With cars becoming safer and more integrated with technology, it’s hard to find automakers like Morgan, who builds ash wood frames for its cars. However, it seems that there is another timber car in existence. Called the Splinter (No. I am not kidding…), the wooden super car was recently unveiled at the 2015 Essen Motor Show. The entire car is made of the renewable material! The one-off, built by Joe Harmon, an industrial designer from North Carolina, was created as a university project.
The Splinter was inspired by the all-wooden Havilland Mosquito, an all-wooden World War II airplane. The bodywork consists of bent and laminated woven cherry skins and tessellated end-gran balsa core. The chassis is a wooden monocoque, while the suspension is made of wooden unequal A-arms with height adjustable shocks and air-bag springs. But it’s the engine that makes the car extra special. It’s a 600 horsepower, 7.0-liter aluminum V8 that sits in the middle of the car, mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. How in the world does this car not go up in flames when that monster motor gets warmed up is yet to be seen. Since I have not gotten my ticket to the Essen Motor Show, I guess I will have to wait until it either comes to a show near me or Jay Leno decides to peek into this marvel. Either way, this is the freshest perspective on the wooden car since the 1983 Cumberford Martinique.
Would you drive the 600-horsepower Splinter wooden super car?
