Jeff Dunham's Under Appreciated 1975 Bricklin SV-1

you know I gotta admit I like this it makes me smile got this car yeah it's just so interesting you know it's just sad that it was a failure of workmanship over design because the idea was good yeah you know okay builds a safety car okay and the safety features were not phony like a lot of Manufacturers I mean they really had to crash proof and you had the roll cage in it and even the safety colors and all that kind of stuff I mean welcome to an episode of Jay Leno's Garage the car we're featuring today very unusual 1975 Brooklyn sv1 we'll explain what all that means in just a second this is a car built in New Brunswick Canada Malcolm Brooklyn was The Man Behind it this I think is one of the most misunderstood cars of all time they got a bad reputation not for being a bad car just for being badly built and assembled these were built in Canada in a brand new Factory the I think it was New Brunswick Canada they were trying to bring more business to Canada and and Malcolm brickland who you might remember he brought Subaru into America he approached the government there with the idea of building a car and getting more work for people in the area it was a part of a country where unemployment was very high much like DeLorean did in Ireland and the government gave him 20 million dollars but you know it's not enough to build a car it's close to it and they they were reasonably successful when I first came to California I had an apartment the guy next to me had bought one of these brand new and he loved it but it leaked water here the doors were heavy they stuck all the time he liked the car there was just too many little problems warranty things you know when you realize a car has maybe ten thousand parts to it and there's a different supplier from almost every part so if you're the guy who's building the car and your suppliers are not doing their job correctly that's what you wind up with but in road test of the period they tested this against the 1975 Corvette and it matched it like at Laguna SEC it was in the second of the Corvette in acceleration and in handling it actually did pretty good This one belongs to my good friend Jeff Denham very funny comedian uh let's find out a little bit more Jeff come on in what Drew you to this car I know you like you like all the Oddball stuff but yeah by the way why do they make a stand this far apart is it still covid no no it's just that I like to keep my distance whenever I'm with you yeah you stand yeah I always but anyway my I had a friend of mine when I was a kid whose father got one of these and uh you know it's one of those things that sticks in your head and as I got older and realized oh you could still find these things you know one came up and I looked for them for a while they're they're tough to find in any decent shape and the cool thing is when this came out in 1975 most cars American cars especially were pretty boring looking yeah there were no Gull Wing cars yet with the exception of the Mercedes because through the early 50s so when you pulled into somewhere and these doors opened oh just a crowd of people and what is that it's a spaceship and you know it was designed to be in fact the sv1 stands for safety vehicle one right and that was it that was his response to what happened with the Subaru right right yeah because they had the Subaru 360 which he is one of the things that he imported is how he got rich the first time and uh uh yeah I guess Consumer Reports called it not acceptable right safety standards and he got he got through some loopholes on the import because it wasn't considered legally a car because it was less than a thousand pounds right 360. so Consumer Reports came out I also read somewhere that Ralph neighbor Nader got in on that because he did you know uh safety right safe at any speed right his history of that and so the consumer reports pretty much put um the 360 out of business for Malcolm he also brought in the Hugo that was I mean Malcolm Brooklyn was an entrepreneur yeah and he's still alive yeah yeah and uh yeah and obviously the Hugo was way after this right but I think this is a response to what happened to the Subaru because the safety vehicle well it was also a time in the early 70s when safety became a primary issue it really was a big deal car crashes were 50 60 000 people dying a year padded dashes all that stuff really was not that effective this is before airbag before any of that they just wanted how can we cut down on road death and still make an exciting car what were they touted on this thing were the bumpers right both ends and I think 20 mile per hour hits pretty good I think I remember reading 10 you could at 10 miles an hour the bumper would go in and there'd be no visible damage right but and even this these were quote safety colors they had this they had the lime green you know stuff that really made the car pop but they were called that that they were called Safety Red yeah and this by the way is what they called red it looks you know orange to me it's like the Germans idea of red yeah yeah it looks like a German red and then safety orange looks like a faded version of this it's like a creamsicle and then there was safety white well the other interesting thing was painting cars is very expensive and setting up painting booths is very expensive so these cars were never painted this color is impregnated in the mold into the acrylic right right it is acrylic impregnated and then the fiberglass backing and then one of the problems that they had you know again on Down the Line uh is that with the heat that the fiberglass would separate from the