Now wooden machines seem to us something unusual and very strange, but before it was the norm. Next, we want to introduce you to the history of the development of wooden cars ("woody cars"), their heyday and decline.
Curved Dash Oldsmobile 1901 - first mass car in the world.
The body of the "Oldsmobile" was called Runabout ("tramp"), since the car was a stroller without a roof, doors and windows. At the time, this design was quite popular, but the Curved Dash had an important difference from its competitors. The wooden body was installed directly on a pair of long longitudinal springs connecting the front and rear wheels. In America, the car is considered the progenitor of the woody style.
Over the years, aluminum has replaced wood from the body, steel has replaced aluminum, and the wooden frame has become an unsafe archaism. However, before complete failure the tree was still far away. This was especially true for big cars. Ford Model A Station Wagon from 1929 was partly made of wood.
Ford Model A Station Wagon was structurally simpler than the legendary Ford models Model T. This was due to the extensive use of wood. The body was produced by Murray and Baker-Raulang, made of maple and covered with birch panels. This model can be considered the first mass "woody" and the discoverer of the era of automotive skeuomorphism.
In the 1930s, skeuomorphism became a specific design technique in which an object is copied from another object, but made from other materials. This extended to more compact machines. That's what the 1936 Ford 68-790 Woodie was like.
And a 1937 Ford Deluxe Station Wagon.
In the 1940s, this trend continued, and it is not possible to say for sure what influenced it more - fashion or the economy of metal after the end of World War II. It was during this decade that the heyday of woody cars fell. Pictured is Nash Ambassador Suburban (1946)
Chrysler Town and Country (1941) became the progenitor of "all-terrain station wagons".
In the early 1940s, Town and Country, the first Woody station wagon to receive a steel roof, could only be afforded by wealthy families. At the end of the decade, the Town and Country Convertible appeared, becoming a real representative of the premium class of that time.
In the 1950s, Americans realized the impracticality of wooden structures, which were very laborious to repair and maintain. Still, they could not completely abandon the tree, and therefore switched to external wooden panels. The last true woody station wagons were the Buick Super Estate and the Roadmaster Estate Wagon. There is practically no wood left in the structure.
In the UK, machines with wooden parts were also successful. The last such car here was the Morris Minor Traveler station wagon, which appeared in 1953.
This model left the assembly line only in 1971, and it is she who is considered the “last of the Mohicans”. The 1961 Morris Mini Traveler was no longer made of wood, as the overlays were external and purely decorative.
The USSR also had similar machines. In 1948 small series released the van "Moskvich-400-422".
You can see such a car in the film "Adult Children" in 1961. Among the people, the 422nd received the nickname "Pinocchio".
In the 1960s, the fashion for real "woody cars" died out in the USA. An alternative to steel ordinary cars with bodies "under the tree". Body linings were made of several types of wood and generously varnished. For many cars, the tree has become additional option. This was also the case with Chevrolet station wagon Caprice Estate in 1966.
Or a 1968 Ford Country Squire LTD. A nine-seater car allowed four children to freely accommodate on sofas in the luggage compartment.
From the late 1960s to the 1990s, a huge number of woody-style cars were produced. Fake woody style was even played up in the popular Chevy Chase comedy Vacation, in which the family traveled in a fictional Wagon Queen Family Truckster based on a 1979 Ford Country Squire LTD.
The popular successor to the woody car was the Jeep Wagoneer, familiar from many Hollywood films. It was ridden by the wife of Walter White from the TV series Breaking Bad (“Breaking Bad”). In 2013, a 1991 car featured in the series was sold at auction for $11,250.
Now no one undertakes to produce such machines in series. Joe Harmon imagined what a modern Woody could look like based on the Audi A6.
The boxy Ford Flex also made the perfect woody car. Plastic panels, painted "under the tree", can now be ordered in one of the private ateliers, and for ridiculous money - only 899 dollars.
In what is amazing scale models wooden cars from Alexei Safonov are really real, hard to believe. 1:36 scale - with over 1000 wooden parts, differentials
It is hard to believe that the amazing scale models of wooden cars from Alexei Safonov are really real. 1:36 scale - with over 1000 wooden parts, differentials with calculated gear ratio, door hinges 0.5 mm long. models, work-like Perm master Alexei Safonov, no one else in the world makes.
