Every child has owned a wooden car. A toy, a light-brown truck, or a gorgeous Ferrari, with its black wheels and a massive spoiler. The little girls had their version of wooden cars, the Hearts Me collection, with the shape of a heart in the middle and the bright colors, they made the perfect decoration.
Still, no matter how valuable, those are just toys, driven only by the push of a hand and accompanied by the guttural noises of the child. Real drivable wooden cars don’t exist, right? Wrong. Here are 10 wooden cars built for the road, sometimes to be fast, sometimes to look fashionable. An adult-size toy.
10 The Cohen Splinter
Isaac Cohen is one of the most famous wooden car carpenters in the world. The Splinter was his first creation, back in 2002. For over a decade, Cohen worked 13 hours a day to realize the Splinter. He ended up building a 21 foot-long car shaped like an almond or an oversized banana split. The steering wheel is made from 260 pieces of wood, the gear shift from 90 pieces, and even the handle of the car keys is made of wood.
The thing looks like a giant almond that can drive up to 77 miles per hour, and Cohen even drove it on the highway. The name is inspired by all the splinters the carpenter had in his fingers while working on well, Splinter.
9 The Harmon Splinter
This wooden supercar took eight years to build, yet the whole idea started as a student’s project at North Carolina State University. The creator is an industrial designer and woodworker Joe Harmon, who took time off school to finish the car. The wheels are made of three kinds of wood: oak veneer, walnut sunburst, and cherry. He used woven cherry skins and end-grain balsa for the core of the body, while the chassis is made of composite wood.
The car runs a small block 7.0 liter V8 connected to a six-speed manual transmission. Armor was inspired by a World War II plane entirely made of wood, the “Wooden Wonder.”
8 The Ford Pickup Truck
This wooden Ford Pickup truck was built by one Al Schoffelman. To make the pickup, the crane operator from South Dakota adapted a ’79 Ford Econoline van frame and moved the engine forward.
It took him seven years to build the car, made of red oak, and even toothpicks to give it a shinier look. The truck has a three-speed automatic transmission and the firewall is built of plywood. The Ford Pickup wooden truck weighs 4,300 pounds, and it is road legal.
7 The Wooden Beetle
Wooden cars aren’t exclusives to American creators. A continent away, specifically in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, a local named Momir Bojic built a Volkswagen Beetle out of wood. It took him over two years to put together 50,000 pieces of oak and to build the car, which is 100 percent wood: including the steering wheel, the hub caps, and the dashboard.
6 The 1979 Datsun, A.K.A. The Dolphin
Another classic, like the Volkswagen Beetle, is this 1979 Datsun 280ZX. Peter Portugal’s masterpiece was inspired by the 1930's French automobiles designed by Figoni and Falaschi. The Californian creator spent five years working on “The Dolphin,” which is how he nicknamed the Datsun.
He might as well have named it “Redwood,” as an homage to the 250-year old tree that fell on his shop and gave him the raw material. In 2002, Portugal’s car was involved in an accident and it took him ten years to decide to work on it again. When he finally found the motivation, the 1979 Datsun was back on the road in one year. In 2018, the car went on sale for $249,000.
5 The Singh Family Wooden Car
This Indian carpenter family built their wooden car in record time: almost three months. For two months, father and son worked for 12 hours a day, bent over in their workshop. The Singhs searched for every plank of wood, every piece, and even the Maruti 800cc engine. The 45-year experience of the father combined with the studies of the son, who was fascinated by the mechanics of cars. They used teak wood for the body, which gives it a flawless finish. The car goes up to 74 mph and the Singhs have already driven 12,000 miles around the state of Punjab. With little to no maintenance, the carpenters assure.
4 Julia, the Woodroaster
Peter Szabo spend $20,000 and three years to build his Julia, named after his wife. The Julia has a Ford Taunus V6 2.3-liter engine and it drives up to 55 mph through the streets of Szabo’s home town in Romania.
The Julia has a hard ash wood shell and most of its components are handcrafted from wood, such as the steering wheel, dashboard, and the windshield frame. The car has a classic design that Szabo combined with modern innovations such as tablet-controlled headlights and stereo. It took him 4,5000 hours to create the car and he is already dreaming of his next project: a wooden car with an electric engine.
3 The Chinese Model Tree
While in Romania Szabo dreams of his electronic car, in China the wooden, environmentally-friendly car was already a reality in 2014. Carpenter Liu Fulong spent three months on his tiny and glamorous car, which can reach up to 20 mph when it is fully charged. Liu spent $1,500 to build his car, which he named “Model Tree.”When he drives through his hometown of Shenyang, a city in China’s northeastern Liaoning Province, Liu drives slowly on the side, but still, his car is a true attention seeker. Not a sidekick.
2 The Maniwa Supercar
While the “Model Tree” is pleasant to the eye, the Maniwa Supercar packs more of a punch. Commissioned by the Japanese company Sada-Kenbi, this supercar has a top speed of 50 mph and is worth $34,000. The Japanese company is known to push the boundaries of design and its goal is to surprise.
The Maniwa is powered by a 175cc engine and it has a rear bench instead of seats. It doesn’t have a steering wheel, but handlebars and gull-wing doors. This wooden car took five months to complete, it measures 6,5 feet and it weighs 1760 lbs. Light, eco-friendly but ugly: a supercar bound to surprise.
1 The Toyota Setsuna
Once more, a wooden electric car. It doesn't get more environmentally-conscious than this. Toyota launched this roadster at the Design Week in Milan in 2016, with a precise concept in mind. The Japanese car manufacturer wanted to remind people that love grows over time, just like wood improves with age. It wanted to prove that a vehicle doesn’t need to be high-tech to be modern. The Setsuna is not a disposable digital device, but an object of memory and affection. While the Toyota is not street legal yet, it can reach 28 mph.
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July 30, 2020 at 05:00AM
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These Drivable Cars Are Made Out Of Wood | HotCars - HotCars
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