Star Wars Pod Racer

[Runescope]

In honour of the new Star Wars, I threw together a pod racer.  It uses two mods.  Kerbal Foundries (for the anti-grav pads) and TweakScale (to make everything Kerbal sized).

I got it up to 350 M/hr (565 km/hr) over uneven terrain.

 

[pTrevTrevs]

Good job with those airbrakes! 

Its too bad The Phantom Menace was a failure, because podracers are cool as hell.

[Runescope]

Yes, the prequels were horrible.  However, if you search YouTube for the 'Anti-Cheese' versions, they're MUCH better.   98% less JarJar, 100% better!

[Qwarkk]

Tried this a while back and failed miserably - using air brakes is genius.

[Runescope]

Originally I'd just used them because they looked good, but they add a surprising amount of stability!

[Danielskywalker]

Amazing - and just at the right time. 5 1/2 Hours to go...

[swjr-swis]

Awesome, I like the use of the airbrakes, I didn't think of that.

I made one too, just after 1.0.5 came out, while fooling around with the new 0.625m parts (it's the one in my profile background).

Mine was made in a full stock install, no tweakscale, just a lot of offset/rotate gizmo use to get things the way I wanted.

 

Craft file can be found here: http://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/SW-Juno-QuadPod-1 (if you downloaded the 0 file before, delete and get this one.. the 0 has a symmetry corruption error in it)

Maybe we need to organize a pod race.

Edited December 16, 2015 by swjr-swis
added correct craft file

[Runescope]

That's totally awesome!  Did you use the offset to get the pods that far away from the hull?  I couldn't find a reliable way to do that.  I've thought of using the KAS mod to use pipes or winch.  But then it wouldn't be stable at ALL.  lol

Love the use of goo canisters for decoration BTW!

Edited December 16, 2015 by Runescope

[swjr-swis]

12 minutes ago, Runescope said:

Did you use the offset to get the pods that far away from the hull?

Yep, lots of gizmo use, rotate and offset, rinse and repeat, I don't remember the exact order but it took a bit of tweaking and retrying.

The trick being that the small hardpoints can end up really far apart if you rotate it at the exact right moment. It's a but of a counter-intuitive move. So the struts and fuel lines are there really just for pure decoration, because in essence the hardpoints are the connected parts.

If I get a moment later I'll try redo and see if I can describe/screenshot the steps.

[FlipNascar]

There's a mod called No Offset Limits that makes building this sort of thing a breeze. Removes all of the offsetting limits, thereby helping to reduce part counts massively.

[HrabCOrp]

Actually it is completely perfect! I have foundries mod and it is really useful (especially if you are landing something really huge)! I made antigrav train here it is (v0.8)

[Runescope]

I see a redesign in my future!  Lots of great ideas!

[Runescope]

Okay, so I made three small changes.  All for aesthetic reasons.
Added in the goo canisters for great engine greebles.  Again, great idea swjr-swis.
Used the 'No Offset Limit' mod suggested by FlipNascar to remove beams.
And changed the engines from from the small to the large for better special effects.

It'll run for about half an hour, cover a distance of about 136km (84 miles), and has a top speed of 428km/hr (266 m/hr)

I also added in a couple science experiments in front of the pilot so they'd look more like controls.

Pod Racer 03

 

 

 

 

[FlipNascar]

You know, if you wanted it all to flex and move around a bit like they do in the movies, you could attach a bunch of the spider engines (stack them on top of each other) then attach the engine pods, offset it all so the spiders are hidden, use the fuel lines, and hey presto you've got a wobbly pod racer... If that's what you're looking for.

 

Edit: Actually maybe that's a bad idea... I just tried it... wobbles too much. You'd need to tinker, but it might be possible to get a Pod Racer that wobbles around a bit and can be controlled....

Edited December 16, 2015 by FlipNascar

[Runescope]

Oh, this thing flexes more than enough as it is.  lol

Even with the antigravity pods underneath turned up to 11, I've still stripped the bottom airbrakes off after a jump. 

 

[swjr-swis]

3 hours ago, Runescope said:

Did you use the offset to get the pods that far away from the hull?  I couldn't find a reliable way to do that.

@Runescope I see you've solved this with the No offset limits mod. In case you're still interested: I did screenshot the steps I used to create that space without any mods.

This is basically the trick, although in the pod racer I posted I used non-straight angles in the rotations to maximize the distance between pivot point and the distant edge of the part. That distance is what creates the offset 'leverage' you can work with. I kept the angles straight in the screenshots so it's clearer what I did.

[Runescope]

Did a ground up redesign.  Got it up to Mach 2.5! (2880 km/hr or 1780 m/hr)

Mach 2.5

 

Just AFTER Mach 2.5 lol