These scale model cars seem very, very fragile. The first thought that arises when looking at Safonov's models is how is it done? How can you machine two dozen half-millimeter door hinges, insert an even thinner pin into them and make this door open? How can clutch gears be machined and connected to the transmission if the diameter of each gear does not exceed a few millimeters? Despite the fact that all this is not steel, but wooden, almost weightless and requires inhuman accuracy in calculations and processing.
It turns out - it is possible. Alexey makes all the tools for microwork on his own - from the simplest stacks and awls to a small lathe. The thinnest drill he uses can hold drills up to 0.3 mm in diameter. The work is carried out in special glasses with hourly lenses or with the help of compact 12-fold microscopes. The rest is a matter of technique and perseverance, since each scale model car is created from three months to a year and a half.
For example, the wheel manufacturing technology for the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 of 1932 looks like this: the hubs are machined separately, the rim is separately, and then the proper number of micro-holes is drilled in both at different angles - for each spoke. All spokes are made by hand and then they are cast on by joining the rim and hub. Slow, very delicate work, requiring great experience and patience.
How a master is born
Alexey was fond of micromodeling back in his school years, almost from the very beginning he made models from wood - of course, much simpler than today. The future master graduated from the Perm Art College, worked in different places, sometimes very exotic. For example, for several years he was engaged in the manufacture of orthopedic butts for sports weapons at the regional DOSAAF club, then he made stage models in the theater with all the turning and moving parts, in color. And since 1990, he finally returned to his early passion, taking up cars - but on a completely different level.
It is interesting that scale models of cars made in the 1990s have already fallen into the press and into the Guinness Book of Records (1994 edition) due to their excellent detail (500-600 parts) and accuracy, many moving elements, uniqueness of work. But who then guessed that Safonov would not stop there - each new model turned out to be much more complicated than the previous one, and his latest work, the Bugatti Tour 41 Royale Limousine Parc-Ward, consists of 2540 (!) Parts. The car model is made on a scale of 1:24, and everything moves in it - without exaggeration. The hood opens and folds, the blinds turn on it, the doors open (and even door locks- to open, you need to turn the handle on the bamboo spring), the handbrake lever moves, the suspension sags under the model's own weight. If you rotate the rear wheels, the drive is activated through cardan shaft(oblique gears), the engine crankshaft moves, the fan rotates. Steering also detailed, sustained even gear ratio: for two turns of the steering wheel - a full turn of the front wheels. The roof is removed, drawers and glove compartments in the cabin are pulled out, wipers move, additional seats recline.
But it's not just about moving elements - fixed ones also amaze with their accuracy. Even the elephant mascot on the hood of the Bugatti is perfectly carved, and the letters that form the name of the brand are made with the highest degree of accuracy and pasted on the hood. In the manufacture of the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 radiator grille, 0.2 mm thick ebony plates were used. In order to install them perfectly parallel to each other, Alexei invented and made special device. And one last thing: each spark plug on an Alfa Romeo (think of the size) consists of three individual parts… No store will sell you this wooden toys worldwide! With all this, Alexey shrugs his shoulders and talks about his work very simply, although not without legitimate pride. He does not use any unique technologies he has no secrets. If you have enough skill and patience, you can try to do the same. But today there is no other modeler in the world who has found in himself the same internal resources. Although not in the last case.
Some equipment for making car models
If at the first glance at Safonov's car models, the only feeling that arises is admiration mixed with surprise, then at the second, technical questions appear. For example: not every tree is sufficiently finely dispersed, many varieties are not able to maintain hardness with such “grinding”. What varieties does the master use? Very different: ebony, rosewood, Rhodesian teak, hornbeam, walnut, boxwood, plum, apple, bamboo, pear, cherry, beech, walnut wood, mahogany. Alexey says that he tries to select monochromatic varieties with a minimally visible structure, and uses more than a dozen in one machine. various materials to emphasize the difference in the coloring of the parts. Collectible models of cars are not painted: shades of wood are enough so that the cars do not seem monotonous.
