Illinois Corn Sponsors Clean Snowmobile Team
Posted: March 4, 2009
The Illinois Corn Marketing Board will be sponsoring the Northern Illinois University (NIU) Clean Snowmobile Team in the upcoming 2009 Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge, which has a focus on ethanol fuel. The challenge this year will be held March 16-21, at Michigan Technical University in Houghton, Michigan with the theme being “Flex Fuel”.
Last year the NIU team placed 6th place overall and received the rookie of the year award running on E85 ethanol. This year the team hopes to finish in the top three with a 2007 500cc Turbo Charged Yamaha Phazer.
The “challenge” of each competition has been for students to modify a stock snowmobile to meet a series of requirements, including air pollution levels. Last year, snowmobiles were required to run on E85 ethanol. This year, snowmobiles can run on any blend of gasoline and ethanol up to 85 percent, making these true flex-fuel vehicles.
The SAE Challenge is a yearly collegiate competition that started in 2000 and is held every year to test the engineering and design capabilities of students from schools across the country.