Hesp

All of this assuming you have an engine capable of bringing you instantly to 0.05c. With an arbitrary 10g acceleration it will take 42 hours to get to that speed, and 42 hours more to slow down for intercept, covering WAY more distance than necessary for any object in the Kerbal system (2.25 billion km to reach 0.05c and stop) I integrated Gaarst's table to calculate travel times for a straight-line transfer at constant acceleration/deceleration (though a non realistic assumption is initial/final speed = 0 in this case):

I like this approach, but since money in the late game is not an issue unless playing "hard" or unefficiently, for parts/ships built on bases I would add more complex requirements. i.e: part cost increases exponentially with size + you need ore and a lot of energy to 3D print the parts (weight based formula?) That would lead also to improved/innovative ship designs, instead of just going BIGGER.

No more entries? During my career save I got a contract requiring to visit the Kerbin monoliths... One is on the mountains behind KSC. So i thought... why use a plane when I can get there by car? Take it as a sort of "hardcore" ultimate challenge entry... http://imgur.com/a/ed9aM

Nice video Heimder! For the ultimate challenge you don't need to complete the standard course first! you can start from the spawn point and go directly to the flag Oh and for the wheels getting locked, i noticed that it happens when they intersect with some other component during suspension travel. Try to put them a bit further away from the rover body!

Hi Matt, nice rover with last attempts. Probably with some tweaks could be faster than mine! Actually i'm experimenting with a barebone rover (0.7t), but as you said the Kerbal drag is really huge on the straights. The wings on my ultimate rover work just like that, in case you didn't notice already: action group on the B key to deploy spoilers @ 50 degrees when braking --> very effective at the entry in turn 1 and turn 8 Edit: OK now I have a rover able to do less than 2:40 if well driven (i spun out in practice), if you want I can share the .craft file. http://imgur.com/a/jGeZI The wheels friction, springs and dampers need some fine tuning, and maybe you guys could help Aerodynamics definitely work, I ran through turn 9 at 40m/s! (with FAR installed)

@Adelaar I saw you accounted 20s for the parts lost, actually I think the penalty is higher: 2 spoilers / 1 small hardpoint / 2 cubic struts / 1 wheel / 1 light + 2 sepratrons used -> 45s

Okay, I tried with the wings but didn't set a time lower than 3:00, so no leaderboard update on the standard course. After that attempt, I upgraded the winged rover with lights and fuel cells to reach the ultimate flag. Everything was going pretty well till when I lost the front wing and the front left corner on a sudden slope 4 km from the flag! In pure Keremy Klarkson style I brought the remainder of the rover to the finish line, on 3 wheels... time 26:59 http://imgur.com/a/zKu7B

Registered just to attend the challenge! Kept the rover as simple as possible, with low CoG. 2 sepratron used for boost on the main straights Start 0:00 / Finish: 2:50 / 170 seconds http://imgur.com/a/3BRC2 Flipped over the rover after the finish line fly-by, but I got no damage at all Notes: At first I tested it with M1 wheels at the rear too, it was way more manouverable but too slow on the straights. Now I'm working on a high downforce configuration with active aerodynamics, but I'm not sure about the tradeoff between grip and weight/drag.