Malcolm Bricklin's talking to the Canadian Auto Museum, and you're invited

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Malcolm Bricklin, one of the auto industry’s most-interesting and also most-controversial people, will be speaking with the Canadian Automotive Museum on Thursday, September 16 — and you’re invited to watch and listen in.

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The discussion is part of the Museum’s Third Thursday Lecture Series , an online event available to viewers through Zoom.

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Malcolm Bricklin's talking to the Canadian Auto Museum, and you're invited Back to video

Bricklin, an American entrepreneur, is probably best-known to Canadians for the plastic-panel, gull-wing-door sports car he built in New Brunswick and named for himself. He selected the province when its government, eager for jobs, agreed to help fund the project. Production started in 1974, but the cars were problematic to build and costs kept rising. When the province’s tab finally hit $23 million in 1975 — about $114.5 million in today’s currency — the government closed the plant. About 2,900 cars had been made.

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But the Bricklin was only one of Bricklin’s many projects. He imported the first Subaru cars into the U.S. in 1968, getting around crash standards by selling the 360, a microcar so small it didn’t have to be tested. He later sold his share of his import company, Subaru of America, which is still the Japanese automaker’s subsidiary in the U.S.

Bricklin also introduced buyers to the Yugo and Lada; in 2005, unsuccessfully tried to import Chery electric cars from China; and tried to start an electric bicycle company. The 82-year-old now heads up Visionary Vehicles in New York, which plans to make a two-passenger, three-wheeled electric car.

“An Evening with Malcolm Bricklin” will feature Bricklin speaking with Alex Gates, curator of the Oshawa, Ont.-based Museum, and Dumaresq de Pencier, the Museum’s Special Project Coordinator. The discussion is expected to focus on the Bricklin sports car, on alternate-energy vehicles, and where the North American auto industry is headed.

There’s no charge to attend the Zoom meeting, but you must register online in advance to receive the link. The Museum requests a suggested donation of $10 to cover costs. Anyone donating more than $25 will receive a charitable tax receipt.