Pulse Autocycle or BD-200, or Litestar Pulse

If you are looking to build a truly unique eco-smart and one of a kind vehicle, then look no farther than the Pulse Autocycle - also known as the, BD-200 or Litestar Pulse. This vehicle is a hybrid motorcycle, airplane fuselage design that is driven like a car!

The Autocycle is built using a base motorcycle (1982 Yamaha SECA 400cc RJ Dual overhead cam or the Yamaha Maxim 400cc SJ Single overhead cam) and a very elongated airplane fuselage design using 4130 airplane steel tubing. The design stretches the motorcycle out into a 16 foot long, 6 foot wide airplane-type car that seats two, can do 0-60 in 6 minutes and reaches a top speed of 180 MPH. On top of that, it gets anywhere from 50-80mpg based on the motorcycle engine you use in your vehicle!




Learn more here: Pulse Autocycle Site

Specs: Specifications Can be found here


You can purchase plans to build this cool car if you can not find them online. Just drop me an email, and I can send them to you electronically as a PDF. Email for pricing.

Tri-Magnum: 50-mpg fuel ecomony composite car

One of the coolest Eco-Smart and Fuel Effecient cars I have ever seen is called the Tri-Magnum. It is a three-wheeled composite hybrid motorcycle car vehicle configured as a "pusher" where the engine and drive wheel is behind the passengers. I am a big fan of this vehicle, and I even bought the plans to build it! Yes, that is right, I plan on building this someday. I have only had the plans for a about three years now, but with my daily work schedule, my family life, and a chopper I am working on - this will have to wait! Regardless, if you want to build a really cool car, you could always purchase the updated plans for this car at the RQ Riley Enterprises site, or call me for a copy of the old plans I have.

Another really cool thing design aspect about this car is the way the three wheels were positioned. In terms of three wheel vehicle handling dynamics, having two wheels in front, and a third-wheel in back is extremely efficient and stable. This design actually equals the same rollover resistance of a four wheel car due to the location of the center-of-gravity. I prefer this design over another vehicle plan offered by RQ Riley called the Trimuter. This is another three-wheeled vehicle that places the single wheel in front, which is a lot less stable.

Here is some info about this vehicle from the RQ Riley Website:

The mention of 50-mpg fuel economy normally implies econobox driving - the proverbial tradeoff between performance and fuel economy that most of us accept as a necessary evil. But performance and fuel economy are not necessarily inversely related. Tri-Magnum is an excellent example of how ultralight construction can result in both high fuel economy and sports car performance. This motorcycle-based three-wheeler outperforms most production sports cars, and still delivers fuel economy roughly equivalent to that of the original motorcycle. The key constant is the power-to-weight ratio. With 80 hp and a 1,200-pound curb weight, Tri-Magnum has a power-to-weight ratio of 15 pounds per horsepower, which equates to a 3,500-pound car with a 233-hp engine.

Robert Q. Riley Enterprises

One of the first companies I have ever come across doing pretty cool design work in the field of economic transportation is Robert Q. Riley Enterprises. His company is a product design and development consultant company that specializes in product design plans. What really interests me is the work his company has been doing on composite cars and energy and mileage effecient vehicles. His company designs motorcycle-car hybrids, electric cars, high gas mileage cars, and even electric motorcycles! To give you some history about how long this company has been forward-thinking - you could have found a ton of his designs and ideas in the popular magazine series "Popular Mechanix" from the 70's! I know because I have a ton of magazines from the 70's that have his ideas and inventions in them. His ideas are still relevant today! Take a look at his site at the link below to see what I mean, and while you are there, be sure to check out the following cars:

XR3 Plug-In Hybrid
Tri-Magnum Three Wheel Car
Doran
Trimuter

Visit RQ Riley Here

Cool Eco Smart Cars

So what is the point of this blog? Well I wanted to write about cool Eco Smart Cars - pretty simple and to the point. I love Detroit Muscle, fast cars, tire smoking, hot rods, big engines, and motorcycles - but I also drive 110 miles a day (round -trip) to work, and saving money on transportation has become pretty appealing as well! If you are into building cars, motorcycles, cool new designs, engines, saving money, and helping out the environment, I hope you can find some fun information on this blog. I will try to write about all kinds of cool cars I have researched, driven, and even found plans to build. Stay tuned!