00:00 I've wanted to design and build my own car for my whole life, and we thought building
00:06 it out of material like wood would present an interesting challenge.
00:11 The world's only wooden supercar.
00:14 Just a ton of work, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into it.
00:27 Obviously a lot of sandpaper as well.
00:31 I'm Joe Harmon, I am the designer and builder of the world's only wooden supercar.
00:40 I've wanted to design and build my own car for my whole life, and we thought building
00:45 it out of material like wood would present an interesting challenge.
00:54 Wood is our only naturally renewable, totally biodegradable building material.
00:59 Has a better strength to weight ratio than steel and aluminum.
01:03 And it's just a beautiful material, it's a lot of fun to work with.
01:09 I think there are roughly 20 different species of wood in the car.
01:12 We try to stick to North American hardwoods.
01:14 From an engineering standpoint, we all consider it to be interchangeable based on their density
01:18 and strength.
01:19 Walnut, cherry, maple, birch, hickory, ash.
01:25 Most of the chassis is birch and maple.
01:30 Wheels are walnut, the rest is a mixed bag.
01:35 So interior wise, all wood steering wheel.
01:38 There's no metal in that steering wheel anywhere whatsoever, it's nothing but wooden glue.
01:44 A shaft that you see coming through the middle is the gear shift.
01:47 The transmission is behind the engine in this car, and the shift linkage goes over the top
01:51 of the engine.
01:53 Wheels were a ton of work, they're the most complicated part.
01:57 Wood's very strong, but it's also soft, so when you come to these hard points of metal,
02:02 you need to be able to spread that load out over a larger area.
02:09 Splinter was built over a nine year period of time.
02:13 When I was in graduate school, I was lucky enough to where my dad would pay for me to
02:16 eat and go to school and live, so I didn't have any other responsibilities other than
02:20 to work on this car.
02:21 It's a ton of work, pain, suffering, and sanding.
02:27 As far as I can remember, the tires are the only completely off the shelf piece of this
02:32 car.
02:33 I knew it would be a ton of work.
02:35 I get asked the how many hours did this take question a lot.
02:38 I tell people 20,000 hours.
02:40 It was very slow, very time intensive process.
02:44 Thinking how to get myself into all this.
02:47 It ends up pulling everybody that's close to you into a project like this.
02:51 I lived through the 10 years of building it.
02:54 That was quite an experience.
02:56 It's still completely relevant today and looks totally different from anything else I've
03:01 ever seen.
03:02 It was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears for sure.
03:06 Mostly tears on my part.
03:11 It has a 7 liter small block V8.
03:14 We think it makes about 650 horsepower.
03:16 Has a 6 speed manual transmission.
03:18 Airbag suspension at all four corners so we can adjust the height.
03:21 It's a very, very low vehicle and we have to get it on and off of trailers a lot, so
03:25 being able to pick it up and down helps.
03:28 It's hot, noisy, uncomfortable.
03:32 Can't see out of the back of it.
03:36 You can barely see out of the front of it.
03:38 You're in a really, really low driving position.
03:41 That's kind of part of what makes it raw and makes it exciting.
03:46 It's not exactly the most practical vehicle in the world.
03:49 It's not very good as a grocery getter.
03:55 The fastest I've been in the vehicle is probably 30 miles an hour.
04:04 I'm sure it has a top speed.
04:05 I have no idea what it is.
04:07 But the weight and the aerodynamics and the power that it makes, maybe the engine could
04:13 push this thing to 200 miles an hour.
04:16 I don't know.
04:17 I feel fairly certain that it will never happen, but it's probably theoretically possible.
04:22 The car was really built as a building and engineering exercise to show people that you
04:26 could do it.
04:28 Heat is a concern.
04:29 What will happen is if this car gets too hot, it will start letting go and the panels will
04:33 get droopy and they'll fall apart.
04:36 The vehicle can catch on fire fairly easily.
04:39 Just so happens with this one, there will be less left over at the end if it does catch
04:43 on fire.
04:47 When I look back on it, I think about all the good times I had.
04:55 The coolest thing about the Splinter for me was getting to go through this process and
04:58 realize that I've got the absolute best friends and family that anybody could ever ask for.
05:03 How many Splinters did I actually get during the build?
05:07 I lost track.
05:09 I got my fair share for a lifetime's worth.
05:11 [music]
Comments