Wood floor pros are known for having wood everything—wood pens, wood ties, wood watches—but how about a wood car? And not just any car, but a wood Mercedes? French carpenter Rémi Le Forestier says he likes to do “atypical, unusual and unique things,” and was searching for something no one had done before. After his daughter visited the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, she suggested he reproduce a 300 SL model—but from wood. Other cars had been done in wood, but never this one. Le Forestier found a 1989 Mercedes E300, removed the body and built a metal skeleton onto which he could affix the wood. In a painstaking process requiring 8,000 hours and five people, the Mercedes was re-created using teak planks measuring 2.5 by 8 by 30 centimeters (63/64 by 3 5/32 by 1113/16 inches). The completed car weighs 2.5 tons. As of press time for this issue, the car was being put up for auction, as Le Forestier says he needs to sell it to fund more creative projects. “I like to do always new things to prove to my customers that nothing is impossible for us,” he says.
[Update: The car sold at auction in late November for 40,000 euro (approximately $46,440) to an Austrian manufacturer of stair parts for display in their showroom.]
French carpenter Rémi Le Forestier says he likes to do “atypical, unusual and unique things."
SUPPLIERS: Finish: V33 | Saws: Bosch
