Posted on 01/16/2009 9:03:02 AM PST by BGHater
Yes, this is a wooden car. Forget the jokes. Anyone making more than mere decorative use of wood in an automobile has heard them all. And doesn't care. Wood is a magnificent structural material, "God's own composite," proclaimed the late Frank Costin, the brilliant technologist behind the glorious shapes of early Lotus cars, the Vanwall Formula 1 car, and-significantly-the plywood chassis of the Marcos in which a young Jim Clark won some of his first races.
Three years ago, Joe Harmon, a twenty-eight-year-old industrial design graduate student at North Carolina State University, thought it would be instructive to make a wood supercar for his master's thesis, including some of the running gear and-unlike the Marcos-all of the bodywork. "I wanted to show that wood isn't an antiquated, low-technology material," Harmon says.
He cogitated, querying instructors, friends, and family. All agreed it was a worthy project. Artist Ben Bruzga and fellow ID students, in particular Luke Jenkins, volunteered to do a lot of the work, and Harmon's physician father agreed to subsidize reasonable costs. That included buying a house in Durham, building a workshop/garage behind it, and investing in some major tools, such as a huge laminating press. Fortunately, woodworking tool manufacturers Porter-Cable and Delta are supporting sponsors and provided much of the equipment. Harmon met Canadian fashion design student Caroline Sulatycki when both were in Lund, Sweden, for an overseas semester and persuaded her to join him in life and in the Splinter adventure. She apparently is a demon with a sanding block, contributing enormously to the complex construction project and rallying the troops while still managing her own education at UNC Greensboro.
To achieve Harmon's goal of a fully fluid body surface, the team had to invent a wood veneer cloth to use in place of more usual glass-fiber or carbon-fiber weaves. That meant designing and developing specific looms, acquiring rolls of veneer five inches wide, slitting it into bands sixty feet long and an eighth- or a quarter-inch wide, weaving it into cloth to place in female molds, and then vacuum bagging it with epoxy resin. Those looms-wood, of course-are works of art, using wooden clothespins machined to feed veneer strips through their jaws. With too much tension, they slipped; if there wasn't enough tension, rubber bands attached to the clothespins compensated. It was wonderfully elegant, wonderfully simple. Once it was imagined.
Imagination is the principal element in the project. Harmon pushed wood use as far as he could: every element of the steering column, apart from the metal rack-and-pinion unit, is made of various species. The transverse leaf springs are formed of osage orange wood. Even the tie rods are hickory. There is extensive use of plywood, as in the suspension control arms, but every square inch was laid and press-laminated in-house, including the impressive spiders for the composite nineteen- and twenty-inch wheels.
Those wheels represent one of the biggest unknowns. Despite a fifteen-degree conical taper meant to spread loads over more wood fibers, Harmon thinks that the massive torque of his modified Cadillac Northstar engine may rip out the centers. To get heat away from the wooden structure, he has swapped the cylinder heads left to right so the exhaust ports are inboard, with the headers coming out the top of the engine below huge vents. The transaxle is a six-speed Corvette unit, which helps push the cockpit well forward, despite the 104.8-inch wheelbase. The hull weighs about 1100 pounds, and Harmon expects the final curb weight to be approximately 2500 pounds.
Some styling compromises had to be made to keep costs down. The windshield came from a Dodge Caravan and isn't exactly what was first sketched. The body was initially executed as a wood and Bondo male model, after which fiberglass female molds were created. The final veneer cloth was carefully laid so the surface patterns lined up aesthetically, just as a good tailor juggles his cloth for a pinstripe suit. In terms of appearance, there are some minor student-level styling lapses, but overall the ironically named Splinter is a magnificent object. A year from now, we should be able to drive one of the most fascinating American projects in many years. Harmon hopes that the Splinter will help him find a good job in design. Depending on what happens to the economy, we think he might find himself manufacturing supercars instead.
For over a year now, Joe Harmon and his crew of graduate students from North Carolina State University have been building the Splinter, a Supercar made mostly from wood. This car is Joes NC State Masters thesis, a project which he explains is a scholastic endeavor in which we are simply trying to explore materials, learn, teach, share ideas, and stimulate creativity.
Wood is being used in every possible part of the car, including the chassis, body, and large percentages of the suspension components and wheels. Dont be fooled, this isnt a wooden car sculpture, this is going to be a high performance street machine. Joe and his team are aiming for a target weight of about 2,500 lbs and over 600 horses under the wood veneer hood.
Now before I get an avalanche of nasty emails, let me just say that this car is not a shining example of sustainability. Its not intended to be. This is an endeavor in innovation and creativity. I think its greenUP-worthy because it is breaking from convention like this that reminds us to rethink design, process, and materials.
Finding creative solutions for and creative use of materials that we have is a key to sustainability. Although not motivated by a passion for the environment, Joes team has done a lot of the 3 Rs. Mainly because they are grad students and not funded by government bailout money, Joe and his team spent much of their time scavenging through junkyards, scrap yards, and back yards to find the materials they needed.
For more information check out JoeHarmonDesign.com and their Flickr photostream.
Sources: Automotive Magazine & JoeHarmonDesign
Not sure where I read this...years ago...
I wonder why he didn'[t make the engine out of wood also? ;^)
a few things...
Is it wrong to get a woody over this?
Love to see how it fares in a crash test.
Where to you put the fire extinguisher?
And does it come with a tooth pick dispenser built into the dash?
Whatever you do, don’t use the ashtray.
What a beautiful car. Just magnificent.
Okay, we’ve got wood, fully fluid body surface, place in female molds, and feed veneer strips through their jaws. Anything else before we move this to chat?
I bet this think makes all kinds of strange creaks and popping sounds when it drives.
Maybe he now knows why steel or composites are a good choice for automobile construction.
Tinker toys gone wild....Always amazes me that kids will put their heart and soul into a project...JUST BECAUSE!!
I would say he passed basket weaving 101 with flying colors.
Might I suggest the name ‘Mosquito’?
Gee ... that looks comfy! /s
Wt to HP ratio must be awsome.
Go wax the car
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