Anyone interested in making a wooden car?

[singlecoil]

Here's the thing- I make kitchens and I make the cabinets out of birch plywood. For anyone who doesn't know about this stuff, it could be called the carbon fibre of wooden panel products. It's made of many thin laminations of birch (a hardwood), each lamination is about 1.4mm thick and the glue is high strength and waterproof. It comes in many different thicknesses between 4mm and 25mm (there are others, these are the main ones).

This stuff is very strong, though somewhat bendy until it's formed into a box when it also becomes very stiff. It the box is closed and filled with polyurethane foam is stronger and stiffer still, with a high strength to weight ratio.

It strikes me that it would be ideal for use in making a one off or small run car of the sort associated with kit cars. I particularly fancy a buggy style vehicle, not high performance but lots of fun. I would also like to make a car that was designed from the outset to comfortably accommodate people of the tall persuasion.

I've got a workshop and I can cut plywood accurately in straight lines, and will shortly have an 8' x 4' CNC router when I will then be able to cut it accurately in curves. I can also do a bit of Sketchup (a CAD program). What I don't have is the time to get involved in the mechanical side of such a project, although I do have most of the necessary knowledge, and I do have a passing familiarity with the IVA test.

So I thought I would post here and ask if anyone fancied being involved in a project to build such a car? I would make the wooden parts and assemble them into a body tub style chassis and they would fit the mechanical parts and assemble it. Not sure what would be the best way to attach suspension components/subframes but I know there are solutions to this problem and research/experiment should yield an answer.

I'm near Aylesbury but a lot of such a project could be done at a distance.

[singlecoil]

FlossyThePig said:

Are you thinking along the lines of the original Marcos?

To go further down the wooden car route there is the Tryane II made by Friend Wood

No, something along the lines of a buggy type car is what I'm thinking at the moment.

Chassis and body in one, limited curves and what there are single plane.

Edited by singlecoil on Sunday 2nd August 19:20

[singlecoil]

gtmdriver said:

In my opinion one of the best wooden cars ever.

I second that emotion.

I liked his other cars too, especially the first DBS.

[singlecoil]

spyder dryver said:

Remember the ill-fated AFRICAR?

I missed that the first time round, but it looks like a good idea and I get the impression from a quick read that the failure of the project wasn't necessarily due to the car itself.

[singlecoil]

PaulKemp said:

Not convinced a wood car could be crash friendly with good crush zones.

Any thoughts as to which current kit cars do have good crush zones?

[singlecoil]

qdos said:

Midas Gold Copue was tested at MIRA

Is that actually in production at the moment? Website is unclear.

[singlecoil]

slomax said:

Something like the kubelwagen can't be too difficult to replicate.

Using a VW air cooled engine would make it easier to design, but more modern engine and gearbox combinations pose a problem in that most of the engine is ahead of the axle. Still doable I'm sure, just need a decent sized engine compartment and provision for airflow to the radiator (unless that's at the front).

[singlecoil]

blitzracing said:

the ply was held within the glass fibre, and it was really super rigid and light. Best of all worlds.

Ideal indeed, but still needing moulds unfortunately. One of the attractions of an actual wooden car is not needing moulds or chassis jigs (though might need something for subframes if they couldn't be got from the donor vehicle).