acrylic right there are so many problems in building a car that you don't you know that's why Simon Saunders the guy who built the aerial atom was a genius because he built a car they couldn't squeak or rattle because the hard part is really not getting the handle or drive the really part is there's a wind noise here right the radio has got statical you know just fixing all these little problems that just drive you crazy you know and that's what's amazing that people younger folks today that have never experienced cars from this era don't realize what they're driving right now I know I mean it's unbelievable my son who's I have twin boys and one of my sons brought this home with me yesterday and we're sitting at a stoplight right a seven years old and he goes why can't I hear anything outside and I said because it's so noisy in here and he goes oh yeah because just sitting there rattling away at a stoplight you know and he's used to sitting in a Tesla or even the Ford Bronco where the motor turns off and it's dead silent it's great that's funny but driving you know I look forward to driving this with you but it is amazing that um it's like when I got a the 70 Corvette and my wife and I got it and it rolled off the trailer and in the middle of the night we drive it down the 405 going you know 70 miles an hour it was terrifying because we just weren't used to this fiberglass body bolted to a frame and an engine and that's it yeah and this was actually a very good looking car for the period I think it's a better car than a DeLorean this has the 351 uh Ford engine that was in The Mach 1 Mustang that was in the Pantera This Is The Windsor yeah yeah the Windsor yeah and it started with a two barrel uh I can't remember what kind but whoever had this before me put a four barrel Holly on it right so it'll it'll get after it one thing I want to go back to the paint though we talked about the impregnated acrylic one of the things that they touted about it was that if you you couldn't scratch it and if you did get a ding or a scratch you basically just buffed it out because the color was in it right which was kind of like the I don't know what it was the same process but the member of the Fiero was the same thing right they couldn't scratch it I remember the dealership I used to do commercials for them when I was in college television commercials the courtesy Pontiac and Datsun they had the Fierro there in the showroom right and they had a bowling ball on a chain right and you you could come in and pull that bowling ball and smash it against the door of the car and it wouldn't do anything to it yeah yeah well we'll give that a try a little later on yeah perfect I I forget the guys who designed it they didn't do a bad job the trouble was these doors are almost 100 pounds they're 95 pounds Bruce Myers was in on one of the first designs okay yeah now Bruce Myers of course from Myers manx right yeah that's right the uh he developed the first dune buggies as we call it yeah yeah and then now these were hydraulic originally they originally hydraulic and it took 9 to 11 seconds for the door to open yeah so while it's raining you're sitting there yeah I mean that that was the stuff that drove my friend crazy yeah it is so there was another guy that came along later that uh was fixing these things and started putting pneumatic doors on so now the doors are pneumatic and a little more reliable but not not that much quicker yeah the sad thing was being built in New Brunswick Canada they brought in workers who had never built an automobile before right they weren't United Auto Workers they would just be people looking for a job and nothing against them it's just the fact that you're building something brand new you know I always remember the time some GM guys came to my garage and I was working on my 55 Buick and I had the suspension all on the floor and he walked by and he went oh we're still using that piece how many piece they made in 75 they still found a used for to amortize the cost yeah and you realize how complicated it is it's like people go in the restaurant business for the first time it's just stuff they don't know that everybody else knows that you just use to save money and when they built this they just started building them and any mistakes along the way they tried to cry now originally these came with the 360 horsepower engine out of the like the AMC AMC Javelin yeah yeah and uh then they had supply issues from AMC what a shock right right right and so then they went to the Ford The Windsor yeah right right which was actually went down in Horsepower went from 175 and the Windsor was 170 horsepower right right and with the two barrel and then you know so there you go and I remember the first year 74 and 75 the only production years they were available the fourth speed yep but then the safety issues uh okay so when they put the Windsor in they just had for safety concerns an automatic transmission right now they're only in production for two years 74 and 75. there were a few built in 76 just a handful of them I mean how many for 74 and 75 there was about 3 000 cars built the big year was uh uh 75 they built like 2100 of them wow and this came in at the tail end I think this is August of 75 about when things were going bad for them yeah and by the way new St John's New Brunswick up in Canada uh maybe I talked to the wrong guy but it's still a bad word when you talk about the about the Brooklyn there yeah they they don't like talking about it wow because uh apparently uh you know they pumped in like somewhere around 5 million bucks for production of the car right but unfortunately that money was