Splinter Supercar???

[Doug Hobkirk]

This (http://www.joeharmondesign.com/) is a graduate project at North Carolina State University. The "SPLINTER" is a supercar with as much made out of wood as feasible - body structure, wheel wells, wood hub and spokes with forged rim wheels, wood leaf springs and A-arms, etc. The Flash web site is quite well done - as long as you have your reading glasses on! They are actually building the car!

Enjoy.

[Victor Robinson]

Pretty neat! But the blog updates stopped in 2008. Wonder how far they got and how it all worked out?

[Eric DeSilva]

There's something I find inherently troubling about a wood firewall.

[Van Huskey]

Extremely cool, but not long on practicality.

[Doug Hobkirk]

It looks like they got a rolling chassis to the IWF show in Atlanta in August 2008. Then in September, 2008, the main guy, Joel Harmon, graduated. As Victor noted, the blog which had entries for most days ceased. I imagine the car is sitting somewhere waiting for the final details like hooking everything up and making it work, which would probably be more work than making the chassis. But dreamers make the world a better place.

The skin is woven 1/8" cherry veneer strips...

The linked big pictures were too large for SMC, but here are a couple of small pictures from his blog (http://joeharmon.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-09-02T23%3A21%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=20).

[Justin Freund]

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h181/iminaquagmire/Forums/splinter-supercar_4.jpg

[Christopher Stahl]

I saw the splinter at AWFS last year. They intended to give it an engine and make it street legal, but I don't think that is going to happen.

[Joe Shinall]

Yeah, how do you insure the Splinter? I mean if you wreck, is there an insurance for being covered in splinters? :rolleyes:

[Terry Hatfield]

They prolly hated sanding so much, it got down to the finishing stage and then got tossed in the corner with the rest of the naked wood peices.