24 Hours of Le Mans with Driver changes (Early Stages of Planning)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Earth
  • 30 comments
  • 2,673 views

Would you participate in this?

  • Total voters
    30
  • Poll closed .
Earth

Earth

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8,077
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GTP_Royalton
Problem: There is no way to run a 24 hour race online.

Solution: Practice/Free run is unlimited and has a timer. If the time change is set to 1x the time of day and weather will pass realistically over 24 hours. Also because it is in free run lapped cars will not ghost and increase the challenge of overtaking back markers or GT cars. Tires and fuel burn off in free run/practice just like the race. The only difference is the absence of the draft/splipstream.

Problem: Theres no way to do driver changes.

Solution: A team of 3-5 drivers take turns driving in the room. When one is finished with his stint he pulls into the pits, records the number of laps he's completed, sends a message to his co-driver through the PSN to join the race in 30 seconds because he's getting out now. You could finish your stint in the dry with the sun up, and when you get back into the car 6 hours later it could be pitch black and raining. Over the course of 24 hours no two drivers should be on the same lap so whatever team completes the most laps wins.

Problem: What if I get disconnected?
Solution: Just rejoin the room and get back to racing. Any time lost will be considered a mechanical failure

Problem: What if someone lies about the number of laps they've completed? There's no way to be sure.
Solution: True, but this is just as much if not more about the experience then the final finishing order.

Problem: I don't have the time for a 24 hour race.
Solution: The race will start Saturday afternoon and finish Sunday afternoon which should not interfere with work for alot of people. If your concerned about having to race too much during that 24 hour period join a team with 4-5 drivers.

Settings:
Damage: Heavy
Off Track Grip: Real
Penalties: Heavy

The race will consist of 7 Le Mans prototypes from the years 1999 - 2005 (these cars are the most equal in performance) and 8 GT1 cars.

A quick example of possible cars,

LMP

Bentley Speed 8 '03
Team Joest Audi R8 '01
ORECA Playstation Audi R8 '01
BMW V12 LMR '99
Toyota GT1 TS020 LM '99
Pescarolo C60 Hybride '05

GT

Dodge Viper GTSR
Corvette C5R
Ford GT LM
Pagani Zonda LM

A mock race would go like this,

1pm France time the server opens. Teams may send one driver into the room at a time to check the track conditions. Weather will be set to sunny but will not be locked at Sunny. At 2:30 France time only the starting driver for each team should be in the room. A brief qualifying session will be held. 7 minutes until 3:00 a pace lap will begin. Ideally the race will begin at 3:00 and the timer in the room should be at 2:00. The race should end at the 26:00 hr mark.

I believe this will work but will require:

- Someone with a fast, sturdy internet connection to host the event and always be in the room
- Cooperation and complete understanding from 45 - 75 drivers
- Someone to oversee all this. Sadly I'm not that person though I wish I could be. Someone who's been at this forum at a long time and is dedicated enough to this idea should take this over and make it reality

Interested Drivers:

  • Earth
  • Talon
 
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I would participate, but only if the stints are shorter than 6 hours. Not realistic I know, but I don't have six hours at once to spend on a race. Now if it were two hours at a time, I'd be in for sure.
 
Talon
I would participate, but only if the stints are shorter than 6 hours. Not realistic I know, but I don't have six hours at once to spend on a race. Now if it were two hours at a time, I'd be in for sure.
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Length of stints would be up to the team

If there were 3 drivers on a team they could take turns doing 2 hour stints meaning you would have to drive 2 hours, 4 hour break, 2 hours, 4 hour break etc. If that's too much just get more drivers on your team. A team with 5 drivers would be easier. You would only have to race 2 hours, break 8 hours, race 2 hours, break 8 hours etc

This is not something new to me. I have competed in an online 24 hours of Le Mans race before in 2006 with WOSEC using, believe it or not, a modded NASCAR 2003. Alot of the techniques used in the first post are the same we used as WOSEC, drivers running a stint, exiting the game, then the team driver enters into the race and keeps going.
 