used for R D on the car are and to pay salaries and stuff like that back in Arizona and Scottsdale where the headquarters were so that money didn't go this is according to what I read didn't it go to what exactly it was supposed to go for yeah and again like you say you got all those guys that really don't know what they're doing putting together a bunch of parts that haven't been put together many times well let's show people what the experience was like you press this button here and it should open yeah and it'll open yeah okay here we go I'll press the button you got to hold the button down Okay hold the button down the open Button hang on oh there it is okay so this guy in the chin well that's not bad obviously pneumatic is better than hydraulic because 12 seconds is crazy and then this that one's a little lazy you might have to pick it up a little bit it's up a little higher yeah all right there it is there it is now if we want to get a look at the engine right under here uh yeah the hood thing there there we go there we go there we go well there's the motor that's the 351 Windsor engine which uh impressive motor it's in the Pantera it's in the couple of the high performance Fords I can see some of the upgrades looks like a modern aluminum radiator yep a few other small things that just make it better now here's a question for you and I still don't understand this we got discs in the uh front and and Drum in the back right why didn't they just go ahead and do disc everywhere you know what's funny you always hear those kind of questions I'll give you an analogy when they built the Hemi engine Chrysler they could build the 440 engine for five dollars cheaper right so they stopped production the Hemi because when you make a couple hundred thousand cars a year five dollars adds up it adds up and the same thing here discs are more expensive drums they've been around for years the tooling is there and most cars in the early 70s if they had disc brakes at all they're usually just in the front only a few exotic jaguar and Europe Maserati had four wheel discs so the idea of drums are fine and discs were you know right so so that was not unusual that's another thing when somebody gets in a car like this and drives it and you don't you're not used to that yeah if you think your brakes are all soft and some of the drawing it's like nah they're drums I mean they were they weren't bad for the time I guess the first American was what was that the Corvette uh first four wheel disc I think I think but that was not unusual this is pretty much a parts bin car it's using all all off the shelf components even the tail lights were I can't remember what they were off of but when they were showing the Prototype somebody oh off a Pantera the uh the guy the designer ran some investors were coming he ran out took a screwdriver took the taillights off his Pantera put it on this so it looked more finished and they said oh that looks and that's that's what they went with so yeah what other upgrades so you put a pneumatic system on Modern air conditioning that's Vintage Air yeah we put vintage deer I don't know what was in there in the first place that probably would have been some Ford unit you know yeah and again this was even according to a Car and Driver a pretty fair competitive to the Corvette you know we look back now and kind of laugh and think it wasn't but they did their best it's hard to make a car sure especially the first year and you know and it is it is fun to drive you'll see it's uh it's a fun experience but again you know you have the luxury of knowing what a car from this period is supposed to feel like right and what good is right because anybody today who's 20 something years old or 30 something years old that's never driven a muscle car or a sports car from that era would think this thing is a piece of crap now to put the door down do I press the button again or press oh do I do I pull it down no no you you hold it and stand out of the way yep yeah hold on ready clunk good day Mr Bowman and the windows go down obviously yeah oh that's the other thing they're crank oh they're crank oh this is fancy looking sports car somebody laughed at me at a stoplight the other day I'm like I'm doing this he's like get a crank your ass shut up yeah so again it's all got to be cost right and you and you realize this is half a century ago yeah I mean it's a long time ago and compared if you look at any other cars built in 1975 this looks like it's 10 years ahead of everybody else Goldwing doors it's got almost kind of a 240Z kind of yeah the windows they compared it to the 260Z I mean that's uh yeah I mean this was considered a pretty good competitor yeah it weighs about 3 500 pounds yeah the thing that let it down was just build quality and suppliers not the little irritations yeah yeah definitely Death By A Thousand Cuts yeah my friend that had his it drove him crazy trucked in the door and then if if then the Hydraulics didn't work you're inside pushing and this is a heavy door yeah it's but you know what there are a handful of guys that no matter what we're really passionate about this yeah you used to make fun of me because I you know when when Arnold got the Hummer legal in the states for civilians I jumped right on that thing and I had one of the very first ones and I love that car and here's what I loved about the car it was giant it it terrible gas mileage it smelled you could hardly find a parking place um maintenance hog and I loved everything about it there you go you're the perfect customer exactly there you go you know what they call a smart buyer yeah yeah well I think this is the same thing