News & Events

The University of Idaho Clean Snowmobile Competition Team earned second place honors in the Clean Snowmobile Challenge sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers at Michigan Technological University. The University of Idaho earned praise and honors for the Best Acceleration and Quietest Snowmobile awards. The team's design also won the Cold Start Award, as well as Best Internal Combustion Design Paper and Best Oral Presentation. Overall the team took second place in the internal combustion engine class. The team has also taken first at the competition in 2002, 2003 and 2007.

"Developing a snowmobile that achieves both Quietest and Best Acceleration at the same time is difficult to do, and is quite a technical achievement. Over the past several years, University of Idaho students have designed and fabricated a direct-injected two-stroke engine technology that is just now reaching the marketplace," said Karen Den Braven, team adviser and director of the Center for Clean Vehicle Technology in NIATT.

"This technology doubles snowmobile fuel economy, and reduces pollution produced by 90-95+ percent. We won the competition last year using direct-injection. This year we concentrated on switching from gasoline to an ethanol blend fuel, E85, and on reducing sound," said Den Braven.

"I was so proud to present the second place award to such a close neighbor and friend of Yellowstone," said Jim Evanoff, National Park Service, after he presented the second place award to the University of Idaho team.