WATERLOO - If a group of
Cornell University students do
well in an upcoming international
competition, they can give
some of the credit to a Waterloo
auto dealer.
Select Eurocars of Waterloo-
Geneva Road, run by Joel
Osserman, helped assemble and
tune a special engine the students
used in a project to see if a
vehicle can attain 100 miles per
gallon of gas or equivalent.
Osserman's dealership specializes
in Volkswagen cars.
He said the students obtained
a three-cylinder, 1.4 liter
Volkswagen-made diesel Polo
engine that is used in European
vehicles. It is not put in cars
imported to the United States.
The Cornell students are building
an electric car for the competition,
but wanted the VW engine
to power a generator that would
charge the car's battery system.
"The engine could not be made
to run. It came in a very basic
condition and didn't have the
right parts to make it run,"
Osserman said. The students
appealed to Osserman and his
crew for help.
Led by technician Peter
DeRycke of Lyons, the wiring
harness was hooked up, fuel
pump was dialed in and the
emission system connected and
operating. The engine has to
meet emission standards for the
competition. The Cornell students
came to Waterloo Saturday
morning to pick up the engine to
take back to Ithaca.
"The engine came from the
United Kingdom. I had to figure
out the wiring harness, the vacuum
lines, the fuel pump and the
emission system that were missing
and get it running and
tuned," said DeRycke, who has
worked on cars for 18 years, the
last five at Osserman's shop.
"The engine didn't come with a
manual or other information. I
had to go to Web sites and do
other research to help me figure
out things. It wasn't easy, but we
got it done," DeRycke said.
"We searched for local VW
dealerships and service centers
in the area and after hearing a
positive review about Select
Eurocars, decided to give them a
call,'' said Cornell student Fred
Lenihan.
Lenihan said they seemed very
interested and wanting to help,
despite the fact that this was an
engine they were not used to
servicing.
"From the start, they have
been extremely helpful. Not only
do we have the engine running,
but we worked with them to help
trim down unnecessary components
and optimize performance
for our needs,'' Lenihan said.
"Their expertise and advice
has been an enormous help to us
and we have enjoyed working
with them,'' he said.
The race is the Progressive
Insurance Automotive X-Prize
competition, which starts in May
and runs through the summer. It
consists of several races in several
cities, including New York and
Detroit.
X-Prize contest pushes gas limits to 100 mpg
Article byline: Local Auto Dealer Helps Cornell Students in
Competition
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