somebody gets passion for this thing and that's why they're still around and people are still trying to make them work you know and it and the basic design the basic concept trying to make a safety vehicle because it really was a huge issue I mean tens of thousands of people are dying on the highway you know kids coming home from a prom and hitting a tree at 15 miles an hour and it just it was really terrible because the manufacturers are really not doing their part right they sold performance but nobody was selling selling safety you know and this was sort of the answer to that because I remember glowing things about all this safety car is going to be unbelievable you know and I think it did okay in the crash test well the other thing it had that they touted besides those bumpers were the was the roll the roll they never called it a roll cage they called it a roll something around rollover bar yeah yeah okay and as clever as the front bumper looks this piece of Oak Timber whatever is back here it's just it's just this giant rectangle yeah yeah in the Oak Timber by the way I don't think you've ever done I have the Brubaker bus oh that's right yeah and you know what the front bumper was oh that was wood just a big giant piece of Timber yeah but by the way we were talking about opening this thing up there's a latch inside there right that unhooks it yeah and I you know this thing talk about the hood weigh in a ton this thing weighs a ton as well it's got struts on it but uh the struts hold it yeah I think so okay and you've got quite a bit of room actually certainly as much as a Corvette uh you know the basic design was good if if only they were able to just fix the quality problems yeah it does really remind me of both the DeLorean and the and the Z's uh it's just got a lot of you know this has a lot of everything in it you really can't put a finger on it you don't know and like you said the design was pretty Advanced you don't know which came first no it was interesting Malcolm Brooklyn was a clever guy and he's still with us I think he's 80 something you know and those guys like Tucker their real salesmen and they have it's that certain personality that they could sell you know a refrigerator to an Eskimo right and they really Steve Jobs was the same way they they say how you would get caught in his Vortex and really start to believe everything that he said and the Press was very enthusiastic enthusiastic about this car when it came out it was really seen as hey maybe that is the future a sports car that's really safer than you know a station wagon or something like that and the first reviews were great yeah they're glowing reviews and all that and then I have a book that shows the progression of of press and it's just kind of sad what happened yeah yeah I know but it's like Showbiz they love you and now they hate you yeah yeah well let's take it for a ride can we do that absolutely really I've never driven one of these my neighbor never let me drive his but I remember he would come out he just came home one day soaking wet because the the roof was leaking on the doors and there's nothing I'm curious if you're gonna fit huh you're a few inches taller than me so I well let's see we'll give it a shot all right let me open this door let's shut that okay this is one of those I don't know what that thing's called but you gotta pick it up and then let it go down yeah and then this giant fiberglass there you go unceremoniously doesn't close all the way now tell me about the headlights well and pretty much the vacuum system and those are my favorite because you know on the cars just like they never they're never you know it's not like you know what you're doing it's got a lazy eye yeah yeah so if you pull it right there we'll see how they open okay this is the lights here well I turned the headlights on do they oh here they come here they come there's one perfect surely when it's running it'll work better well here comes the other one it's not quite no the sun went down again okay it's getting close oh there goes that one okay so they're both up oh there you go okay there it is wait oh there you are okay yeah hold on hold on hold on wait [Music] there he goes That's quality and then when you turn them off yeah turn it off slam down is that what it is no they don't slam down oh they just this is one thing we did add right my buddy Edgar added in a uh a button there that will bleed the system immediately so there's a little micro switch under the dash that you push up there it is yeah that's it says quality of course yeah okay oh well well let's take it for a ride all right see what she does right [Music] so like I always say when I'm with you in one of my cars I've never been over here before oh yeah I mean I liked it you know something the fun thing about this car is if you buy one of these it's a wreck and you get up for 7 500 bucks yeah it's all mechanical you can fix it there's no electronics it's a Ford engine or an American Motors V8 it's carbureted it's easy to understand um I mean obviously some of these panels and other pieces might be hard to come by but I mean it can be done it can be repaired it's yeah and there's a there's a few aftermarket things that that that people have gone to the trouble of making like we talked about this I'm pretty sure this dashboard was not right right it was not what they supplied but it's the fake burl wood it looks great and it's body on chassis but the 351 is pretty fun right you know 351 is a great motor it was it was Ford's sort of mid-range high performance motor it was in the fair Lanes it was in the you know the if you didn't buy the 428 of 429 you got the 351 and that was sporty enough especially in something lighter weight like a fair lane or a Mustang [Music] so brand new the first one's in 1974. this thing was 7 500 bucks yeah I remember when he when he was selling the idea it was going to be four thousand dollars right by the time we reached production it was 7 500 which was probably what three four five years later yeah and then it went to almost 10 grand right yeah almost 10 grand which is what this car cost yeah and uh remember just a few years earlier in 1970 and 71. you had the Pantera and the parent Tower was ten thousand dollars oh that's nuts isn't it yeah wow so know what you know that didn't help them at all so in today's money you know 10 grand would be about 56. 