1974 Bricklin SV-1 Is Our Bring a Trailer Auction Pick of the Day

• A Canada-built equivalent to the DeLorean DMC-12, the Bricklin SV-1 has many parallels to that legendary car, both in terms of audacity and eventual financial failure.

• The name SV-1 stands for Safety Vehicle, and this classic has a number of safety innovations that were quite advanced for its day.

• Slightly fewer than 3000 SV-1s were built over a three-year period, but fewer than 150 of them came with the four-speed manual like this example currently up for auction on the Bring a Trailer website.

It is said that Icarus, out of pride, flew so close to the sun that his waxen wings melted and he plummeted to his doom. The same fate seems to happen to gullwinged sports cars about once a decade, whether the wings in question are stainless steel (the DeLorean DMC-12) or bonded acrylic resin (as here). But from the financial ashes, a phoenix emerges, ready to be the center of attention at the next car show its new owner might attend.

And that's the Bricklin SV-1, a rare and mostly forgotten 1970s sport coupe. The company folded almost 50 years ago, but the cars still have a small but eager fan base. This one's currently up for auction at Bring a Trailer, which—like Car and Driver—is part of Hearst Autos. With five days to go, bidding sits at just $3500.

Malcolm Bricklin was a serial automotive entrepreneur with a shoot-from-the-hip attitude and shoot-from-the-hip accuracy to match. He brought Subaru to America in 1968, and now you can't visit a hiking trailhead without tripping over a Crosstrek. But he also founded Yugo, and when's the last time you saw one of those? Or wanted to?

Between launching these two endeavors, Bricklin launched the SV-1, drawing on the financial assistance of the Canadian government. A factory was built in New Brunswick, the area then economically depressed by the collapse of the local fishing industry, designed by ArtCenter College graduate Herb Grasse, who had contributed to the original Dodge Challenger.