600hp Wooden Supercar Debuts at Essen Motor Show 2015
By: GTS Spirit
Despite the obvious disadvantages, there are a number of modern sports cars which still use wooden components for that retro feel. Most of Morgan’s model range for example. Today at Essen Motor Show 2015 a wooden supercar went on display; the Splinter!
This one-off supercar was designed as a show piece by a team led by Joe Harmon, an industrial designer from North Carolina. The idea first came about as a result of a university project with a fair amount of inspiration from the World War II-era de Havilland Mosquito airplane (another all-wood design).
The bodywork uses a mixture of bent and laminated wood veneers including woven cherry skins and tessellated end-grain balsa core. The chassis is a laminated veneer monocoque fitted with unequal-length upper and lower laminated wood A-arms with height-adjustable air-bag springs and adjustable shocks.
The engine is a monster, mid-engined aluminium 7.0 litre V8 unit packing 600hp. It uses a 6-speed manual gearbox, although the performance will probably never be measured. If you want to take a look, it will be on display at Essen until the end of the show!
By: GTS Spirit
The wooden super car sounds exciting! Pictures of this car are referenced at the beginning of this newsletter, but I don’t how to access them. Could
someone help me?
Thanks, (great newsletter!)
David Yoder
Hello there, you can now see them in the post and on out media page! thank you for your inquiry