In addition to wood, other materials are also used - in cases where, for example, greater hardness is needed or, conversely, softness with ultra-precise processing. In particular, for some gears and decorative elements, Safonov uses sperm whale tooth, elk horn, walnut shell, persimmon or date palm pits. Awnings are made of cotton fabric. The only element in the models, for the creation of which no plant or animal material was found, is glass. Glass as such with such a microthickness becomes too brittle, and therefore it is necessary to use lavsan film or plastic - but this is the only indulgence of modernity, and technologically indispensable. The master covers some parts with special varnishes and resins - to give additional strength and flexibility.
The second question we asked Alexey was: where do you get the drawings from? After all, car models are detailed not only externally, but also internally, right down to the design of the differential and engine! It turned out that the sources of drawings are very different. Actually, initially even the choice of a model for manufacturing directly depended on what drawings could be obtained - especially in the pre-Internet era. The master corresponded with collectors, with museums - for example, the drawings of the Rolls-Royce were sent by a collector from India.
Alexey's today's project is the sequential production of all six copies of the legendary Bugatti Type 41 Royale series (two cars - Coupe Napoleon and Limousine Parc-Ward - have already been made). He made the drawings for them himself. At the invitation of the world's largest automobile museum, the Cite de l'Automobile, he twice traveled to the French city of Mulhouse, where he personally measured the two mentioned Bugattis.
The remaining four Royals are in other collections (Volkswagen Museum, Henry Ford Museum in Michigan, Blackhowk Museum in California and the private collection of the Swiss Luca Yuny), they still have to be worked on. Actually, some of Safonov's models are also in automobile museums of the world: for example, "Ford-A" and "Ford-T" - in the Berlin Museum of the Ford Fan Club.
Not only cars
Aleksey Safonov makes not only collectible car models (although, of course, they excel in his work). Cars are first of all pleasure which at the same time brings the income. But sometimes Alexei works on commission. For example, he made an accurate and, of course, fully functioning copy of a multi-purpose machine for drilling operations and pumping oil of the Mukhtarov system at the end of the 19th century - from 728 parts! The oilman Murtuza Mukhtarov designed and patented his machine in 1895 - and this machine was the most advanced at that time, it was purchased by Europe and the USA, and it was used in the Baku fields until the 1930s. Making a working copy of a machine is no easier than making any of the car models, and for good reason, customers (Lukoil) turned to the Perm master.
I really wanted to title this article "Perm lefty". But it would be unfair: Alexei Safonov is both left-handed and right-handed, and a master of all trades. From the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, he was sent a letter in which Safonov was called the creator of a new genre of automotive art. “Art-motors-master,” Safonov smiles, “that’s what they called me.” It must be very pleasant to know that you are the only representative of your kind of art in the world.
You only see such cars in pictures: they are too rare and expensive to ride on our streets. In addition, Morgan, almost the only car in the world, assembled entirely by hand.
I visited a factory in England and saw how the famous "cars made of wood" are assembled, which cost from 15 to 30 million rubles.
1 Getting to a car factory is not tricky, many sell group tours, buy a ticket and go. First, they will show the museum, then they will ride on a train, they will show the conveyor from afar and that's it, have lunch in the dining room. When buying a ticket on the website of the plant, I doubted whether it would be better to gobble up this money? 
2 Those who know my dislike for museums (it's just boring) understand my concerns. But they did not materialize: they showed it to us only at the end, literally pushing it there after the tour and offering to “stay and walk as much as you like”. At first, only this showroom was shown, where cars are presented that have not become serial. Although what is “serial” for manual production! 
3 It all starts with the engine. Old Morgan does not produce them (why) but buys them ready-made from different manufacturers. Now signed a contract with BMW. 
4 Everything starts in this room. The factory premises are very old, over a hundred years old, and practically nothing has changed here. 
5 Morgan cars are not stamped, so that they then gather dust in the warehouses of car dealerships. Each of them is individual and made to order. The client chooses everything, right down to the material and color of the interior of the glove compartment. In such books, the entire specification and special requirements for the car are recorded, and the passage of assembly cycles is also noted in it. 
6 Contrary to the stereotype, we see that cars are not made of wood at all. So are they wooden or not? Yes and no, everything has its time. 
7 Body parts made of aircraft-grade aluminium. 
8 Which is literally finished with a file. 
9 But the frame of the car is really wooden! Made from ash. 
10 But here, too, everything is made in tandem with aluminum, so it won't fall apart so easily. All materials are specially selected so as not to add extra weight to the sports car. 
