Jim Bede - Bede Design

After Bede Aviation collapsed, Bede took on a number of engineering projects under Bede Design.

One of the first was a project with his cousin to produce a car. Simply called the Bede Car, the design used an 80 hp motorcycle engine driving a ducted fan for propulsion. Built primarily from fiberglass on aluminum, the car was to have weighed just under 1,000 lb (500 kg), less than half that of a normal four seater built of steel. The advantage to the design was a claimed 120 miles/gallon (2.0 L/100 km) fuel economy.

Bede Industries, his cousin's company, intended to introduce the car starting in 1982, but the prototype unit proved the concept infeasible. The engine had very low power at low speeds, so low that it could not even roll up an inclined driveway for parking without "gunning" it. There was some talk of adding electric motors for low speed operation and reversing, but it is not clear if these were fitted. The economy ratings also seemed hopelessly optimistic, based on fuel flow rates of the engine without the actual car. The fate of the prototype is unknown.

Another automobile project followed, this time a smaller motorcycle-like vehicle. The prototype was based on a production motorcycle, but "stretched" and surrounded with a fiberglass shell that looked somewhat like the BD-5. During its long gestation period it was known as the Autocycle or BD-200, and later as the LiteStar and Pulse. About 360 of these were produced and sold.