Mikki

I tend to make my designs as they need no input to reach orbit after takeoff, sounds crazy but works very good. After take-off i aim for 10m/s climbrate, acceleration and the curvature of Kerbin make the rest. This with Mk3 fuselages and moderate payload capacity, around 20 tons. Drag and lots of control input is your enemy while ascend. TWR at launch like 1:1.15, and increasing.

And think about keeping your main landing gears quite close behind your CoM, so your elevons in the back can pitch your plane easier, imagine a fulcrum in flight axis.

Bob: "What goes up, must not come down." Bill: "It needs more struts." Jeb: "Snacks?"

"SCRAP SLED" dune buggy (stock) I decided to make my Dakar2017 vehicle public and free for anyone for further examination or use, or tweaking. I don`t mind if anyone uses it aswell in the Dakar2017 rally, though i am not responsible for any casualtys in your crew. It is fairly fast, you must refuel it somewhere in the above mentioned challenge (mostlikely stage five, southwest flag). It is incredibly difficult to balance such a light vehicle for all speeds, this one is meant to go allways full throttle by trimming "pitch down" and occasionaly brake to reasonable velocitys with "pitch up" manually. It consists of 44 parts and goes flatout about 47m/s (170km/h ), the rollcage is sufficient to save your pilots life in any case. Going uphill slowly decreases your EC while all three fuelcells run at 100% load, flatout and downhill the third fuelcell runs at around 50% and refills EC gently. The basic fins do have some aerodynamic value while airborne. How i use it: -Insert pilot of your choice -launch to runway -hit brake -hit actiongroup 1, this engages all fuelcells and toggles lights -engage fine controls -EVA your Kerbal pilot and enter the seat -stage the attached crewpod off -release brake -go! (Trimm your throttle for convenience, ctrl + "pitch down") Download link Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gatv79ixe4o8pt8/_SCRAP SLED_.craft?dl=0

4-wheel drive: try front 0.7 rear 1.0, for a fairly light vehicle, might apply for heavy too Lot of traction control increases your EC use...

A picture of my "Service Truck" driving the other way around the mountains to stage four, took me about 57 minutes, but i wasn`t going full throttle all the time. Now i can fully testride the rally with refueling the "Scrap Sled" as intended... If this works out well i consider making a truck entry aswell, clearly, that time the right way around...

My "Scrap Sled" has no room for a surge buffer...

Currently i stick to the smallest radial tank with 22 LF and 18 OX to power a 1200kg buggy with three small fuelcells, no additional batteries, this lasts until stage four flag in your rally, the third fuelcell works at around 85% load flatout, uphill all three go 100% and battery is slightly going down.

-sort of "Hill climbing"? very popular in some countrys.

I think @DrunkenKerbalnaut as the OP has enough competence to flesh out a accepted proposal which the racing fans in the community can agree, so, let`s take our time and see what he will offer.

I would call it "Staged rally" and "Checkpoint rally". But like drunkenkerbalnaut mentioned they share the rules basically.

The current Dakar2017 is a long track in separate stages, a checkpoint rally would look similar in size and shape but must be done in one session... refueling somewhere could still be an option but is included in the racetime. Screencaps of the flags while passing must be done for docs. Would be hard sure...

- - checkpoints (route of choice, rally somehow?)

Commitee looks legit. Go ahead folks.

No problem, it`s a neckbreak, i am glad you won`t sue me after reviving your drivers...

I picked my vehicle for Dakar2017, a superlight stock fuelcell powered dune buggy. It sacrifices safety for insane speeds and awesomeness. The fueltank must be replenished at stage 4, if it ever happens that it makes it so far. Jebediah (mostly testdriving this crazy piece of kerbal engineering stupidity) mentioned after wrecking no. 67 of the factory release: "Good thing the rollcage of this scrapsled does it`s job or i wouldn`t be here anymore... . The lack of snackstorage is disgusting."

Hi @purpleivan I am very curious and enjoyed that someone picks Kubricks motionpicture again for a kerbalized story reenactment! I have some spare time the next few weeks and will follow your efforts, so cool!

@DerGolgo Hi there, you are nuts but cool!

Kerbal Dakar 2017 testing... And later watching Jebediah contemplating about wheels, the destroyer of things, snacks, and other confusing elements in his life...

In think my stock rover can make it in 1.5 hours... just made a huge flip west of mount whoopstooshort and jeb wrecked the Baha rally cart completely . Great track! Fun challenge!

Hi peeps, i`m in. Testing hardware, stock baha rally cart. Can jump really far but... has still some issues...

This is a typo, right? Please keep it, it looks so good! Ahoy Kerbfleet! Go Sarge, go! (Waving all three both remaining hands)

I wouldn`t talk about this theme anyway on US soil. Hello CIA . love you.

I`d push.

Sorry, misread your question, i guess your install is borked, no issues here sorry....