56 000 bucks you know ten Grand you know I I tend to think of everything as being 10 times more expensive oh a 500 car when I was in high school is a five thousand dollar car now if you made this car today it would probably would have sold for 8 500. you know yeah the idea when it came out you go okay you got the Corvette here you got a second hand Pantera which one do I do right but this was considered I'll make a lot of enemies here not quite an equal to the Corvette of 1975. but if you've got a Corvette with the base motor and an automatic transmission this is about the same as this because the build quality is much better because of GM and sure and all of that but well if you want to be the guy that was a little bit different it didn't have what everybody else had and uh you know in the reviews like we talked about before the reviews at this time especially the you know the road and track the side-by-side stuff I mean it was they were hard-pressed to figure out which was the better vehicle right and also you probably got a break on your insurance because this was not a high performance car this is the safety car oh really well I would think so you know in the same way that if you bought a Le Mans instead of a GTO you paid a lot less insurance because that had 326 V8 instead of 389 so it was considered you know more of a family so you think the the insurance companies actually paid attention to all that stuff that they that that Malcolm put into this well they did back in the day I mean if if if if you bought a uh 66 Point Belvedere with a 326 Hemi and you had a teenager no you're not getting insurance I mean that was it right right well you know it's kind of fun to drive in a retro way right that's what I'm saying it's so funny to me if you get somebody now who's 25 30 years old and put them in this I wonder what they would think they'd be terrified well you know this is one of those horsepower cures all problems you know you say to yourself it's kind of rattly you know the panel fit isn't good but goes like hell when you put your foot in yeah but that's what I'm saying but the terrifying part is that part that that people today are so used to and that's the the lack of noise the lack of smells um uh which you just kind of take for granted in this car you smell exhaust oh yeah okay but again I think for somebody who doesn't know going down the freeway in this thing is 75 miles an hour would be a bit scary maybe not to me I don't care I understand what you're saying yeah to me I think it's great and on the other hand it's such a a more visceral experience oh yeah I know I mean you know you've got the the Plaid uh it's just all a lot of those senses are gone now you don't you can't appreciate what you're doing on the road yeah yeah yeah this thing you kind of know where it is all the time yeah I mean I think it's I think it's great I mean you're certainly the only kid on the block with one I mean they're pretty rare and and the other thing is I I've told you this before magnificent failures right where these guys had a dream and all good intentions and really thought it was going to be fantastic and you see how it could have been yeah yeah I prefer the term Noble failure oh all right because it's not really magnificent Noble is you put the effort in to make something right and the fun thing about it is if you get one of these with not a crazy amount of money you can make it better than new right you can update it you can go to four wheel disk you can do what you did like you have now you have Vintage Air you have modern air conditioning it weighs about 15 to 20 pounds less it's not set to drain on the system you know there's all kinds of things you can do this one has got I think the later racing heads on it doesn't it I don't know some kind of Ford high performance because this feels a lot more powerful than a standard 351 so so 0 to 60 in the day in this thing was I didn't look it up was it would eight of seconds have been about right I think it's probably in the sevens yeah you have to remember back in those days anything less than 10 seconds is 60 right was considered oh impressive right you know the car that set the standard in the 60s was the Hemi uh satellite right and that did 0 to 60 and 6.4 and people well it's got to be a misprint it's crazy wow like that seems like you know now the Tesla is under two right like driving this it feels like a big throaty V8 you know if you ever saw the uh what's the Mel Gibson movie um you know where the apocalyptic the Thunderdome no no the first one oh Mad Max Mad Max right Mad Max you feel like it's the last of the V8 interceptors you know they do that whole thing you know it just has that feel to it you know and it gets attention sure I mean here we are driving I look over and yeah there's another guy taking a picture this guy stops halfway down the road to get a look at it I mean yeah but okay so we