Well ok then, yeah this sounds like a good idea. Put me on a team and I'm in. 👍
 
I need a team, and a car that youve selected, but im in.

Could you do a pre-Race homolgation run to allow people to run whatever car they want in GT class? What if i have an Aston that can keep up with the GT's?
 
You are onto some real good stuff man. This is a GREAT idea and I would love to participate if I could find a team with 5 drivers. I can't do more then 2 hour stints at a time due to my TV (stupid 60'' projection screen) overheats and I risk doing long term damage to it.
 
Well maybe we can be on the same team then, because I don't think I have the attention span for more than two hours. :lol:

And personally I find the street cars more fun to drive, so maybe we could have a street class too?

Edit: I just thought of something. I don't know if this is what you intended Earth, but having multiple classes at the same time would be awesome.
 
hawkeye122
I need a team, and a car that youve selected, but im in.

Could you do a pre-Race homolgation run to allow people to run whatever car they want in GT class? What if i have an Aston that can keep up with the GT's?
Click to expand...

Thats an interesting idea, will look into it. I've found half a dozen GT cars around 600 HP and 1150kgs. How do the race mod cars stack up? We may just use certain race modded cars

Ive opened up my PMs, shoot me up

Thank you Blessorship. The process of choosing teams is still some time away

3 things must happen before the race:

1. Someone with a fast reliable connection must volunteer to use their PS3 as the server. Even if he gets disconnected the race can still go on but we need a reliable source. Sadly my internet is not fast or reliable enough

2. A mock 24 hour test race by 4+ drivers to make sure it will work. On paper it works but it needs to be tested. Then teams can form

3. A 6-9 hour "test day" to allow teams to practice driver changes etc.

I am hard at work on rules

Talon, there will be two classes, prototype and GT. Prototypes are roughly 25 seconds a lap quicker so traffic issues should keep the race lively

Eveeryone remember I have just laid a foundation. I need your help and input to make this possible
 
I am interested in this too. I think the thing to keep in mind is that people need to be in it for the experience more than the glory. I think bigger teams might make things easier. As someone pointed out earlier, with teams of 5, you would only need to to a 2 hour stint once every 8 hours, which is pretty feasible for most people.

As far as cars, I think it is unfortunately necessary to keep it to unmodified racecars. When you start talking street classes and things like that, it could get complicated making sure that everyone has the same modifications and stuff. That actually raises another question, what do we do about tuning? Is each driver allowed to tune his/her car as they wish, or do the teams have to all agree on a setup? How do we verify?

Personally, I think that it might not be worth the effort to try to make sure that everyone on each team uses the exact same setup. It will probably make for cleaner racing if each driver can set their car up to their own liking.

Anyways, I am excited about this, and would like to participate!
 
Im interested. Could the teams be people who are literally in the same room?
 
I would like to get in on this. I would prefer a GT1 car/team.
 
Im really interested in this, the format is a great idea! Hope the V12 LMR comes round int the dealership soon.
 
Sounds like a cool idea if there was enough people to a team to make it feasable for people.

Best to make up teams of varying time-zones then too so that for example at 10 or 11pm somebody in the eastern time-zones would do 2 hours, then move across Europe and by the time you work your way across the US, it'll be Sunday morning for the original drivers then so it won't mean people will be racing at silly hours in the middle of the night.


Cars entered should be GT or LMP cars bought as is with just an oil-change or engine rebuild if people think they need it and can obviously buy all the race tyres so they have options of picking different compounds during the race if they want to stay out for longer stints or gain ground on the leaders on shorter stints.

Suspension, LSD, transmission, brakes, aero tuning and any other settings on the parts fitted to the car as its bought would all be allowed then as some will want their car to have different driving characteristics for driving style etc and it will also make the racing more interesting as some people may choose to run more aero and cornering grip while others may want to take advantage of the straights.
 
I'll join. If my team has 4 or 5 drivers of course. :)
 
I would be in if my team had 4-5 drivers, the car type doesnt really matter to me.
 
