Splinter Car, Gotta Read It To Believe It

Once upon a time there was a man in North Carolina who decided to build a car made almost entirely out of wood and call it Splinter…. No, he didn’t have brothers who built cars out of straw and brick. Man’s name is Joe Harmon, and he has a pretty honest down to earth mission statement that goes something like this, “We are building a high- performance, mid-engined supercar from wood composites as a graduate project at North Carolina State University. Wood will be used wherever possible, including the chassis, body, and large percentages of the suspension components and wheels. The car has a target weight of 2500lbs and a power goal of over 600 horsepower. We aren’t trying to sell anything; we aren’t trying to save the world, and we aren’t advocating that everyone should drive a wooden car. This project is a scholastic endeavor in which are simply trying to explore materials, learn, teach, share ideas, and stimulate creativity.” This is work in progress, and Joe has a very well designed website to go with it, complete with gruesome amount of details on every aspect of the car, forum, some YouTube vids, absolutely stunning computer mockups of the car, and live webcams. If you are a car enthusiast with an environmental bend, this will scratch your itch, and maybe even give you wood…

Crazy videos after the break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njAHMAym24o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cshLdVW4pBk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwMZjJ51PQs