gotta throw in the U Factor though sure this thing gets a lot of attention but you're driving it nobody knows I'm driving until I pull up to it okay and I don't think that means anything I think I think the car is what gets your attention and and I'd be curious to know for somebody who doesn't have an eye would someone think this is something new today I don't know if you think it's something new I mean it could certainly a be contemporary there's nothing outrageous about it I bet you're somebody who's not a car person would think it is maybe I think so yeah and of course the quote safety colors really do stand out in traffic you know we live in an era now where everybody wants a matte black SUV or a matte white or a matte gray and hear it and went around the freeway you're in the sea of Grays and it's like when you see a car from the 50s on the road now with the Chrome and the turquoise paint oh it really stands out it's fun I know it's funny to go to a parking lot now and look out and go what happened yeah I mean modern cars are a bit like appliances you know it's like a washer dryer you don't really think it's not going to do its job right you know and what is this thing every day is a challenge but I like that because you know how many things in your life can you really control you know nowadays when your car breaks you pull out this your cell phone this is your tool kit that's all you can do yep when you have a car like this a wide hip stall you pull off the side of the road oh hey look at oh the wire from my coil popped out you put it back in the car runs and you feel like you fixed it yeah you you're controlling your own destiny and I enjoy them because like I say in a world where you can't really control anything that's something you can you can control so you wonder what's going to happen here when everything starts going the direction of the iPhone car where they're disposable you can't fix them you can't work on them you just throw it away and get another one so where are those there's always going to be these core people who love working on these things and they will always be here you know something you have some something like three billion cars on the planet it's like they say uh the old day all the brass ever cars and then 1909 to about 1914. well those are some of the most collectible expensive cars yeah because people want to go back and relive The Experience they want to feel with their grandparents or their Uncle felt you know and this is something you can work on you know so practically what's going to happen though with fossil fuel let's say it all goes away the way you kind of expect it to where eventually fossil fuels will be gone or at least won't be as prevalent so I'll give an example okay back in the turn of the century there was 60 tons of manure dropped in the streets in New York every day from horses right and horses in the summertime pulling junk wagons and all that kind of stuff would drop dead in the street from exhaustion they've cut the reins leave the rotting carcass there okay Henry Ford comes along with the Model T instead of manure you get a little puff of blue smoke in your face doesn't seem that bad right and now there are more horses in America now than they've been at any other point in history and they're all treated well and they are used for recreation and for beauty and for show and people love maintaining them it's the same thing with a vehicle like this someday a kid who grows up with an iPhone kind of car thistle seem pretty cool how does that work and they become interested in it you know but then my question is where's the fuel gonna come from you know it's really funny you say that because whenever when I was a kid and they predicted the future they predicted flying cars instead of a meal you just take a blue pill so you wouldn't have to sit down to dinner sure you know all this stuff that never happened right nobody predicted you would carry all the knowledge of the world in your pocket every time you went out the door yep you know yep you watch you will see synthetic fuels come along that will right now you have it Porsche Lamborghini they both develop synthetic fuels the tough part they're probably 12 15 bucks a gallon right but that's cause they're making it by the gallon when they start making it by metric ton maybe it'll get down just as cheap don't forget when gasoline came out at the turn of the last century you went to the chemist or the pharmacist and you bought a quart of gasoline for like five dollars for your automobile because you were an automobileist you know well I just fear that the normally aspirated you know reciprocating engines I mean I let's look at other technology the horse is a great example but let's say the floppy disk every single computer had a floppy disk right right and nowadays if you have information on a floppy disk you can't access it it doesn't you it's next to impossible so you know Steve Jobs came along and made the first computer without a floppy drive and everybody said he was crazy right right so it just evolved so that's what I wonder are we gonna left with people be left with collections like yours and mine were you know they'll be great statues but 80 years from now you're already there now yeah you're already there now where do you find parts for any of these cars you don't right you know what you need to get a 3D printer and you make them I'm talking about fuel mainly just how to keep them running well I I I think it'll always be available right well in our lifetime anyway it will be yeah yeah but it is uh it is fun to to see what's coming I think it's more fun to go back yeah this to me