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The Best Clean Snowmobile Team UW Has Ever Seen: A tribute to those graduating

Note: This article is hosted here for archival purposes only. It does not necessarily represent the values of the Iron Warrior or Waterloo Engineering Society in the present day.

Let’s take a 750 cc turbo-charged four-stroke engine, throw it in a 2013 Polaris RUSH chassis with a Miller Cycle conversion, custom muffler with integrated catalytic converter, and dual electronic throttle bodies and name it Silver. Sounds like a pretty awesome piece of machinery.  The only things stopping Silver from dominating the 2015 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge: a slightly permeable gas tank, minor engine tuning, 7 pounds of boost, and 0.03 seconds. Despite these barriers, nine students from the UW Clean Snowmobile Team returned home from Michigan Tech’s Keweenaw Research Center in Houghton, Michigan on March 8, 2015 with a fully running snowmobile (technically), the highest valued Challenge award, and a team that continues to be more successful competitor every year.

The night before departure is always an eventful one. On Saturday, February 28, just two days before the competition, problems with a glowing hot catalytic converter (with slight flame issues) and an infinitely leaking gas tank drove work late into the night. At 2:00 AM, the sled was tucked into the trailer and much trust placed in gas tank sealant and Seal-All.

Team members Alec Espie, Vangie Rose, Chris Campbell and Dirk Friesen arrived at the hotel in Houghton late Sunday evening to find the smell of gas emanating from the trailer – a serious issue, as the dreaded Technical Inspection would take place in less than 24 hours. A 6:00 AM start on the morning of March 2nd allowed Waterloo to tackle both problems: a mistakenly unplugged spark plug causing the glowing cat and a new type of copper RTV silicone sealant for the gas tank. After everything was dry, Waterloo was admitted to Technical Inspection and passed both static and dynamic inspections, after minor modifications!

Tuesday was the 100-mile Endurance Event to Copper Harbor in which Waterloo had not competed in over six years. Rider Alec Espie made Waterloo history as he took off from the Research Center in Houghton and successfully completed all 100 miles. As he pulled into Copper Harbor, the team just couldn’t believe it!

On Wednesday, the remaining team members, Casey Palermo, Matt VA, Lior Lustgarten, and Kristen Sperduti, made for Michigan. In Houghton, meanwhile, Waterloo’s gas tank was leaking profusely and the team thought it was almost Game Over – until the University of Wisconsin-Madison came to the rescue! They offered a beautifully custom-welded aluminum gas tank borrowed from their previous sled. With minor tweaking, the tank fit perfectly and Waterloo was back in the running, eternally grateful to Madison. Finally, after fighting freezing rain, snow squalls, and treacherous detours around logging truck accidents, the rest of the team made it to Houghton. Adventurer Nick Mulder also rolled in at 3:30 AM that night from his solo commute from Kapuskasing, ON.

Subjective Handling and noise events were completed on Thursday and required installation of additional heat shielding to protect the body panels from the angry catalytic converter. In-service emissions testing took place Friday morning, followed by the ultimate test of engine performance: the DYNO/lab emissions event.  This includes a 5-mode emissions test cycle where Mode 1 is 100% throttle and 100% torque for two minutes straight. It is both terrifying and amazing to helplessly watch your sled be pushed to its absolute limits! Fortunately, for the first time in Waterloo history, Silver survived the DYNO event and avoided a catastrophic muffler casualty.  The biggest challenge was finally over and the team could relax, enjoying the next few hours skiing on the slopes of Mont Ripley and eating the traditional seafood dinner at Joey’s.

Saturday consisted of the dynamic performance events. Waterloo history was again made as Silver roared to life for rider Alec Espie and he successfully completed the Cold Start event for the first time in over six years! Acceleration was the next event. Having won this event in 2013, there were high hopes for another winning run, but issues with engine tuning resulted in coughing at wide open throttle and rendered the Waterloo sled to only 7 lbs of boost. Despite this, rider Kristen Sperduti was able to achieve 8.4 seconds in 500 feet; not quite a winning score, but not bad for lack of power!

Best for last was the Objective Handling event, where each team rides their sled through a challenging time-trialed handling course.  Although not the fastest sled, Silver sure did handle beautifully. Rider Kristen Sperduti had her best run and fell a frustrating 0.03 seconds short of the winning time, making Waterloo history yet again!

At the Awards Banquet that night, Waterloo received an award for the Cold Start Event and Endurance Event. Team member Evangeline Rose received the honoured Coleslaw Award for her (anti) love of coleslaw during the BBQ lunch.  Much to the shock and celebration of the Waterloo team, they were awarded an $8,000 HORIBA Mexa 584L portable emission analyzer from Horiba Automotive Test Systems for Waterloo’s constant improvement each year, as well as for assisting with emissions testing prior to the Clean Snowmobile Challenge.  This was the highest valued award, and they couldn’t believe it! Overall, this was a record year for the Clean Snowmobile Challenge, with 20 participating schools. Waterloo finished 11th place overall and they are so proud of their achievements and improvement each year.

The UW Clean Snowmobile Team has come a long way from the small team that used to reside in a closet of the E3 heavy lab wing.  Today we are a strong competitor in the Clean Snowmobile Challenge and we keep raising the bar higher every year. As a graduating student, and looking back on the years spent on this team, I can say with confidence that it was the best decision I made in my university career.  In my first year I joined a team only knowing that I might get the chance to ride a snowmobile. I had no idea that it would involve late nights, numerous hours standing in front of an engine scratching my head, and many 14-hour road trips through northern Michigan. I’ve collected some crazy stories, met some amazing people, and worked with the best team Waterloo has ever seen. After all the headaches and loss of sleep, I ask myself why I joined this crazy team and why I couldn’t wait for the first week of March every year for the past six years. I can only explain my feelings in one phrase: “Because snowmobile.”

The UW Clean Snowmobile Team would like to give a special thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Polaris Industries, the team’s faculty advisor, Professor Teertstra, the Dean of Engineering, MME Department, WEEF, and EngSoc for their continued sponsorship, and thank you to all sponsors for their support. Check out sled.uwaterloo.ca or facebook.com/uwsled for more info!

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