Is This Pulse Autocycle A Car, A Motorcycle, Or A Jet Fighter?

I was casually scrolling through Bring a Trailer when this… thing caught my eye. It was listed as a 1985 Pulse Autocycle. Our writer Logan Carter said that sounds like a setting on a dishwasher, but in reality, it’s this weird car/motorcycle thing in the shape of a jet fighter cockpit, with small wings containing outrigger wheels to keep it from tipping over. It’s almost like a Messerschmitt KR200 for the jet age. It looks strange, quirky, and cool, but what exactly is it?

The Pulse, originally called the Litestar, was aircraft designer James Bede’s 1980s vision of the distant future in the year 2000. Everyone would be driving cars like this by then, right? (The closest this came to coming true was in “Back to the Future 2,” where a pair of Pulses were parked in the background of the “future” Hill Valley of 2015.) The Owosso Motor Car Company built around 326 of these between 1985 and 1990. It seats two in a tandem configuration, just like the F-14 Tomcat that was all the rage at the time thanks to Top Gun. It has controls like a car, but a motorcycle powertrain, either a contemporary Yamaha XS400 twin or a Honda Gold Wing flat-4, likely the 1,200 version of the third generation being sold at the time. Despite having four wheels, it falls into that oddball category of “autocycle” between a car and a motorcycle, like the Polaris Slingshot and other three-wheelers.

This whole thing is already pretty ridiculous, but some have become even wackier over the years as owners have transplanted other engines into them. We’ve seen one that had a 650 cc parallel-twin out of a Suzuki Burgman, complete with its CVT. Bikes and Beards found an even more outrageous example with a Suzuki GSXR 1000 engine swap. The painted purple flames on the white body have got to add some horsepower as well.

I spent two weeks with a Slingshot earlier this year, but I still can’t imagine what the Pulse must be like to… drive? Ride? While both would hit every bump in the road with either the left, right, or center wheels, the Slingshot felt wide, while the Pulse has a narrow body. I would also have to get used to sitting in the center of the lane rather than the left side, as in the Slingshot or any other car made for North America. I imagine the 400 cc version would be a little slow and underpowered, but something with a bigger engine could accelerate like a jet fighter. While the “wings” with their little trailer tires are necessary so it doesn’t tip over, it’s too bad the Pulse can’t lean in the turns like a motorcycle, which would add to the flight sim experience.