is way more fun to drive this than it is a brand new electric car this is way more fun I agree I agree that's why they'll always be a they want to do it right so what should the RPMs be at 70 miles an hour I don't know what rear end you have in there I don't know it feels like it's a somebody put it in there to race you know we're so used to cars now having four five six feet seven feet Transmissions yeah you know the idea of going down the freeway with 70 and 1800 RPM was unheard of back in right well this thing I think they've got it ready to race because it's it's 60 miles an hour or was it like 2400 that's about right yeah that's about right don't forget a 1975 people drove it between 50 and 60. yeah you know I mean like most convertibles the reason Cadillacs stopped making their convertibles was the fact that speed limits are going up above 70 miles an hour and the wind buffeting was too much for people and they realized oh the T-top came in and they went that route instead you know you know it's funny by the DeLorean is it's got the speedometer and the 12 o'clock position is 55 miles per hour right and it's red well 55 was the speed limit right that's what I'm saying Optimum speed was red line 55 yeah pretty great so I noticed that uh you know it's not warm out but still our water temperatures are 180 yeah one of these good I mean most Corvettes run about 205 210 right all the time yep because heat needs efficiency unless I'm saying I couldn't I couldn't get it hot this morning well don't forget this is still a 50 year old car yeah yeah 1975 was a long time ago yeah yep what were you doing in 75 I was here you had just moved here yeah I was here I was uh doing Merv Griffin and all those things Wade and flowers of Adam dinosaur show Waylon flower and Waylon flowers and Madam how to shop wow you know I gotta admit I like this it makes me smile blow this car yeah it's just so interesting you know it's just sad that it was a failure of workmanship over design because the idea was good yeah you know okay build a safety car okay and the safety features were not phony like a lot of Manufacturers I mean they really had to crash proof and you had the roll cage in it and even the safety colors and all that kind of stuff I mean yeah it was it was interesting it's just it was put together by people who had never built a car before right uh you know just the idea how much you've turned the screw how much you do you know did you ever meet Malcolm Brooklyn I have met Malcolm Brooklyn and his son actually came to the garage I believe was it was it a big personality no you know what I'm trying to think of an of an analogy to show business I I know one and you probably get this all the time po AJ you know I'm a comedian too I oh oh where do you work here we go I haven't worked anywhere yet but you know I'm you know I'm gonna be really funny and they tell you I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do that right okay and they seem sincere and I don't try to discourage people you know and then they get stunned at how hard it is oh and what the rejection is like and uh and it's the same to me with building a car hey I'm gonna build a car you know and you almost want the naive guy you know but you know I think that's kind of the same analogy because you meet them all the time right yeah yeah those people where they were built in the in New Brunswick um Canada I've gone done a show there a few times and again I don't know if I talked to the wrong people but they're still not real happy about what happened there because the government pumped in you know about five million bucks and uh brought in a bunch of workers and they all thought it was going to be you know right town was going to be big on the map because of the brickland right and for all those unfortunate reasons it never happened yeah it's too bad well Jeff I was very pleasantly surprised by this car I I expected to just rip it apart but you know I like you say it's a noble effort I mean the people in New Brunswick it wasn't their fault it's it's just not having an experienced person from the car industry building your cars you know even in the early days back when Henry Ford and all those guys are getting started they found the best car guys they could and they found people understood supply chain economics and all that kind of stuff yeah it's all about surrounding yourself with the people that know more than you right that's right that's right and that was the case here I don't think there was any scamming going on I don't think anybody was trying to fool the people of Canada or or cheat the customer they really felt they had built a safety vehicle and this did pass a lot of the safety tests yeah and consumer reports and those people were impressed by it so like you say a noble effort sadly it didn't work out but if you find one today especially if you find one under twenty thousand dollars sure you know I think and like I said you could have fun with it yourself you could uh do the work yourself or whatever work it needs yeah and you end up with a fun car that gets a lot of attention and people loving it like I said it's a blast to drive yeah well Jeff thanks again for bringing it oh sure stop down again see what she does you guys next week

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,078,040

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, episode, motorcycle, tour, Bricklin, Jeff Dunham, SV-1, Malcolm Bricklin, safety car, gull wing doors, ventriloquist, dummy, comedian, comic, under appreciated survivors

Id: OSP80Xr_O58

Length: 42min 9sec (2529 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 27 2023