Paris-Dakar Transantarctic race

[jcf]

Sounds good to me. 

[Steel Penguin]

works for me as well.
iya iya cthulhu fhtagn

[Weaver]

It came from this page.
http://vrroom.naa.gov.au/print/?ID=18803
with a link to this one
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=11665694&isAv=N
which credits it to the Australian Governments Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA).
This is odd as that's not a government body you would expect to be in Antarctica.

Depends what who needs to have their immigration arranged...

[Weaver]

Alternative:

Paris-DakarDIRECT

If the problem is with security threats on the surface, then maybe the solution is to take the geometrically direct route, using something like this:





Strategic racing decisions would be whether to go really deep to go under the Mediterranean sea floor, or alternatively build a submersible mole machine that tunnels to the French Riviera, then travels like a submarine until it hits the North African coast, whereupon it starts tunnelling again. An alternative route would be down through (under) Spain and then across the Straits of Gibraltar, however, since Dakar is on the coast, there would have to be some kind of rule forbidding a submersible machine from travelling any further west than that, in order to prevent it from simply 'sailing' to Dakar like a regular sub.

[zenrat]

Quicker surely to take a ballistic trajectory.

[Weaver]

Quicker surely to take a ballistic trajectory.

Heh - something akin to those 1920s/30s competitions designed to spur the development of aircraft, but taking place instead in an alternative 1950s and designed to spur rocket design. A sort of Dieselpunk X-Prize, in effect....

Prize 1: Start in Paris, race overland to a launch site on the coast, then launch a human and splash them down safely in the sea off Dakar as quickly as possible.

Prize 2: Start in Paris, race overland to a launch site on the coast, then launch a human into orbit, complete one orbit, then splash them down safely in the sea off Dakar as quickly as possible.

[Rheged]

There's always the possibility of race from Paris to Gibraltar, cross the Straits by "whatever means seem appropriate"..... rocket, hot air balloon, amphibious vehicle, sea bottom crawler, hurling the competitors by giant trebuchet..... then driving on.

[zenrat]

I have read a Sci Fi novel, the title and author of which escapes me (but it might be by David Brin) which has as a plot point intercontinental ballistic racing.  Strictly a thrill sport for rich kids with nothing better to do.

[Weaver]

I have read a Sci Fi novel, the title and author of which escapes me (but it might be by David Brin) which has as a plot point intercontinental ballistic racing.  Strictly a thrill sport for rich kids with nothing better to do.

There have been a number of challenges in the Kerbal Space Program community, generating a fair few videos on Youtube, which feature various rocket races, such as get to the Mun (Moon analogue) ASAP or get back there and back ASAP etc. As you might imagine, the there-and-back challenges involve some hair-raising suicide burns...

Time to orbit challenges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChgEK6TOF88
Land Speed Record at the pole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itr6vGHEYRE (speed>Kerbin escape velocity  )

Mun run Exhibit A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj6oI-QkJYg
Mun run Exhibit B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dDcirSx9FY *


*No, Marcus didn't leave Burberry to die: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUIBi96ELu4

[perttime]

The Ripsaw tracked vehicle would be fast, I suppose. http://www.ripsawtank.com/



I suspect something like the Swedish Bandvagn or Finnish Sisu Nasu would be more certain to get you there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandvagn_206
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu_Nasu



Those vehicles don't have all that much range, so refueling will surely need to be arranged.

[Weaver]

Imagine a hot-rod version of the Bv.206 though: souped-up engine (the earlier long-bonnet version (Bv.202) would look better, complete with intake trumpets and fancy exhausts, of course  ) and a rear body full of extra fuel and supplies.

You're right that you'd definitely need a support crew (just like the real PD) and you'd be racing from waystation to waystation, not just off into the white...

[Weaver]

Some things to consider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LI1AiKLaCQ

[loupgarou]

Some things to consider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LI1AiKLaCQ

Here you get a choice of heavier ones, derived from (russian) APC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvWg71cAP-8

[Weaver]

Some things to consider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LI1AiKLaCQ

Here you get a choice of heavier ones, derived from (russian) APC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvWg71cAP-8

Cheers! You could scratchbuild some of the bigger ones with flat plastic card on an MT-LB or PT-76 chassis.

I like the pimped-out BRDM-2... (Wonder if it's still armoured for the hard-pressed oligarch's 'security' situations?)

[Old Wombat]

Some ideas here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LI1AiKLaCQ