The Dragster Challenge!

[dogon11]

YES! 303 m/s!

What is that in KPH and MPH?

[sss]

YES! 303 m/s!

What is that in KPH and MPH?

Now, did it stop?

[dogon11]

Now, did it stop?

Yes, it did. Five parachutes got it up in the air by pitching it backwards, and then slowly dropping it engines first on the runway. Nothing fell off. Sorry I didn\'t nab a screenshot of that.

[Imandreas]

Dogon11 just got the 8,000th post in challenges!

Also, nice dragster. Someone push for Mach 1!

[0muffins0]

I guess I never learned to read.

It\'s still very impressive. Keeping your craft together and stopping without going *BOOM* is hard!

[0muffins0]

Yes, it did. Five parachutes got it up in the air by pitching it backwards, and then slowly dropping it engines first on the runway. Nothing fell off. Sorry I didn\'t nab a screenshot of that.

You have to stay on the ground at all times =P Mind you, 303 m/s is amazing.

[dogon11]

You have to stay on the ground at all times =P Mind you, 303 m/s is amazing.

Then I must add... something to keep it on the ground. I\'ll find out what.

[dogon11]

Success! I stayed on thew ground the entire time, got over 300 m/s, and stopped with room to spare!

http://imgur.com/a/lkWfS#0

Screenshot took 328.1 m/s, final mission report said around 340m/s.

[dogon11]

What would that have been in KPH, and in MPH?

[sss]

1224 KPH

and 760.5583392984968 MPH

[Svga777 -RUS-]

Here is my dragster :

And speed record

[Ronox]

More kerbals have died in this attempt to build a drag racer, than have died in the history of my space program.

[Salda007]

I have to say, I\'m having a lot of trouble getting much past about 215 m/s on stock parts without smearing my Kerbals all over the runway. Engine power seems to be the major limitation--I can only fit so many engines on my racer before it becomes hideously unwieldy. A couple incarnations were so back-heavy they wheelied down the track, and one even got airborne on pure rocket power.

Of course, thrust isn\'t the only limitation; I\'ve tried a few with engines modded up to much higher thrust levels. Very fast boom. Need to figure out a good way to reliably generate enough downforce to keep the thing on the track.

[dogon11]

link=topic=12780.msg200655#msg200655 date=1337924063]

Here is my dragster :

And speed record

What mods?

[bikedude880]

Pending manual awesomesauce.

So: Second challenge I\'ve done... didn\'t fare too bad for stock + MechJeb (Kill Rot only)

First off, the craft itself:

And the speed and ending point:

203 m/s and I didn\'t leave the ground or lose a part

Edit: Also, I must say that fine-rotation of parts and module duplication are the best thing since sliced bread

[sss]

So: Second challenge I\'ve done... didn\'t fare too bad for stock + MechJeb (Kill Rot only)

First off, the craft itself:

And the speed and ending point:

203 m/s and I didn\'t leave the ground or lose a part

Edit: Also, I must say that fine-rotation of parts and module duplication are the best thing since sliced bread

kill rot is like sas. so,

[Svga777 -RUS-]

What mods?

?7 Third Experimental, Silisko Remix, HSTW Amphibious gear.

[TerranCmdr]

210 is the best I could get so far.

[Libra00]

I stumbled upon the challenge via random youtube KSP videos and was immedately hooked. This is an awesome idea!

I didn\'t use pure stock (novapunch & random other balanced stuff), but I managed to get up to 304m/s without major effort. Sadly I have no screenshots, but I used 0muffins0\'s general design to start. It took a lot of tinkering to get the landing gear just right so it didn\'t swerve too much, slapped a canard on the back and 4 drag chutes so I could accelerate for as long as possible.. I\'ll call that victory.

Edit: Another few hours of tinkering got me up to 435m/s. I added 2 1m aero decouplers (though I didn\'t use the decoupling feature) which allowed me to put 6 M50 325 thrust engines on the thing. Had to reinforce the hell out of the body and engine pods, added 2 more chutes, tinkered with placement a LOT before I found something that didn\'t misalign the sled when braking, moved and tweaked the landing gear again (mounted them wider, but also a bit taller to prevent chute deployment from flexing the body into the pavement) and finally a pair of winglets at the front, angled down slightly, to help keep it on the road.

It\'s amazing how tiny little changes make a huge difference at such high speed. The winglets not only held the sled on the road better, but made it a lot more stable, slight changes in auxillary engine pod angle massively reduced stresses on the body that made parachute breaking impossible, and even paring down the strut count to bare minimum made a 10m/s difference on the top speed. All those low-drag/lightweight components that I thought were fairly useless turned out to be massively important.

Hell, win or lose I learned a TON about the game and I had a blast. Thanks.

[Joshmo]

Oh, I am on this.

[Cooly568]

GARRR spent 1 hour and can\'t get above 260 M/S

Edit: Hit 360 M/S but JUST went off the runway

[superD]

Challenge over

so close, just barely left the runway.

okay not really, was some weirdness on KSP\'s part.

the ship

the top speed.

[NIN3]

Challenge over

so close, just barely left the runway.

okay not really, was some weirdness on KSP\'s part.

the ship

the top speed.

Nope, I can top that first one

(yes that was some hax, I dont really know what happend but suddenly I went shooting off to kingdom come)

[decemberstorm]

it took me hours but ive finally done it! my 244 m/s dragster using only parachutes! sorry that i could not take a pic of it while it was moving but that thing is ridiculous to control.

[superD]

i almost got to 500M/S.

same design as before but with one M-50 engine cranked up to 1500 instead of 3 with a grand total of 1200. much more stable this way.

still need to tweak some other things, might be able to hit 550.

only using chutes to stop (but alot of them)

EDIT: so i can hit 500+(520 in this case) and successfully stop with room to spare, but the end flight numbers are screwy. i think my dragster is rotating kerbin backwards.

DOUBLE EDIT:

Flawless victory