Man asked for help identifying barn find that turned out to be a long forgotten sports car

A car enthusiast turned to Reddit sleuths to identify an unusual barn find that turned out to be a long-forgotten Canadian sports car. 

Launching in 1974, the Bricklin SV-1 was an odd-looking car, designed by American businessman Malcolm Bricklin – hence its name – and produced in New Brunswick, Canada.

The two-seater Bricklin SV-1 had a very short production run between 1974 to 1975. 

So, you’d be forgiven for not having heard of it. 

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The unusually shaped Bricklin SV-1 sports car came from Canada

We’re big fans of rare barn finds, such as the discovery of this Aston Martin ‘muscle car’ found in a UK garage after years or this one-of-a-kind Ferrari discovered in Australia with its original documents.

But there’s something extra special about a mystery barn find – a car so unusual that even the person who found it is stumped. 

That was the case for Reddit user /browntbdd, who took to the Barn Finds subreddit to ask for help identifying an angular-looking motor that was neatly wrapped in plastic. 

Fellow car enthusiasts were quick to ID the car as a Bricklin SV-1 – meaning it’s a super rare and cool find. 

The car’s creator – who was known in the automotive industry for being the first person to import Subarus into the USA – wanted to build a small, affordable sports car with gullwing doors.

That’s more or less what he created. 

It turns out it’s a pretty rare motor

The car, which has a passing resemblance to the DeLorean, had an unusual composite bodywork made up of colored acrylic resin bonded to fiberglass.

However, this caused numerous headaches for Bricklin – first struggling to find an acrylic resin that could withstand high temperatures, and later having issues getting the acrylic layer to stick to the fiberglass one. 

Powering the 1974 Bricklin SV-1 was a 5.9 liter V8 that could produce 220 horsepower.

The following year, the engine was replaced by a 5.7 liter V8 that produced 175 horsepower. 

After just two years in production, the Bricklin SV-1 was scrapped, with numerous reasons given for its demise, including the rising cost of the car, quality control, and supplier shortages. 

In total, just under 3,000 Bricklin SV-1s were produced during the car’s production run – of these, few have survived, with figures from 2012 suggesting that there were only 1,700 left. 

So, this is a very rare find indeed.