Decided to go back and do the 413PP Dino challenge before this seasonal goes away. Wow. What an adventure. And not necessarily a good one. But sometimes okay. haha.
Here is what I noticed. If I drove a perfect course with good lines, no bumping, etc, I could catch the Enzo somewhere in the second half of lap 3. Could definitely manage to pass him well before lap 5. But here is the rub. IF I did that it was a an absolute certainty that he would ram the crap out of me on the stretch between Brundle and Sebring. I mean, I knew it was coming every single time. One of the times was so ridiculous I just had to laugh out loud. He literally came up on me with enough speed to blow my doors off. But instead of passing me, he came right up on my right side rear quarter panel and nudged me into a spin. I had to save the replay just to confirm it was actually that audacious.
On the other hand, if I made a mistake (sometimes intentionally, just to prove my theory) somewhere between the later half of lap 4 or early in lap 5, it was guaranteed that there would be some point before the end of the race whereby I could easily pass him back for the win. It could be that he simply ran off the track or that he carries a lower speed through Daytona that I can easily roll past him. No matter how it happened, if I made a mistake at the right point of the race, all I had to do was wait for the obvious opportunity and take advantage of it before the end of lap 5.
So my final conclusion on using the 413PP Dino in this race was that it was, overall, not that fun.
I always try very hard to run clean races, stay on the track, don't hit other cars, and all that good stuff. And I feel great when I can do it. But even though I was able to pull off several wins with this car, I don't feel good about any of them. Because I did not have ONE SINGLE CLEAN race! And the most frustrating part is that, I was completely helpless to have any control over that! The better I did, the more certain it was that the Enzo would cause some sort of crash. That's frustrating.
I'm not a programmer. So I can't begin to understand the challenges of using computer code to try and emulate real drivers. But I can't imagine that it's too hard to avoid creating just adversarial conditions. I mean, really. I would think that PD would want to PROMOTE good quality driving. Instead, some of these races practically endorse bad driving, reckless driving, and even blatant unsportsmanlike driving. They should be ashamed.
Ultimately, I'm satisfied that I could use the 413PP Dino for some wins. But only because I proved to myself that I could do it with my entire Ferrari stable. The only fun I had with this seasonal was with any car that I could do sub 2:10 laps in. Because then, once cleanly through the traffic, the damn Enzo couldn't catch me and I could concentrate on running a clean race that ended with (hopefully) a new best time. I never did break the 11 minute barrier. But I got close and I know it was possible AND I had fun trying.