I would be in if my team had 4-5 drivers, the kind of car doesnt really matter to me.
 
I was thinking, maybe there could be 3 teams of 5 people and the last slot goes to the host.
 
jimftr
I was thinking, maybe there could be 3 teams of 5 people and the last slot goes to the host.
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That would only mean there would be 3 cars racing at any one time!

14-15 teams of 4-5 people each.
 
This definately sounds interesting and I'd be inclined to have a go, although of course I would prefer to be in team of 4-5 drivers to do it. I won't be getting my PS3 and GT5 until January so would this be a problem or will it be sometime later on next year if it went ahead?
 
DaveM-sport
That would only mean there would be 3 cars racing at any one time!
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Since all members of a team won't be in the room at the same time, we can have as many as 15 or 16 cars on the track at once (depending on if the host is on the track).
 
Love this idea, me and a few mates have talked about this for years.

But we would want to do this, all in my mate's house rather than over the intertubes. Would it be acceptable to do drive changes this way while the car's in the pits.

SO up for this!
 
MrKipling43
Love this idea, me and a few mates have talked about this for years.

But we would want to do this, all in my mate's house rather than over the intertubes. Would it be acceptable to do drive changes this way while the car's in the pits.

SO up for this!
Click to expand...

We can make this happen. Once we figure out how long it takes for a driver change we will simply ask you guys to take a self imposed time penalty before the new driver enters the race. So once you change out drivers you wait in the pit lane for lets say 2 minutes (or however long a driver change turns out to take) to simulate a driver change then you go.

I've been cycling through the used cars like mad to look at the specs for the cars we're looking for. Thankfully, all the cars are +/- 600hp. The way we can keep the cars equal and limit cheating is to simply set the maximum power allowed for the race to 600 horsepower. For example the Toyota GT1 is 599 HP. Dont change it's oil and you stay under the limit. The BMW V12 LMR is 571 HP, but with a oil change it should be right at 600 HP.


So far I've seen these cars. If anyone else knows the power level of these cars pre oil change please let me know.

Le Mans Prototypes

(All horsepower levels are before oil change)

  • 519 - Pescarolo '03 (a little too slow)
  • 571 - BMW V12 LMR
  • 579 - Audi R8 ORECA (I'm assuming the Joest R8 is identical)
  • 591 - Pescarolo '04
  • 599 - Toyota GT1 TS020
  • ??? - Bentley Speed 8
  • ??? - Pescarolo '05

GT1 Cars

  • 501 - Mazda RX7 LM Race car (a little too slow)
  • 542 - Jaguar XJ220 LM (a little too slow)
  • 586 - Dodge Viper GTSR LM
  • 590 - Nissan Fairlady Z Concept Racecar
  • 616 - Nissan GT-R Concept Racecar (too much HP, but perhaps with alot of running the engine can wear down below the 600 HP limit)
  • ??? - Chevrolet Camaro Racecar
  • ??? - Ford GT LM (The standard car/white with black stripes)
  • ??? - Pagani Zonda LM
  • ??? - Corvette C5R


Rough schedule that I'm looking at right now

  1. January - Private 24 hr test to ensure it works
  2. February & March - Signups, teams form
  3. Early April - 6 hr test day
  4. Late April - The Race

Thank you to everyone for the interest
 
How will you regulate the weight of the GT cars vs the LMP cars?
 
hawkeye122
How will you regulate the weight of the GT cars vs the LMP cars?
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Don't have to because you can't change the weight on racecars which they all are.

GTs are all roughly 1150kgs

LMPs are all roughly 900kgs

LMPs are meant to be faster as they are in a different class
 
I am in. so is nba336. I would be at his house and we'd share the same car. Hoping to get my sister on board to run with us :)
 
Jaedon
I am in. so is nba336. I would be at his house and we'd share the same car. Hoping to get my sister on board to run with us :)
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Man I am jealous. I don't think I know anyone in real life who plays GT :( I will have to settle for team mates from afar. This is starting get really interesting though. I need to find a team, and then figure out which car we are going to use.
 
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