Codename Splinter: It's A Wooden Car Some Graduate Students Are Working On

Clearly I haven't been alone all these years in wondering why we don't make cars out of wood as some graduate students are actually going to give it a go. I can imagine some logistical problems such as the density of wood, the ease with which it breaks, and its lack of ability to stand up to the elements on its own, but I think they can figure something out.

I mean, there are houses built out of wood that last for hundreds of years, why couldn't it work with a car too? As you can see from the picture, they are planning on making the whole of the exterior wooden, but there will likely be wood inside as well, and under the hood the chassis and suspension get wood complements as well.

There is also talk of a 600hp V8 (something about that big of an engine being surrounded by kindling scares me). They even managed to design wheels that can hold the 2500 pound body, and the wheels are made with wood too. Understandably, they did have to move some things around as far as the exhaust is concerned in order to keep things from catching on fire, but I like the look of it.

Splinter: Wooden supercar (not Ninja-guiding rat thing) [via shinyshiny]