11 Some production techniques may seem archaic. How, and for this they want 30 million? Yes. And they get paid. 
12 No woodgrain plastic. Everything is real. Can afford. 
13 Morgan Is Probably The Last Really real car. It is made without saving, and not for the sake of making money on spare parts. 
14 They could have built a conveyor line a long time ago, but in the end they roll cars up and down the hills, from building to building, pushing the Morgans, like Armenians in a car service pushing a stalled Zhigul. 
15 Many orders for such machines from America. But in Russia they don’t buy such cars, there are literally a few of them in the country. And it's not about the lack of money. 
16 The design of the forties, the simplest in appearance, is somewhat reminiscent of children's drawing car. But try it again. 
17 
18 
19 The car only looks archaic. Inside, it is ultra-modern and stuffed with electronics that your Be-me-ve. 
20 Some colors may appear too flashy. But so wanted the future owner. 
21 By the way, he will tear off the film from the nameplate himself. Like new household appliances. 
22 In the background, in the guest parking lot, ordinary cars can be seen. What same he boring!! 
23 Another production, quite small, is tricycles. A hundred years ago, it was with them that the Morgan Story began. 
24 Today they have revived these cars, which now seem completely ridiculous. But in vain. 
25 One of the finished Morgan variants. 
26 Are there any flaws in Morgan? Only one: it is too expensive. 
27 Well, how now to look at other cars? 
Where is the story?Morgan motor company- a small English company for the production of limited sports cars luxury class. Founded in 1909. Founder - Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan. The Morgan Motor Company factory is located in Malvern, in central England. All Morgan cars feature classic or classic 30s and 40s sports car styling and are handcrafted. The main material for the assembly of all Morgan models are such varieties of trees as ash, oak, aspen, maple and high-strength steel, as well as aircraft-grade aluminum. In the interior decoration, expensive Windsor cowhide leather and satin-finished aluminum are used; at the request of the customer, inserts from valuable varieties of trees and gold are placed on the car.
A car made from natural materials is not a fantastic idea at all. Modern designers and engineers take a cue from the inventors of the past - they choose a tree. This review is dedicated to the best wooden cars of the last century and our days.
Before the First World War, the concern Hispano-Suiza produced roomy cars luxury class. In 1924, as an "exception", the Spanish designers created racing model Tulipwood Torpedo. Thanks to the all-wood body of the two-seat sports car, it looks no “poorer” than pleasure cruisers.
Clients Morgan Motors sit behind the wheel of the car of the same name only a year after placing the order. Such a long waiting period by modern standards and a price of $44,000 are quite justified. Absolutely all parts of the machine, including the wooden frame, are assembled by the British company's engineers by hand. The annual production of "hand-made transport" does not exceed 600 "units", but the quality is not an example of conveyor. The wooden car of 1938 is still functioning.
In 1939 British engineers from Bentley designed and assembled wooden car Lagonda Rapide Tulipwood Tourer. In 2007, it was auctioned off for $450,000.
In 1941, a wooden car was produced Chrysler Town & Country. Largely due to its stylish design, it has quickly become an undeniable symbol of luxury. The first "circulation" was less than a thousand cars, designed for either six or nine passengers.
Tricycle micromobiles Fulda (Fuldamobil) are inferior to standard "cars" in size, but not in strength. Since 1950, the "skeleton" of German Fuldamobils made from durable wood.
Wood racing car Marcos GT Xylon also known as "Ugly duck" (Ugly Duckling). The "brainchild" of the British designer, not distinguished by external elegance Frank Costin (Frank Costin) was released in 1969. "Career" Marcos GT Xylon not limited to racing 750 Motor Club. "Ugly duck" brought victory Jackie Stewart (Jackie Stewart), Jem Marsh (Jem Marsh) and other famous pilots.
Result joint work Frank Costin And Roger Nathan (Roger Nathan) is much more similar to modern fireballs. Light but powerful model Costin Nathan Protos"proved herself in action" in 1966.
"Grandfather" of the modern car - Costin Nathan Protos
German sculptor-carpenter Friend Wood in 1989 created a tricycle Tryane II lacquered mahogany. "Production" took about two thousand hours.
