Jack wrote:
Has anyone ever heard of anyone creating a driveway made of wood?

For arguments sake, let's say we want try this as an experiment and
we'll be using oak from trees we'll be cutting ourselves. As an
experiment we want to see how long the wood lasts without treating, so
we'll cut the wood and let it dry to what moisture content? What
"ideal" type of wood would you use?

Would (pun inteneded) it be wise to have large planks or small pieces,
such as pavers? There will be expansion/contraction. Can this be
calculated before the wood would be laid?

Interestingly enough, in addition to the corduroy and plank roads of
the 18th and 19th century, early 20th century automobile racetracks
were sometimes made of wood because ordinary road surfaces weren't
smooth enough to race on. With time these plain wood tracks decayed,
loosing planks which were set on edge as I recall. I once read an
account by an early driver about driving around holes and also heads
appearing in front of him as kids under the track would stick their
heads through the holes to see the race up close.

Sounds like the best choice would be IPE, http://ipe-wood.com/faq.html,
as it is impervious to insects, rot and fungus and about is three times
harder than teak, cedar, PT-SYP or other weather resistant woods.