The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) sponsor of the Clean Snowmobile 2000 Collegiate Design Competition, has released its results of last week's competition.
Seven colleges and universities selected to compete in the competition, with the winner being the University of Buffalo with its four-stroke sled. The four-stroke, the only one in the competition, was much quieter and fuel efficient than a control sled in testing.
The goal of the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2000 is to have a student design competition to design a snowmobile with significantly lower noise and emissions levels than current models. The National Park Service gave all seven schools identical two-year old Polaris snowmobiles. Competition rules asked teams to design a touring snowmobile for purchase by National Park tour companies at a reasonable cost.
The sleds were evaluated for emissions testing, endurance, fuel economy, acceleration, handling and hill climbing during the week long event. The sleds were evaluated by a panel of expert judges utilizing appropriate electronic measuring devices.
The final ranking is as follows:
1. SUNY Buffalo
2. University of Waterloo, Ontario
3. Colorado State University
4. Michigan Tech
5. Minnesota State- Mankato
6. Colorado School of Mines
7. Ecole Technologie Superieure
Best Fuel Economy: SUNY Buffalo
Best Performance: Michigan Tech
Best Design: SUNY Buffalo
Quietest Snowmobile: SUNY Buffalo
Best Emissions: SUNY Buffalo
Next year, SAE hopes to have twice as many schools participating in the Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2001.
For more information about the Clean Snowmobile Challenge, log on to
www.sae.org or contact Lori Pail at 724/772-8534.