Nurburgring 24hr Endurance in A-spec - Completed 07/01/2006

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FLK

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Been meaning to do this for several months but never found the time, so finally I've now got lots of free time til next week :)

I first tested out a variety of cars for this, my garage lacking in 300-400bhp race cars wasn't giving me much choice. I really wanted to use a street car but I knew the chassis would probably be falling to bits before half distance. Seeing in Famine's post he had used the Clio Renault Sport Trophy V6 24V Race Car '00 I decided to use it over the AMG Mercedes 190 E 2.5 - 16 Evolution II Touring Car '92. After winning the Clio cup in the Renault Events I tried the Clio Trophy out stock. Good handling but I was unable to catch the leaders. I then added N/A stage 2 (upping the bhp to 407) to the car and performed a stage 3 weight reduction & stiffness.

Opposition

BMW M3 GTR Race Car '01
Spoon S2000 Race Car '00
AMG Mercedes 190 E 2.5 - 16 Evolution II Touring Car '92
Nissan C-West Razo Silvia JGTC '01
Opel Calibra Touring Car '94

Hour 1-6:

The first lap went well and I passed the leading Opel Calibra about 1/3rd into the lap. The 2nd lap was going well until the M3 GTR passed the Calibra and began to catch me. By lap four and several offs the M3 GTR was about ten seconds behind, he seemed faster in the second part of the track while I was better through the straights and the first half. This could be interesting. I pitted at the end of lap 4 with near-red rear tires and exited some ten seconds behind the GTR. Not until exiting the Karussel did I catch glimse of the M3 having gained back 4 seconds. Unfortunately I fell back to 14 seconds after two infuriatingly silly offs before the long straight down to Antoniusbuche. I then passed the GTR as it pitted at the end of the lap. Nothing much happened after this apart from lapping the trailing S2000 on lap 7. At the end of the first hour I pitted again with the tires in a slightly less dire state some 30 odd seconds ahead of the M3 GTR. Coming out onto lap 9 I emerged over 9 seconds ahead of the M3.

Over the last three hours not much has happened worth noting, the M3 GTR has speeded up a little but still is dropping behind at a comfortable rate but it's already beginning to drag and I've still got 20 hours to go :eek:

Again not a lot happened over the 4th & 5th hours, one or two big offs and some more lapping of tail-enders. Really stuck into a rhythm now around the track and setting average times of around 7'14.000's give or take. It's nearly midnight now so I'll call it quits for today. Hopefully I'll put in another 6 hours tomorrow.

Hour 7-12:

I've just finished this phase with 98 laps done and 1252 miles on the clock. The car is still in good shape though I have noticed a slight deterioration in the handling which has dropped me into the 7'20.000s average per lap. Haven't been able to spend as much time as I planned due to New Year etc..... so it'll probably take me until the end of next weekend to finish as I won't be able to spend much time in the week due to work.

Now I'm halfway it should hopefully go quicker, it's a bit boring now that the M3 GTR is so far back and I'll probably lap him before 24 hours is up, but once I'm done I'll have some cash and an F1 car allowing me to finish the game properly :)

Hour 13-18:

I'm about halfway through lap 146 with 1877 miles done, the chassis has settled and I'm back into the mid to low 7'10.000s with my lap times. I lapped the 2nd placed M3 GTR on lap 111 and he's over 1.5 laps down by now. I was hoping for a much closer race, perhaps something to try another time :) Well I've broke into the last quarter and hopefully I'll do another hour or two tonight allowing me to finish sometime tomorrow.

Hour 19-24:

Final part of the race went smoothly with not much to report, lapped the M3 again on lap 172 and then it was just a case of getting to the finish. Bit of a boring race nearer to the end as you can see there's not much to say. Finished with 2515.5 miles on the clock and a bhp drop to 396bhp from 407bhp and during the course of the race I made 49 pitstops, pitting every 4-5 laps. Chassis degredation was minimal and I hardly noticed and had no dropping in average lap times.

One recommendation I have for doing 24hr races after doing this myself is to make sure you pick a car that's going to get around 200 pts or match the opposition, this race would have been far more interesting if I'd been kept on my toes throughout the race, when you're not being challenged it just adds to the pain of amount of time it takes to do this. Anyway I now have an F1 car and a much healthier bank balance for my efforts, shame the F1 car is green. Just the two Le Mans now to A-spec :D

Final Standings (3rd - 6th my best guess)

Laps done: 196

1st: Clio Renault Sport Trophy V6 24V Race Car '00 (Me) Time: 24:05'21.310
2nd: BMW M3 GTR Race Car '01 Time: -2 Lap
3rd: Opel Calibra Touring Car '94 Time: -6 Laps
4th: AMG Mercedes 190 E 2.5 - 16 Evolution II Touring Car '92 Time: - 9 Laps
5th: Nissan C-West Razo Silvia JGTC '01 Time: -24 Laps
6th: Spoon S2000 Race Car '00 Time: -30 Laps

Best Lap: 7'06.920 (Lap 111)
A-Spec Points: 63
 
Does the engine wear out??? I never thought it would but ive never done any of the endurance events, (my discs bust,after every race it cant read the next part,so i have to reset)
Id love to do an endurance tho,also,is there a meter for the chassis wear?and A-spec points?
 
The engine doesn't wear out as far as I know though the chassis does deteriorate and you'll get hp loss as oil goes off. But nothing different to what normally happens after you use a car for a while in GT4. There's no meter for it but you may notice a slight change of handling through the later part of the race, though it's nothing to worry about. A-spec points are only displayed at the start/end of the race, again as normal :)
 
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