Wooden Supercar

[pawnhead]

You've probably already seen Livio De Marchi's wooden Ferrari, but here's one that's being built that will actually outperform most supercars on the road today;

"We are building a high-performance, mid-engined supercar from wood composites as a graduate project at North Carolina State University. Wood will be used wherever possible, including the chassis, body, and large percentages of the suspension components and wheels,,,
We aren’t trying to sell anything; we aren’t trying to save the world, and we aren’t advocating that everyone should drive a wooden car. This project is a scholastic endeavour in which are simply trying to explore materials, learn, teach, share ideas, and stimulate creativity."
"This car is expected to have 600 HP, weigh just under 1150 kg, come with a Cadillac Northstar sourced V-8 4.6 litre engine, have a top speed of 240 MPH.This wooden supercar, known as the Splinter, will be able to go from 0-60 in just over 3 seconds."

Website;
http://www.joeharmondesign.com/index.html

Pics;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6689820...th/2124342089/

[joe greiner]

In the late 1950s or so, one of the Hot Rod or Custom Car magazines had an article (or series of articles) about a car body made up of wood planks laminated side-by-side like bowling alley construction, then carved/sanded to shape. IIRC, it had outboard fenders of regular metal construction like race cars of the day. All built on a surplus car chassis. Hard to believe, but I probably binned the mag 20-30 years later.

Joe

[wheelinround]

except for steering motor running gear etc many early cars had
Wooden chassis
wooden frames
wooden bodies
wooden seats

so nothing new there really as many were horse drawn vehicles with motor's

[joe greiner]

And, FWIW, Henry Ford had very precise specifications for the wooden crates shipping transmissions (for the Model A, I think). The crate components were then used for the floorboards. Clever old Fard, wasn't he?

(Might just be an urban legend, of course.)

Joe

[derekcohen]

Morgans came with a wooden chassis. I think that they still do?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[clear out]

They still do.Ash is used for the framing onto which the body panels are attached.
Marcos in the 50 and 60s made a laminated monocoque body chassis.
Much like the spruce goose and mosquito aircraft.

[durwood]

some of the early cars also had wooden axles. "Brush" was one.

[Elbow]

Pawnhead
check this one out http://www.f1technical.net/news/8293

Allan

[Make it work]

What a great project but I don't think it would pass a crash test, there is not much in the way of crumple zones and impact absorbtion but it has a great shape, I like it.

[wheelinround]

some of the early cars also had wooden axles. "Brush" was one.

Have a photo of the Old Brush that used to be at Greens Motorcade Leppington