Splinter Update: Students making progress on wooden supercar

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:29:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Green, Supercars, Cadillac, Chevrolet

Click above for new high-res renderings of the Splinter Wooden Supercar

The world's greenest supercar project is progressing nicely. The last time we checked in with Joe Harmon and his team of ~~woodsmen~~ craftsmen from North Carolina State University, the all-wooden car's hand-laid bodywork had been mated with the chassis, which was awaiting installation of the twin-supercharged, 32-valve Cadillac-sourced V8 engine and six-speed rear-mounted transaxle from a modern Chevrolet Corvette. Those 600 ponies will be funneled to the rear wheels, which have center hubs made from pressed and laminated wood, naturally. Even the transverse leaf springs are made from orange osage wood.

Work on the project has slowed so Harmon and his colleagues can finish school, but the Splinter continues to garner attention having appeared in a flattering piece published by Automobile Magazine. While we wait for Team Splinter to graduate and finish the car once and for all, take a look at these new high-res renderings of the arts and crafts supercar.

The Splinter is one of those rare projects that's truly inspiring, and Harmon seeks to prove that wood is anything but an outdated material with no place - outside the dashes of expensive luxury cars, of course - in modern automobiles. Point taken.

Gallery: Splinter Wooden Supercar

[Sources: Joe Harmon Design, Automobile Magazine]

Splinter Update: Students making progress on wooden supercar originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Splinter wooden supercar in the fles... wood

John Neff — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:28:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Supercars

Click above for high-res gallery of the Splinter Wooden Supercar

You may remember our post on the Splinter wooden supercar late last year. At the time, the grad students behind the project being led by Joe Harmon only had renderings of what the Gaia-approved exotic would look like. They deserve extra credit, however, for having the actual car ready for the International Woodworking Fair in Atlanta last week. While they've yet to reach the running prototype stage, they did marry the car's body to its all-wooden chassis. Renderings are one thing, but seeing photos of the actual car is inspiring. The body is comprised of basket-woven wood that's coated with resin in a mold, which we suppose makes it a different kind of carbon fiber altogether. Next up is actually fitting the drivetrain, which thankfully is not made of wood, and getting the Splinter moving under its own power. We may have doubted at the beginning that this project would ever be completed, let alone be this cool, but consider us converts.

Gallery: Splinter Wooden Supercar - the build

Gallery: Splinter Wooden Supercar

[Source: Building the Splinter via Jalopnik]

Splinter wooden supercar in the fles... wood originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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