The Cortes Base drag strip challenge: another standing SRV time trial from the Buckyball Racing Club

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Feast your eyes on that location folks! If ever there was a planetary base begging to be the home of an SRV challenge then Cortes Base in the Ross 1047 system has to be it!

(I would like to thank Cmdrs graememk and DeadMeatGF of Hutton Orbital's operation HOT MESS for bringing this location to my attention)

For people who've already taken part in the Pomeche Ridge Challenge, think of this as a little bonus challenge, and if you haven't tried the Pomeche Ridge Challenge, then consider this a training ground for what I still reckon is the toughest test of SRV driving skill in the galaxy.

So basically this challenge works as follows.

You start off in your SRV parked on top one of the "outrigger" ramps on the North Eastern side of the base (facing along the ridge on a heading of roughly 52°). You should have Cortes base pre-targeted via the left-hand contacts panel (so you can see your distance to the center of the city) and it's also a good idea to have repair synthesis pre-selected in the right-hand inventory panel (so it's right there if and when you need it). The SRV should be just behind the line between the last set of lights on the ramp as shown in the following image.

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Pick a suitable start time (ideally when the seconds hit :00 in the HUD clock) and, when that time ticks over ...

GO GO GO!

Your objective is to drive as fast as you can along the ridge until the distance back to the "planetary port" shows at least 10.0 km, then skid to a stop, do a U-turn and drive back towards the city again. The clock stops when your SRV makes contact with any part of the city.

Here's the "route map" for what it's worth ..

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.. and here's a (speeded up) demonstration video of a fairly fast run ..


In order to formally enter your run for the scoreboard that I'll be maintaining in this forum thread you will ideally need to video the whole of your run. Alternatively you can just take three screenshots - one showing the SRV stationary on the ramp behind the start line - one showing a distance back to the city of at least 10.0 km - and one clearly showing the SRV in contact with the city again. Your time is the difference between the time on the HUD at the start line with the SRV stationary and the time on the HUD at the point where you "hit" the city again. The middle screenshot is required to prove you drove out to the 10.0 km point.

Once you've completed your run and have your evidence use the following Google form to submit your entry.





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(last updated: 22/01/3310)




FAQ

Q) Do I need to survive the run?
A) No. As long as you can get an image showing the SRV back in contact with the city it doesn't matter if you blow up shortly afterwards (so feel free to hurl yourselves into the city wall at full speed). You do need to stay alive for the entire duration of the run tho! (no blowing up and respawning to get back to the base!).

Q) Can I repair the SRV during the run?
A) Yes. Repair synthesis is allowed, use as much as you like.

Q) Does it matter which ramp I start on?
A) No, feel free to experiment for the optimum start position. Although the ramp used for the illustration above seems fairly ideal it does tend to direct you over a crater and dangerously close to the left hand side of the ridge so starting further across to the right "might" be better?




BONUS CHALLENGE - The Cortes Base Jump

While you're here why not try your hand at the Cortes Base Jump. The idea is simply this - can you jump the SRV clear over the city?

You can start with as much of a run-up as you like (on the ground - no riding on the back of ships to give you a boost!). You're allowed to use the outside ramps and sloping wall of the city as a kicker to launch you up and across but the SRV should then not touch anything else until it's flown clear over the city and landed back on the ground on the opposite side. You need to be able to come to a stop still on the ridge for a completely successfull jump (if you fly off the ridge for example then it doesn't count).

Here's a couple of demonstration jumps to show you what I mean.



There's no leaderboard for this (as I couldn't think of an especially good way to rate your jumps) but if you try this then please post videos of your attempts in this thread for our entertainment.




Also - if that isn't enough race action for you - the Elite Racers are also hosting a time trial event at this location so why not head on over to their forum thread now and give their challenge a try too!

 
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P.S. I'm hoping that Frontier will be launching and attempting the drag strip challenge in their 24hr charity livestream later today so I'm not doing a big annouce about this until later on.
 
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Impressive speed, I doubt I can beat your time but I'll have a go on the weekend!
Cool. It's good fun, close to the bubble and really doesn't take long so I'm hoping, a bit like with the Pomeche challenge, that we'll get loads of times on the scoreboard over time and that there'll always be someone else to try and beat no matter your skill level.

P.S. I haven't officially entered a time yet - I think my demo was around the 5 minute mark. I'm expecting a range of times between sub-5 and 20+ minutes.
 
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Ye it does sound awesome. Once I've brushed up my SRV skills I might also tackle the Pomeche challenge. Good work organizing those!!

By the way, are actual real-time races doable? I guess some mario kart style competition would be quite funny.
 
Ye it does sound awesome. Once I've brushed up my SRV skills I might also tackle the Pomeche challenge. Good work organizing those!!

By the way, are actual real-time races doable? I guess some mario kart style competition would be quite funny.
Oooh, I meant to say ... although I don't have any immediate plans to organise a real-time race for this, it's an ideal location if any small groups of players want to have a go at it. Each player can have their own starting ramp and you could even add some excitement by each team having air support who have to start landed at the base and are then tasked with shooting the oposing teams's SRV's.
 
