When faced with a shortage of aluminium and a significant weight problem with his Hercules 'Spruce Goose' military heavy transport aircraft, the ingenious aviator Howard Hughes resorted to a simple but completely unorthodox solution; he decided to use wood instead of aluminium.

That's right, the movie maker, aviator and oil millionaire was known for many things including the ability to think out of the box and baffle even the best of his engineers with his genius and solutions. And yes, the Hercules did really fly.

So what about a wooden sports car then? Joe Harmon design, a graduate design project at North Carolina State University, with an ambitious group of young designers, engineers, and their dog Brownie have set out to do just this: Build a sports car with as many of its components, from the chassis, to the body to the suspension components built out of wood. A quick look at this car immediately shows that they mean business. This is no soapbox racer, nor is it meant to provide some sort of solution to an environmental question or problem of a lack of resources, but was an idea that is pretty much being done as a scholastic project just to bring out the creativity, innovation, emotion and problem solving abilities of all of those involved.

More impressively, Joe Harmon and his team are financing the car's development themselves although they are getting technical advise from professional firms such as Daubert Chemical and Becker Acroma.

The Splinter, as it has come to be known, will reportedly have an expected top speed near 400kph and has been designed to minimize the risk of a fire in the fuel tank or lines spreading to the rest of the car, keeping in mind that the structure is made mostly of wood! While Joe Harmon does not believe that wooden cars will be cruising the streets any time soon, he does however think that he has opened up the possibility of wood being used in cars for some components apart from decorative applications in the future, and that it will allow car manufacturers to start thinking more freely with regards to what type of materials they can or cannot use in building cars.

Before you dismiss the idea of a wooden car as being too outlandish, keep these interesting facts in mind: Wood has a higher strength to weight ratio than aluminium or steel and possesses a versatility that makes it possible to use for many different types of construction techniques.