A Supercar Faster than a Porsche or Lamborghini but Made of Wood

This car is expected to have 600 HP, weigh just under 1150 kg, come with a Cadillac Northstar sourced V-8 4.6 liter engine, have a top speed of 240 MPH, and oh yeah, be made of wood. This wooden supercar, known as the Splinter, will be able to go from 0-60 is just over 3 seconds and is eco-friendly.

Th pictures shown are mock-ups. For actual photos of the car being built, check out this Flickr Slideshow.

UPDATE: Please note that the car is still being built and is expected to have the stats featured above.

It gets about 20 MPG, and comes fitted with some very unique wooden rims. The car has a roll cage to protect the driver, though it can only seat two people.

The car is being designed by a team led by 27 year old graduate student Joe Harmon at NC State. The car is just a project, but has been getting a lot of mainstream attention. The team has been blogging about the development of the wooden supercar at Harmon’s Blogspot Blog.

Looking into the future, Harmon has said that it may not be long before a F1 driver gets behind the wheel of a wooden racecar. Here is a description of the project from the group’s website:

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 whereever 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 endeavour in which are simply trying to explore materials, learn, teach, share ideas, and stimulate creativity. This section details who we are and what we are doing. We hope you enjoy checking out what we are working on.

Below are a few more pictures of the mock-ups and the process:

JoeHarmon Design [Flickr Slideshow]

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The man behind the mask: Top Gear's Stig stares back

One of the greatest wonders of the modern world is how Top Gear has managed to keep the identity of its tame racing driver, the Stig, secret all this time. The biggest clue yet to his identity surfaced yesterday when a revealing picture was taken of the always-helmeted Stig. Thanks to flash photography, the helmet's tinted visor was momentarily rendered useless giving us a clear view of the Stig's eyes. Unfortunately, all we get is his steely gaze, not enough to make a definitive ID. Is it Lewis Hamilton? Is it one of but many Stig stand ins? Is it our own Damon Lavrinc Hill? Who knows, but we can now say for certain that the Stig does not wear glasses, which eliminates at least half of the world's population. Click the source below to see the pic in full and let us know in the comments who you think the man behind the mask is.

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Spot the 'invisible' men and women in artist's amazing photographs

In the natural world, the chameleon blends in perfectly with its background.

In the urban jungle, Desiree Palmen decided to attempt the same visual deception.

And as these pictures show, the effect is amazing.

Miss Palmen, a 44-year-old Dutch artist, uses a method that requires a huge amount of effort and attention to detail.

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Desk deception: What appears to be a pile of papers is in fact a hunched figure

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She makes cotton suits and paints the camouflage on by hand, painstakingly matching it to the chosen background. Either she or a model then poses in the suit in the chosen place.

The scenes are photographed and filmed and then put on display.

"People always react strongly when they see my work," she said.

"They have mixed reactions: confusion, surprise and interest."

She added: "Mostly people like the idea of wearing garments that make them invisible."

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Blending library: Is that a pair of legs standing in front of book-laden shelves?

It takes hours for her to paint the suits. First she takes photographs of the scene then, back in the studio, she meticulously transfers the detail on to the cotton suit with acrylic paints.

The match of colour, texture, light and hue is extraordinarily accurate but the artist remains modest.

"It's never perfect," she said. "But when it works that's enough for me. I like the fact people can see it's a real person in a suit and not a fake digital image."

She regularly displays her works on the streets of Jerusalem, Rotterdam and Berlin.

She has produced exterior and interior shots - in the latter she blends in with a bookcase, a desk and a flight of stairs.

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Flight of fancy: Camouflage by the stairs (left), Alley illusion: A human turned to stone

She got the idea for her unusual art from the increasing use of "Big Brother" surveillance.

She said: "I'd like people to consider what it means to let the government control our daily lives.

"When we are controlled we hand over our individual responsibilities to the state. I wanted to make a suit for the non-criminal citizen whose house is being watched 24 hours by street surveillance cameras. I'm also responding to a wish to disappear."

Miss Palmen, who studied sculpture at The Academy of Art in Maastricht, sells her pictures for around £1,500.

She has enjoyed success at dozens of exhibitions around Europe but has yet to bring her work to Britain.

She finds that children are often fascinated by her work.

"There was one little boy in Jerusalem who kept coming back to the camouflaged figure over and over again," she said.

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