Most endurance racers TRY to stay out twice as long and can't. We can't really hate on the AI THAT much.
However, I'll let you try to drive a competitive car against those 🤬 at Le Mans on sports tires. The second you get near them, they'll shunt you.
If I could chat with those AI, the first words out of my mouth would be: "It's a 24 hour race, you flipping 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 "
Hey, you're the one who brought up the Chicane.
I'm not sure I'd want to drive the cars for the 24-hour races on Sports tires either, but as always I'll figure it out when I get there soon. I do feel your pain with their violent idiocy for sure, believe me.
I hope you don't think I'm being argumentative, because I'm not. I've just had an itch to check this out for a long long time and you gave me an excuse to try it. Yes I'm sure it's been done before. Long post incoming:
I'm planning on running the 9-hours in the Blue RE Amemiya FD35 RX-7, one of the AI cars. Usually I'd rather not be as much slower on the straights as it is, but I'm enjoying driving it so I figured I'd run it. So I'm comfortable driving it by now and it should be good for the test. I put some Racing Mediums on to match them and set out to run the times that they do.
I was a little slow at first(it's tough to drive that slow!) so I couldn't catch the AI RX-7 and follow it, but I ran steady 1:00 laps after a couple laps of finding the rhythym and ran steady without gaining on them. I did eventually start gaining as their tires wore out, and I could still keep running the same times while keeping the tires silent.
The AI RX-7 pitted after 33 laps. My worst tire reached the level his was at on lap 38, the same lap as the Mine's Skyline pitted, and as I caught the long-running CT230 that inherited the lead. I kept going to see how long the car stayed manageable at that pace. I was able to keep running 1:01 laps through lap 40, then my left rear got too low and began causing problems.
I only ran one :59 lap in the stint, and that with slipstream. The AI RX-7's best was :59.5 to my :59.7 but I don't know how many :59s he did. Still, I think it was close enough to confirm that the kind of tire wear they get IS achievable if you drive at the relaxed pace they do.
I always wondered if they had some sort of bonus that made their tires last longer, but it seems they don't. I actually outlasted them at a similar pace, and used less fuel too. I could have probably run longer if I slowed down at the same rate as they did late in the stint. My car is stock besides a couple small suspension tweaks(most notably .05 rear toe), broken in but oil not changed since purchase.
I think I'll probably end up on Sports Mediums for the actual race, or else a LOT of ballast on Softs.
Aussi, je trouve le français mieux que cette langue Américaine qu'on parle (mauvaisement) au Canada, avec des accents terribles! Mais, parce que j'aimerais voyager pour tout le monde, j'ai appris l'allemand, l'espagnole, le français et l'anglais. Prochaine: la langue la plus belle; Russkiye.
Mais, je parlerais dans des PMs quelques langues différentes, si vous vouliez continuer... 💡
