Setting a new world speed record! 2500kph

[jcd]

First and foremost: Kudos to ballfairy. What he did here is where i draw my inspiration from.
As it happens and to my knowledge he has the speed record for catadda. At over 1000mph!
But he did so with just V8’s and steel frames…
It is time to go faster! I hereby set my target to 2500kph (a bit over 1500mph).

So let’s get started, shall we?
https://www.youtube.com/v/UrtnsMKRvX8
(anyone knows how/if i can embed the youtube video?)

Anyways, now that we have some atmosphere going (and gasoline!), i shall go to vehicular design:

The idea is to add as many large V12 engines to an as light as possible frame. I don’t know how/if drag is calculated in the game but i will go with a trike.

That’s right. No seatbelt!

During my survivor’s life i have gathered 6 V12 (i try to remember to hoard them)

And so, the vehicle is:

Yea, just handles and motorbike wheels for lightness, plus all my V12’s online.
That’s 1,1 tonne with the horsepower of 6 sports cars.

it already smells of burned rubber.

overmap:

Aaand Here We Go:
ignition

1500 kph

2000kph

2455kph!!!

aand the engines die… :((

So what next?
Here goes:

[spoiler]sos! SOS!!!

Miraculously, i am ALIVE!
I flew an incredible 8 overmap tiles and landed in the open field with only scratches.

This is what happened to the trike. Destruction!

[/spoiler]

Aftermath:
I savescummed to save the engines from destruction and decided to search the nearby town for any V12 i missed.
It turns out i found one more! Will it be enough?
The story will be concluded in the next post!

[Coolthulhu]

Nice
Especially that aftermath with a giant scar in the earth.

Hint: turn the trike into a single “line” - the thinner the vehicle is, the better its aerodynamics. Also, try to find a better wheel setup - you can really gain a lot of speed from optimizing total wheel area.

Next time as soon as engines die and you start losing speed, pull a handbrake and see what happens.

[StopSignal]

WOAH. Congratulations! And more destruction please.

Also, that world is amazing.

[jcd]

Take two!

vehicle v2:

[spoiler]
1 tile longer. 1 more V12 engine! 84 cylinders!
I also replaced the motorbice wheels with unicycle wheels in the sides and a small wheel up front

[/spoiler]

ignition

2500+ bitches!!

still it accelerates!

New record: 2636kph or 1638mph

take that, RL:

I must say i feel it is possible to reach even more, maybe ~2800 kph. I could not find enough V12’s and i could not find enough big V12’s (some where only 8.5lts)

Also that now that we got rocket fuel, we need rocket engines!

EDIT
I will have to take into account Coolthulhu’s advice and make a take 3 sometime tomorrow.

[Vorchar]

You need to test out how many houses can you get trough

[Valpo]

godspeed to you sir.

[Schilcote]

Wait, the volume of the engine actually matters? I thought wheel radii and engine sizes were just flavor, only the number of cylinders mattered. Am I wrong? 'Cos I’ve mixed 20-inch and 14-inch wheels on alternating sides of a vehicle with no visible effect.

[Coolthulhu]

Wait, the volume of the engine actually matters? I thought wheel radii and engine sizes were just flavor, only the number of cylinders mattered. Am I wrong? 'Cos I’ve mixed 20-inch and 14-inch wheels on alternating sides of a vehicle with no visible effect.

Engine volume determines its power. In fact, the only reason to pick V12 over V8 is that they come in bigger sizes.

With wheels it’s a bit more complex: here you have both a variable size and a type-dependent size (you can see the latter in vehicle menu). Their actual size is type size * own size.

You can have mixed size wheels just fine. Even casters + single motorcycle wheel can drive a 20 ton tank, if you don’t mind low speed.

[StopSignal]

Can’t we install spoilers in the cars to improve aerodynamics at high speeds? That would be awesome.

[i2amroy]

I’m not actually sure that we calculate anything involving aerodynamics of your car (though it’s been a while since I’ve looked at that particular bit of code).

Funnily enough in general spoilers aren’t actually designed to improve the aerodynamics of your car. Instead they are designed to make them worse with a trade of a downwards force that stops your car from lifting off the track at extremely high speeds. It’s an air friction to traction/control trade off (which is why they are generally tipped slightly downwards).

