Lightweight bodywork and gull-wing doors don’t really get a second glance among today’s elite fraternity of performance cars.

These days the Tesla Model X sports a gull-wing design, along with a third row of seats for the kids. But when Bricklin started rolling cars off the assembly line in New Brunswick in 1974 with that sort of standard kit, people freaked out.

Commissioned by U.S. automotive mogul Malcolm Bricklin and championed by then-New Brunswick premier Richard Hatfield, the Canadian-made Bricklin SV-1 was undoubtedly ahead of its time with its exotic low-slung body, futuristic hydraulic doors that operated with the push of a button, and reassuring safety standards. But what started as a point of pride for Atlantic Canada quickly became synonymous with something else -- complete and utter failure.

The company produced fewer than 3,000 cars before going bust in 1975, costing New Brunswick taxpayers somewhere in the neighbourhood of $20 million.

Four decades later, University of New Brunswick business professor Lee Jolliffe sees an opportunity to use nostalgia for the mid-1970’s coupe to rev up tourism.

Doug Simpson bought one a few years ago. He said the company’s short life, now reduced to barely a footnote in the pages of automotive history, is still painful to think about.

“It probably doesn’t hurt as much as it did 40 years ago,” he told CTV Atlantic while standing next to his smart-looking bright orange example. According to the door stamp, this one was built in April of 1975.

Jolliffe expects the disappointment over the company’s failure will melt away as interest in the remaining cars grows among a new generation of gearheads.

“We might be far enough away from the embarrassment of the story that we might be able to look at it in a different light,” she said.

Jolliffe believes Bricklin should claim more respect among auto enthusiasts who covet long lost brands, and New Brunswickers at large. In Britain, for example, old badges like Triumph, Austin, and TVR are widely celebrated in spite of becoming casualties of the global auto industry.

“For any of those car enthusiasts that are out here (or) who are coming out on cruise ships who are able to take shore excursion . . . take a ride in a Bricklin, or get a picture taken with a Bricklin,” Jolliffe said.

Simpson is also convinced the car’s legacy ought to be better acknowledged.

“It’s a huge part of our history,” he said.

With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron