The race is on… but this time it’s to build a cleaner burning snowmobile.

This post on the Good Green Cars blog says the Society of Automobile Engineers… aka SAE International… has challenged college engineering students to build a snowmobile that runs on biodiesel, ethanol or electricity:

The snowmobiles will be rated in categories like emissions, noise, and acceleration.The idea is to make internal combustion snowmobiles suitable for use in fragile natural areas, like in national parks. The quieter and cleaner a machine is, the less it will disturb both plant and animal life.

The goal for the zero-emissions category is even more specific: make a snowmobile that won’t skew the research being done at Summit Station in Greenland. Scientists there are working to understand the absorption of atmospheric gases by the ice cap, and any emissions from fossil fuels burned at the site can mess up the results of their measurements.

Biodiesel- and ethanol-powered vehicles are expected to be the first to hit the showrooms and are expected to do well in sales. Let’s see if they can get this race going by the time those first few snowflakes begin to fall.