[Coolthulhu]

I’m not actually sure that we calculate anything involving aerodynamics of your car (though it’s been a while since I’ve looked at that particular bit of code).

Cars with more “columns” have worse k_dynamics. “Columns” with an obstacle in them cause worse penalty.
That’s it.

[StopSignal]

I did not thought that the downward force could make you less speedy! Yeah, you are correct, haha.

[jcd]

Actually i think (could be wrong) that a spoiler can also reduce drag. I had a class in fluid mechanics this year where i learned that the drag in the same speed turbulent vs laminar air flow is different. Significantly less in turbulent flow.
So a spoiler that increases turbulence may actually help reduce drag at high speeds.
Also, this is why golf and tennis balls are not smooth, to go into turbulent flow more easily.

Digging a bit into it, wikipedia seems to agree.
Quoting: The goal of many spoilers used in passenger vehicles is to reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency.

In truth what happens is quite complex. see here for slightly more insight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_separation

Ofc, i do agree that many spoilers also create a downwards force to improve traction (also make sure the car will not fly)
I still remember the flying mercedes of the le-mans rally a few (10?) years back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0t5juiDfr8

[jcd]

Hint: turn the trike into a single “line” - the thinner the vehicle is, the better its aerodynamics. Also, try to find a better wheel setup - you can really gain a lot of speed from optimizing total wheel area.

[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:11, topic:9055”]Cars with more “columns” have worse k_dynamics. “Columns” with an obstacle in them cause worse penalty.
That’s it.[/quote]

Taking these into account, i did a 3rd run.

Vehicle:

as you see, it has the same max speed, but better k_dynamics and slightly less weight than before.

Top speed: 2850kph! (~1770 mph)

I now believe that someone can go over 3000kph if he used only the largest V12’s, using as many as possible until adding more actually reduces top speed.

Next time as soon as engines die and you start losing speed, pull a handbrake and see what happens.

I tried it 3 times, i manage to break without dieing. Hell, consecutive handbrakes made me avoid the collision altogether! I have 7 driving skill though.

WOAH. Congratulations! And more destruction please.

Here comes more destruction then. And its on !fire!

[Arek_PL]

who need hyperdrives while we have v12 engines?

[Kryxx]

daaang… Okay. We now need dragster chutes to slow down vehicles faster.

Wait, the volume of the engine actually matters? I thought wheel radii and engine sizes were just flavor, only the number of cylinders mattered. Am I wrong? 'Cos I’ve mixed 20-inch and 14-inch wheels on alternating sides of a vehicle with no visible effect.

Remember what the “liter” for the volume of displacement for all cylinders for the engine. Removing the spark plugs and the drop the pistons down, and that is how it’s measured. in RL volume isn’t exact, as there’s a lot of other mechanical things you can do for better air burn and displacement, and how many revolutions it’s making etc. Including the airdynamics and other things people here were discussing to make sure the car doesn’t air lift or flip.

But for this Cata DDA, it’s straight math.

V12’s have typically over 1 liter per cylinder of displacement, which is what you want for raw power. Someone in another thread posted one with 15.92 L or something.

[Litppunk]

dragster chutes for the car should be craft able easy enough. Just some rags, plastic and string or something.

[RADIALTHRONE1]

I now believe that someone can go over 3000kph if he used only the largest V12’s, using as many as possible until adding more actually reduces top speed.

Got to this while using the debug to give me items
1919 MPH is roughly 3088 KPH

Used 12 15.00L V12, and 14 15.75L V12

[KA101]

[quote=“jcd, post:14, topic:9055”]I now believe that someone can go over 3000kph if he used only the largest V12’s, using as many as possible until adding more actually reduces top speed.

Got to this while using the debug to give me items
1919 MPH is roughly 3088 KPH

Used 12 15.00L V12, and 14 15.75L V12[/quote]

Feh. Anyone can use the debug menu to make a dragster.

But using the debug menu, as it will itself tell you, is CHEATING!

KA101 awards RADIALTHRONE1 an Asterisk* to go with that record

[Coolthulhu]

Feh. Anyone can use the debug menu to make a dragster.

Anyone can grind for parts. Designing a vehicle is a bit harder.

A bit, because it’s still simple (MOAR ENGINES + approximate a formula for wheels), but it still takes more skill than grabbing all the stuff, which only takes patience.