Colorado State University Students to Design Cleaner, Quieter Snowmobile

Note to Editors: Students participating in the Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2000 will be available for interviews July 26, 10:45-11:30 a.m. at the Colorado State University Engines Lab, 430 North College Ave. Photo opportunities include a uniformed park service representative delivering snowmobiles to Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2000 teams.

Colorado State University has been selected as one of five universities to participate in the Clean Snowmobile Challenge 2000, a new international competition designed to create cleaner quieter snowmobiles and to address the controversy between snowmobilers and other winter backcountry users.

The project kicks off on Monday, July 26, when a representative from Yellowstone National Park will arrive at the Colorado State University Engines Laboratory towing the snowmobile that the Colorado State team will modify for the competition. The team will receive the snowmobile at 11 a.m. at the Engines Laboratory, located at 430 North College Ave. in Fort Collins. The team will redesign the snowmobile engine and exhaust system to reduce noise and air emissions while maintaining the power characteristics of the original snowmobile.

A School of Mines team also was selected to participate in the competition, and a representative will receive the School of Mines’ snowmobile at the same event in Fort Collins. Other competitors will include Collegiate Chapters of the Society of Automotive Engineers from Michigan Technological University; the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada; and Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Quebec, Canada.

The engineering students will bring their modified snowmobiles to Jackson Hole, Wyo. in March 2000 to compete in a variety of events including emissions, noise, acceleration, hill climb, fuel economy, design and cold start. The competition is a part of the Society of Automotive Engineers Collegiate Design Series.