Participating Teams:(Mini-Vans) Cedarville College GMI Engineering Illinois Institute of Tech. Texas Tech. Univ. of Alberta Univ. of Quebec (ETS) Univ. of Texas Austin Univ. of Texas El Paso Western Washington Univ.	1997 PVC- 1st Place Overall! And 1st place acceleration 1996 PVC- 2nd Place Overall! Congratulations to all the participants! 1997 Team Members: Eric Anderson, Joe B., Colin Botha, Steve Bothe, John Celmins, Jason Dalton, Tim Kish, Dennis Klug, Slaven Sljivar, Henry Wandri, and the many others who contributed... And our Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Sullivan

Our Mission: Convert a Gasoline powered 1996 Chrysler Minivan over to Liquefied Petroleum Gas. Our conversion focuses on achieving reduced emissions and fuel consumption, while surpassing the stock vehicle's performance. This is a fully student run project to compete in the Propane Vehicle Challenge sponsored by Argonne National Labs. This year the competition was held throughout Texas in May. Last years competition was held from May 28, 1996 through June 2, 1996 at the University of Windsor.

1996 Chrysler Minivan

Good luck to the team!

Read our SAE Technical Paper

This competition is Co-Sponsored by the following organizations:

• The United States Department of Energy
• Chrysler-Canada Limited
• Natural Resources - Canada

THE GMI LPG Team

• "THE VAN"
• A few Team members with the van
• A glimpse of the Engine, looks a lot like the stock engine doesn't it.
• A close up of the LPG distribution block
• Another shot of the LPG Team
• It got a little chilly, so we warmed our hands with the engine

About...

GMI was selected as one 12 teams from a pool of 73 that applied to be a part of this competition. The LPG van team has received a new 1996 Chrysler minivan from Chrysler-Canada and converted it from a normally gasoline fueled vehicle to a liquid propane fueled vehicle. Key elements in the scoring and evaluation of the project are the low emissions, fuel economy, performance and handling and overall cost. With less than six months between the beginning of the project and the competition, every minute counts toward the success of this project.

GMI is a five-year fully cooperative college program. Located in Flint, Michigan, GMI has been honored over the past years to be involved with many SAE project vehicles. From the 1992 CNG truck to the 1994 HEV Saturn, and now with the Formula Lightning and LPG van, GMI has a long term commitment to student led and run teams.

Working through the Mechanical Engineering Department, the LPG team will have available to it, all of the laboratory support, professional support, and most importantly the support of the students that have a desire to work on this project. Students at GMI work in industry as they earn their degree. The students can bring to the team the experiences, the knowledge, and the contacts that they have collected over their work semesters. With the many relationships GMI and its students have within industry, the LPG van team feels confident in their ability to deliver in this project. Students gain more than the recognition for this project when they can apply the lessons learned from high exposure, high pressure projects to their work. When the student can bring an experience like this to the workplace, everyone wins.

The GMI LPG Conversion Team is always looking for support whether financial, services, or equipment. If you or your company feels that there might be some way to help to support this effort, feel free to reply to the team at lpgvan@gmi.edu. Your contributions will be recognized here, in our reports to the judging team at Argonne, and most valuably, have the recognition directly on the van itself.

All replies to: lpgvan@gmi.edu

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Special Thanks to:

• To the sponsors that helped to make this project happen, without whose contributions would have been almost impossible.
• Dr. Joel Berry, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, and Dr. J. Sullivan, for their role as advisors to the team.
• To the team and their efforts toward the winning car!

Keep up the good work!