Don Quixote of Detroit

Of all the quixotic ventures that a young business man could dream up, the farthest-out would seem to be making automobiles. It has been 28 years since an American started an auto-manufacturing business from scratch -- and that was a disastrous flop for Henry Kaiser. So meet Don Quixote -- in the form of flamboyant Malcolm Bricklin, 35, a Phoenix, Ariz., resident who wears studded denims and bedecks himself with silver-and-turquoise jewelry.

Bricklin insists that he will start assembly next month of the first North American-production car to be engineered with safety as its prime concern.

A college dropout, Bricklin followed his father into the construction business and made his first after-tax million before he was 22. Later he founded Subaru of America Inc. and profitably distributed the tiny Japanese-built autos. He has rounded up $20 million in backing, much of it from Philadelphia Banker John R. Bunting and from businessmen in New Brunswick, Canada, where the new car will be made for export to the U.S.

The project, says Bricklin, began when he asked some frustrated designers from GM, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors to design a car that would handle well yet meet all federal safety and antipollution standards. The car, which looks something like a Maserati, has such safety features as a sensor device to prevent the car doors from closing if a passenger's hand gets in the way. Bricklin considered some 4,000 suggestions for a name, then insouciantly decided to call the car -- what else?-- the Bricklin.

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