I Remember the Bede Car

by Mike Substelny

As a teenager living in Cleveland, Ohio I remember the Bede Car project in about 1980. It took place in the back of the Clinton Road factory where Mr. Bede manufactured "space" blankets, furnace filter whistles, clothes dryer vent valves, and other energy saving consumer products.

At the time, my father rented a corner of the building to run his small plastics molding business (The Plastic Works). I watched the Bede design crew build their ducted-fan automobile.

I watched both construction and testing and it was a very exciting project. I took every opportunity to get as close as possible to the car and the men who were building it.

I recall that the Bede car had a two-part fiberglass body. It was made in two enormous molds, one for the top half and one for the underbody. It's frame was all aluminum-channels with rectangular cross sections. It was a mid-engine car, with the engine located just behind the back seat (though the car was supposed to be a four-seater, I'm not certain that the back seat made the final design).

Despite the pictures in the brochure, the huge ducted fan was not visible when the motor was shut off. The rear louvers would close when the engine was idling. They would open in proportion to the vehicle's speed. This was to keep from throwing gravel, litter, and debris at any car following behind a Bede Car.

The vents in the body were NOT the main intake for the ducted fan. The main fan intake was under the motor, sucking air from the street. This duct was huge, I'd say the opening was at least six square feet. Thus the need for those debris-deflecting louvers.

As shown in the brochure, the front wheels were enclosed in tight fenders. In order to steer the car, panels in the fenders would expand outward. These panels are clearly visible in the first picture on the back side of the brochure.

The prototype car's windows could not roll up or roll down. It had no windshield wipers. The brochures says: ". . . there are 3 Bede Cars in the final stages of testing." While they worked on three cars, I think only one was ever assembled. Even that car never had a finished interior.

The fastest I ever saw the car driven was about ten miles per hour and doubt it was ever tested on an actual highway, but I'm not certain. When it was driven by the ducted fan, the Bede Car was very, very, very loud.

It was photographed for the brochure in the Crawford Auto Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.