Malcolm Bricklin Is Insane
You may remember Malcolm Bricklin as the man who unleashed the Yugo on an unsuspecting American public. Or as the car guy who brought automotive enthusiasts the mid-engined rust bucket known as the Fiat X1/9 (re-badged Bertone). Or, infinitely more forgivably, you might know Malcolm as the entrepreneur who gave Subaru its start stateside. Moving up the car nerd food chain and deep into the realm of delusion, Bricklin’s name is reasonably synonymous with his eponymous car company, Canadian manufacturer of the ill-fated SV-1. For those of you who have never heard of a Pet Rock (and couldn’t imagine why anyone would want one), Bricklin’s broken ass deal to import Chinese Cherys into The Land of the Free (Perkins, IL excepted) may be the freshest factoid. Moving on to today, Malcolm Bricklin has revealed his desire to end his career in ridicule. Which, of course, starts here . . .
In a nutshell, Bricklin is proposing his company, Visionary Vehicles, buy up to 300,000 new vehicles a year from GM and Chrysler, upgrade the interiors “from standard to luxury,” and install “hydrogen hybrid” engine technology he says could double fuel mileage.
In a nutshell, indeed. The hydrogen automobile thing is dead. Kaput. Over. Finished. Once someone figured out that you’d need 56 gazillion dollars to build a sufficient “hydrogen economy” infrastructure to support the technology, and the price of “normal” gas tanked, all interest in water-powered transportation evaporated. Jeremy Clarkson may be the only person on planet Earth that still thinks it’s a good idea. Other than Malcolm.
Bricklin stresses his proposal is preliminary, and he admits there are multiple details to work out, including the funding for the project. Bricklin said he expects to have a working prototype within 90 days, and once he has proven the concept, he’ll start looking for support.
“I really believe this is why I was put on this Earth,” he said. “All those mistakes, and all those lessons, and all those experiences have led me to know exactly how to take advantage of this technology.”
Or not.
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Robert Farago: The truth is that on-board hydrogen production/utilization for transportation is way further ahead than many (thinking) people know today... It's amazing how in two days a poorly informed writer / written article / can attract so many poorly informed readers. For certain Big Oil will keep smiling down on all of you in the years ahead.
It's interesting to read your derisive comments about Malcolm Bricklin. Insane, crazy, really people How about not too chicken s*** to take a risk. He and his good friend Hap Hirsch Loved the little fiat automobiles And decided to import them. It was a great success. They were never meant to replace the big 3 commuter car business. They were just a less expensive fun to drive european sports car. As Far as the comment about them being rust buckets I see more rust on new american cars in minnesota than on almost all foreign cars. You'd think that the big 3 being based in the rust belt Would have solved this problem. Main public image problem fiat had was timing the engines. At the time american auto mechanics could not make any sense of an engine with less than 6 cylinders. For years car and driver ranked that fiat engine as one of the 10 best engines of the world. Importing fiats was a brilliant idea and it was very successful. As far as importing are Yugo being a failed experiment, your quite mistaken. It was a great success. Hap and Malcolm were able to deliver a brand new car for under 3500 dollars!? They intended it to be a first car for college students, an inexpensive new car for a single mother, and an inexpensive new car purchase for low income families to help build their credit. It did exactly that. As far as the bricklin sv 1, That too was a great success. If I remember correctly malcolm bricklin won a federal grant to develop a limited production safe car. Being the cowboy hotrodder that he was he jumped at the chance. If memory serves me correctly we can thank the bricklin sv 1 for many of the safety features that are required on all cars today. I believe that includes side intrusion bars in doors, the 35 mile an hour bumper and retractable seat belts. I believe those innovations were given to the big 3 for free. Now concerning hydrogen powered cars , they already exist and work perfectly well. In 1984 I pulled over an 80 year old man in central kansas driving a volkswagen rabbit powered by water. He designed built and patented the device under the hood that cracks water into hydrogen and oxygen and fed it through the intake. Everyone in histhe small town knows the old man and knows where he got the millions of dollars from. He sold his patents to mobile or chevron I can never remember which. The hydrogen power projects that were taking place around 2001much that included and installation in west sacramento california were actually funded by oil companies from texas. The old man in kansas is not an urban myth. I met him I talked to him and I looked under the hood. The only reason we don't have water powered cars today is because of oil companies buy them up everytime they're designed. Sit back and watch malcolm. if he says he's gonna sell hydrogen powered car he's gonna sell of hydrogen powered car. If there's a problem, it'll be a railroading like the ones they gave John Delorean or Jerry Wiegert.