look like?
  • lokkilokki Member Posts: 1,200
    Before you jump and buy one please sign this waiver saying that you know they were built by the guy who imported the famous Subaru 360 AND the Yugo


    Here's our brochure -


    First a Picture to tease you

    http://motorbase.com/picture/pid/-722996549.html


    and the some info about our fine company


    http://vintagecars.about.com/autos/vintagecars/library/weekly/aa080197.htm

  • C13C13 Member Posts: 390
    Well, as we all know the car is what you'd normally call a pig, though such a comparison is really not fair to the pigs.

    But my favorite bit of half-remembered trivia is from when the car was current - maybe even being introduced. One of the Road&Track editors wrote about an affair where he (as close to verbatim as I can recall) said: "...got to spend a lot of time talking to Malcolm Bricklin; a fate that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."
  • blarg1blarg1 Member Posts: 59
    I think we talked egkelly out of buying a bricklin. To all you Bricklin owners out there, I say too bad and sooo sad. Trade up to an Aztek, I think it will run most days and you get head turning style.
  • denniswadedenniswade Member Posts: 362
    Malcolm Bricklin was the guy who also brought us the Yugo and the Fiat Bertone (previously known as the X1-9).

    His taste and business sense were a marvel for all the world to admire....
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    His life and career and that of John Delorean have some truly remarkable parallels...it's almost supernatural.
  • denniswadedenniswade Member Posts: 362
    except John was kind of a tragic figure and Malcolm was just funny!

    (John also had a lot better taste, though no greater business acuity.)
  • rea98drea98d Member Posts: 982
    Yeah, all the head will be turning away so no one will see their breakfast come up for a visit!
  • blarg1blarg1 Member Posts: 59
    bingo.
  • dgraves1dgraves1 Member Posts: 414
    Hey, X1-9s were decent little cars, weren't they?
  • ban1ban1 Member Posts: 5
    Sure, great little car... when they were running they were even nicer!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    The X 1/9 was a decent car IN CONCEPT, but the reality was that is was very cheaply built and very tough to work on. As I recall, the flat rate to replace the water pump was 7.7 hours. Also, it was gutless. Good handling car, though.

    The cars are virtually worthless today, but they have a small following. Figure $3,000 should buy you the best one in the world.

    Still better than a Bricklin, though.
  • modvptnlmodvptnl Member Posts: 1,352
    The 351W Ford was already mentioned. What was the other motor that the Bricks were built with????

    BTW, as bad as they were/are, I very much remember a comparo that C&D did. I was around 12 at the time but the Bricklin was equal to the Corvette of the era. Was there anything worth a darn during that time????
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    I believe, off the top of my head here, that the Bricklin used an AMC V-8...was it a 304 or some such?

    Again, the Bricklin concept was actually rather interesting, and i guess if you just looked at the car on paper, or had a limited test of a prototype, you might be somewhat impressed....and as you imply, compared to what Detroit was turning out, it didn't look so bad.

    But when you actually lived with the car, you could realize immediately that this was not a car that was all that well thought out or executed. Much like the Delorean....not fully developed, and poorly built.

    This is why starting up a successful car company costs more money than most individuals have access to. $50 million is chickenfeed...it gets you one chip in a big poker game.
  • speedshiftspeedshift Member Posts: 1,598
    The other engine was the 360 AMC V8.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Ah, yes, that sounds right.
  • C13C13 Member Posts: 390
    Well, I never drove either one, but my impression was that the Delorean was a fairly workable design that had some silly features, like the stainless steel skin, that should have been eliminated early on in the design process, and would have been, if the guy in charge hadn't had the hubris to overrule the experts. But the Bricklin was never anything but a pig; stylistically and mechanically.
  • rea98drea98d Member Posts: 982
    But the brushed stainless steel exterior helped the flux capacitor time warp the car when it hit 88 MPH! We can't eliminate it!
  • blarg1blarg1 Member Posts: 59
    every time I see this topic, i laugh.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    You know, sometimes a good idea on paper just doesn't translate into real life.
  • jensen99jensen99 Member Posts: 5
    reading this took me back to 1977 or so when I was in high school. I was at lunch when some guy opened the door of his bricklin, well the street i was on never stopped for anyhting but did it ever stop when that gullwing door opened and then closed again. the cars might have stunk but they sure were good for drawing attention.
  • avalanche325avalanche325 Member Posts: 116
    Wasn't one of the big features of the Bricklin supposed to be safety? I thought I remembered the media hype being about a "super dafe sports car"? Does anyone remember this?

    And the Delorean. Would they have sold any at all if it wasn't stainless steel. The way I remember, that was the big outstanding feature that got all of the attention.
  • ndancendance Member Posts: 323
    I think the Delorean's main selling feature was the super dooper, way trick, V6 in the back. (Talk about an exotic engine, whoa baby!)
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Well, it was supposed to have a trick engine, but got a Volvo V6 instead. I think that more than anything killed it...well, that and quality control, which was pretty bad in the beginning.

    It wasn't a bad car, and with more development and a decent engine (originally a twin-turbo was planned) it might have survived. The handling was pretty good (Lotus designed) and the looks were fine for the time period.

    Also making the car out of stainless was a pretty braindead idea.

    The parallels between Bricklin and Delorean are quite astonishing. The two cars, and the two owners, had a great deal in common, and met a similar fate (except Bricklin went on not to coke deals but to bring us....the YUGO!
  • ndancendance Member Posts: 323
    Just kidding. That Volvo (who else used that thing, Peugeot? Renault?) V6 is not what I think of as a high point in engine development.
  • ghuletghulet Member Posts: 2,564
    WHY did people attempt to make and sell (bad) 'sports' cars when legitimate auto manufacturers couldn't even sell them? Uh, duuuhhh.....

    Even sadder, we have as topics on the 'Classic Cars' string, cars like Bricklin, Renault LeCar, Yugo, Vega, Pinto. Why don't we just call this whole community 'worthless pieces of shizzzznitt' or 'cars you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy'?
  • ndancendance Member Posts: 323
    To be fair, the average poster (including myself, alas) knows a lot more about Vega's (or Gremlin's or whatever) than Bugatti's.

    Not gonna see too many posts on "the time I wrecked that 300SL".
  • andys120andys120 Member Posts: 23,387
    was really pretty dismal, at one time he was the importer of the Subaru 360....a little roller skate with a 360cc engine (that's about half a cubic inch I think). The he foisted the Bricklin Safety Sports Car on the world. How could he top that? By becoming the official importer of Yugo Automobiles! Last I heard he was going into the electric bicycle business.
    I don't think I'd buy a toothbrush that he had anything to do with.

    2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93

  • gshumway1gshumway1 Member Posts: 18
    I read the other day that Mr. Bricklin plans to re-import the Yugo to the US next year. Oy Vay, this guy sure has some chutzpah.
  • verozahlverozahl Member Posts: 574
    so.... a Bricklin with a hover-mod flux capacitor would be a "flying pig?!"

    ... nope, I wouldn't buy a toothbrush from Malcolm Bricklin.
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