24h races, more car than driver? Discuss

  • Thread starter Thread starter diablo6vt
  • 27 comments
  • 2,396 views

24h races, more Car or Driver?

  • Car

    Votes: 39 59.1%

  • Driver

    Votes: 27 40.9%
  • Total voters
    66
D

diablo6vt

Messages
57
Ignoring edge cases (e.g. terrible drivers), I've come out of my 24H concluding that it's probably more about the car than it is about the driver. Specifically, I think its hard for even a skillful driver to hold his position against a superior car with just an average driver, over such a long race.
 
A good driver can make a car faster, but a faster car doesn't make a better driver.


The best piece of advice I can give for enduro's is pit strategy. Duck in earlier than the next guy and you should gain the position when he does finally stop. If you watch Formula 1, you see it all the time... in fact any racing series you do. You also don't need to brim your tank every stop, saving you even more time over the AI who will do just that.
 
I think that the AI has been made better. I ran LeMans in the 787B and it wasn't all that easy. I only won by 2 laps...and part of that was because it rained all night and I used intermediates which were faster than the rain tires.
 
CorvetteDawg
I think that the AI has been made better. I ran LeMans in the 787B and it wasn't all that easy. I only won by 2 laps...and part of that was because it rained all night and I used intermediates which were faster than the rain tires.
Click to expand...

I thought RS is the fastest tires in the rain?
 
Erm the captain obvious fanboys could have just voted. I think it really isn't as obvious to many as one might assume.

Thankfully HippieG etc understood the issue pretty well... at least for me I first tried the 24H in underpowered cars in attempts to make the race more competitive, then I gave up midway and restarted in my trusty 908 which unfortunately ended up blowing the competition away heh. And I wanted to hear from similar experiences of others here.
 
deadcat777
I thought RS is the fastest tires in the rain?
Click to expand...


RS are nothing but arcade tires of GT5. I usually avoid RS especially endrurance unless I'm drive a badly inferior car. I normally use the same tires the AI including rain tires to get at least a little challenge.
 
Definitely more car than driver, but weather plays a role too. I've seen the mclaren outpace even the 787b in full rain.

Safest tires in rain for me is intermediates, they aren't the fastest but i can live with them.
 
And a very good driver can come back from a down fall that may have hurt the car regardless of who was at fault.
 
No real answer to this question ultimately, it's one of the chicken vs egg arguments of racing.

The car changes what's possible, but you still have to drive it. A monkey could probably win Le Mans with an X2011 vs the GT5 field, but a good driver in a stock Corvette can beat a moron in a 908 at the Ring.

In GT5 it's much less meaningful than reality because in GT5 you just need to meet a given pace. If you can do that pace with a slower car, you'll win. Of course a faster car will make you faster. In reality it's a competition between [ideally] quality competitors in comparable equipment. A faster/more reliable car helps, but again you need a team of drivers to go fast enough without making mistakes, and a pit crew doing the same, and somebody has to find the optiumum setup balance.

I think it goes something like this:
If the other guy wins, it's his car.
If I win, it's my driving.
If the other guy blows it, it's his driving.
If I blow it, it's my car.
 
Giygas
^I'm thinking you did that vette thing.
Click to expand...

LOL, no that was just an example, but I've seen enough evidence to know it's possible, particularly on that track. The Nordschleife is unkind to the unprepared, as is endurance racing.
 
We can speculate all day on whether a skilled driver in a bad car can beat an unskilled driver in a good one but 24hr races have cars close enough in power to each other so it's driver skill that wins it... the car is the tool and the driver wields it.
 
Heathenpride
24hr races have cars close enough in power to each other so it's driver skill that wins it...
Click to expand...

Hmm I don't know about that... Would you say for instance that the Viper GTS is as fast as the C60? Moreover any small difference per lap will just be magnified 300-400 times over a 24H race. :dopey:

(Ooh, xmas smilies.)
 
Last edited:
Morgoth_666
I think it goes something like this:
If the other guy wins, it's his car.
If I win, it's my driving.
If the other guy blows it, it's his driving.
If I blow it, it's my car.
Click to expand...

End of discussion :lol:
 
It's both car and driver. One is no good without the other.

If you are running a one make race with a fixed tune then it is all driver but if a sub-par driver has a much faster car he will have a better chance at winning the race.
 
If you are driving a X2010:tdown: then the car has all the credits, and I would say to you, “shame on you”, you are missing a great experience, specially doing it in real time with no pauses at all (I’ve done both races in that way with my brothers and sister).

Lemans- Peugeot 908 (1st Place)
Nurburgring-Audi R-10 (1st Place)

Believe me the driver makes a great difference. Lemans is easier for sure, but to win Nurburgring you need a good setup, concentration, a good pace and it is not for everyone.

In Nurburgring the driver takes ALL the credit.

(of course, you will need a proper car, you won’t win any of those races with a 1100 VW Beatle)
 
Last edited:
"Sure it matters who's got the biggest stick, but it matters a hell of a lot more who's swinging it" - Gen. Shepherd, MW2, 2009 XD
 
In a 24H race against real people I would have to say driver because you have to be more consistent, but against AI who just go around the track consistently and rarely crash like a normal human a big part of it is the car. Overall I'd say driver.
 
I just completed the 24 Hour of LeMans. To win I needed to beat the C60 Hybrid which completed 364 laps. That is an average of 3:57 per lap including pit stops. I won by 12 laps and averaged 3:50 per lap. My actual running times were about 3:25 dry and 3:55 wet.

Anybody who wants to win the race needs to be close to the times I posted. To accomplish this some drivers will need a lot higher spec cars than others. I expect there are some drivers who can't post these times regardless of the car they chose. I used a Peugot 908 '10 speced at 726 PP with racing soft tires on the dry and rain intermediates in the wet. I know that there are lots of drivers who could meet these times with a lower spec car or lower spec tires.

The simple fact is that it is a combination of the car and driver and neither can accomplish the task without the other.
 
Last edited:
As someone said before: it is a combination of the two. A good driver with the right strategy can win with a lesser car. A much superior car makes it easier for a lesser driver.

I have done LeMans 1 and 1/2 times (first time didn't finish due to the ps3 being accidentally turned off). The first time pitting every 8 laps in the rain I was up 7 laps by hour 16. The second time pitting every 6 laps i finished 5 laps ahead.

The second time it was a much more relaxed drive because i wasn't fighting the car in the laps preceding the pit stop. It took a lot longer to build up a lead (basically stopping twice as much as the opposition) but doing consistent laps was dead easy comparatively speaking.

Both times I used the Minolta 88 car in absolutely stock form.
 
I've just started the 24 hour Le Mans (2 hours in), and I'm using a bone stock Bently Speed 8 with some slight suspension tuning and gearing set to 420km/h.

At the moment my main challenger is another Speed 8, although there is a hybrid, BMW and the Merc on the same lap. If I use Race Hards I am around .5 - 1 second a lap quicker if I make no mistakes, on Race Mediums around 5 seconds quicker and on Race Softs 10 seconds a lap quicker.

So I would say it is a combination of driver & car also.
 

Latest Posts

Back