So that's where your ridge base is :)

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Each player can have their own starting ramp and you could even add some excitement by each team having air support who have to start landed at the base and are then tasked with shooting the oposing teams's SRV's.
You really know how to create mischief ;)

I was going to have a crack at the iron bucky this avo ...

diverting o7
 
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Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Well this looked like fun on the livestream, so I thought I'd give it a go today. Just as I arrived at the station who should I see but Alec taking off from just outside the base. He said he had a plan and flew off ahead to "mark the 10Km line" for me, though I thought he meant by hovering in his ship. As I got 7Km away from the station though it became clear that he had something bigger planned because I could see bright blue lights on the horizon. Just as I reached the 10Km line I was greeted by a glowing line of Guardian Keys shining very brightly :D
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Unfortunately that run and the next run I tried were both invalid, as I realised upon reviewing the footage that I was not quite behind the start line. However third time lucky and I managed to get a run on the board.
 
Well this is flippin' awesome news!

Once people have given the Buckyball SRV time trial a go at this location they can get back in their ships and give the new Elite Racers time trial a go too.
Two great racing groups for the price of one!

 
Wooo, Cortes Base Drag Strip entry IN!

An attempt was made to fly over the base, but lost all my momentum to a spin out.
Did manage to accidently wander UNDER Cortes Base, so that's an exciting bonus. :cool:
 
And we're off!

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We have four entries to launch the first official Cortest Base Drag Strip Challenge scoreboard.

First up was Buckyball's latest rising star, Cmdr Shaye Blackwood driving the Rocketeer straight into first place with a superb time of 4 mins 56 seconds. With the 5 minute barrier already broken Shaye sets a bar that's truly worthy of this challenge.

Next and the Little Blue Dune Buggy is back, driven by Buckyball regular Cmdr Ozric (aided by my experimental Guardian lighting rig) who takes 3rd place with a highly commendable time of 6 minutes and 17 seconds.

The weekend's 3rd entry was from another Buckyball regular, Cmdr Aken B. in the Tumbling Initiative - just 9 seconds faster than Ozric, he takes 2nd place with a time of 6 minutes and 8 seconds. Bravo sir!

And lastly for our opening weekend we have Cmdr Terrordisic of the Elite Racers. More used to careening around the city in a ship (and fellow judge of the Elite Racers Cortes partner event over here), he still managed a pretty decent time of 7 minutes and 7 seconds and skids to a stop in 4th place. I've responded in kind and submitted my own first attempt at the Elite Racers' challenge which I can highly recommend. P.S. For the sake of my scoreboard I've had to shorten the name of your SRV!

I'm going to leave my own personal best off the board for a while until things really get going but fair warning - as with the Pomeche Ridge challenge I will be unashamedly vying for those prized pole positions in due course.

It's very early days but as yet nobody else has yet completed the Cortes Base jump although it was nice to see Frontier's Adam Woods and Stephen Benedetti making up their own rules during the 24hr livestream, with a bonus for leaping over the outer wall at the end and seeing how close they could land to the center of the city. Also a big shoutout to Terrorsidic for discovering that going under the base is also possible!
 
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Just as I reached the 10Km line I was greeted by a glowing line of Guardian Keys shining very brightly :D
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That's great :)

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We have four entries to launch the first official Cortest Base Drag Strip Challenge scoreboard.
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Five entries I hope, unless I've missed something (and with my ability to follow race rules that wouldn't be unusual :rolleyes:)

EDIT: and in true fashion I did miss something, actually filling in the entry form :oops:
I'm good :cool:
 
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EDIT: and in true fashion I did miss something, actually filling in the entry form :oops:
I'm sorry, I'm a bit of stickler for paperwork. I mean where would we be if we didn't follow the correct procedures?

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So yeah ... all contestants - please remember to fill in your 27B/6!

P.S. your time will be on tomorrow's scoreboard update - as will a correction to Terrirsidic's name! 🤦‍♂️
 
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I'm sorry, I'm a bit of stickler for paperwork. I mean where would we be if we didn't follow the correct procedures?
It would be chaos, and the BBRC definitely doesn't do chaos ...

ummm :D

P.S. your time will be on tomorrow's scoreboard update - as will a correction to Terrirsidic's name! 🤦‍♂️
Awesome thank you.

PS. what video editing software do you use Alec? (or anyone else for that matter)
 
PS. what video editing software do you use Alec? (or anyone else for that matter)
Personally I just use good old Microsoft "Movie Maker" which does the job and used to be free. I believe if you poke around on the internet you can still get it as part of the discontinued Microsoft Live Essentials pack.
 
Well... fiddesticks!

I did a run, man... that area right infront of the base is a right female dog to get over! upon looking at my screenshots however, the 2nd screenshot missed some digits off the clock due to moving around the cockpit... kinda annoyed about that... ok it was a 7m 33s run so not amazing but still.

I've never really mastered the art of making the SRV go super fast, must take lessons!
 
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