Endurance Racing in Career

If you're a nutter (like me) who enjoys the offline endurance racing, then discuss it here.
Things to be discussed:

- What races you've entered
- Class / Car entered
- Race strategies
- Own and other AI performance
- Race reports
- Hints and tips

Tips for better endurance racing:

1. Map a 'Request pit stop' button. You can use it to call Bob in to the pits, and if you use it before you make a pit stop you will get a message if the pit box is occupied by your team mate.
2. Keep an eye on Bob because if it starts raining he will pit and put on the tyres that are set in your pit stop strategy. If these are softs he will stop every lap and keep putting them on until it stops raining, so you have to edit the strategy and select wets for him.
3. Set mechanical damage and flags and penalties off.
   That way if you make a big mistake you can still get back to the pits and fix the car.
   Also, when Bob cuts the track, which he does often, you won't get disqualified.
   

 

I should be doing the 25hours of Bathurst this weekend in a BAC Mono. Will let you know how I do

 

Good luck for that. I did it last Saturday and it was difficult because it's so easy to bump a wall and damage your car. Some strange things that happened during my race:

- Some AI got stuck in the pits and ended up reversing and going forward all the time. Luckily it didn't impact my pitstops.
- One AI seemed to have badly damaged his tyres. He was going very slowly round the track with sparks coming off the car all the time, but he didn't pit to fix it! He just went slowly round the track for the whole race.

I ended up 6th so I'll have to do it again this season to try get the win.
I was using Audi R8 V10.

 

Just finished my first endurance race in the EEC. 3 hours on Silverstone. Me in the McLaren 12C GT3. Class victory with 83 laps.

Although each class only had 7-8 cars it just felt great. Now, I really can't understand how on Earth I could find just a little enjoyment in the endurance races on the GT games. The last I did was on GT5. The Tsukuba 9 hour race. Remember that it was so easy, that I parked my car on the grass for an hour or something.

THIS was great. Some of the best hours I've had in a racing game. So much looking forward to the longer races, though I will not be able to do the 24 hour races in real time. Maybe do them in 10 or 12 hours.

It was also the first time I didn't have trouble with the A.I... A few times we bumped into each other, but that's it. Maybe I just have to learn driving in traffic. Never had to in other games. Besides open world racers, but that something completely different

I had three pit stops. I didn't want to take any chances with the tires. But I guess they could have last long enough to only pit twice. I don't know.

 

What races you've entered:
Spa 6 hours, 24 hours of Lemans, Road America 3 Hours, Watkins Glen 3 hours
- Class / Car entered
LMP2 Oreca
- Race strategies
Steady, and conservative yet fast.
- Own and other AI performance
Won all but a 3rd place at Road America

- Hints and tips
It is not a sprint race, but in a sense it is, treat every lap like a sprint race to widen the gap.

 

Burning a candle for a mid race save feature.

 

That would be nice, but I prefer using my AI driver to give me breaks rather than trying to drive the whole race myself.

 

A BAC Mono is eligible for an Endurance Race? Is this a real thing or just something they made up in the game?
Seems like a very strange car for Endurance racing.

 

The two 25 hour "Madness" races sound made up.

 

Ahh...that would explain it. I've only just begun the Career, so I have no idea of the possibilities ahead.

 

Comments relate to PS4

How are you guys so game to try endurance racing when the game crashes so often?

I have only done one two hour (shortened to minimum) at Le Mans and the game crashed 40 minutes in the first time. Second attempt I did finish it.

I will not be attempting any more endurance events until the game is patched and more stable.

 

I'm playing on PC, so I guess I'm seeing less bugs. The endurance races have been fine so far.

 

I think most of the problems in endurance races on the consoles are brought on by the length on consistent running. I've played Pcars over the last weekend for 3-4 hours at a stretch doing 15 minutes practice, back to the menu, tinker with the car, 15 minute quali, back to the menus, 30 minute race, back to the menus... etc.

But as soon as you commit the game into a prolonged session, hours at a time of non stop track time. Little problems creep in. I did 2 hours around Silverstone this evening. The sound began to crack an pop. The AI jittered about unsure of anything. I pitted and the fresh new tyres went straight to being red, 90 degrees to 150 in 5 corners. The frame rate dipped as night came in an all the lights brought shadows. And then the game had a serious freeze for 5ish seconds, spluttered back into life, made a zzzzzzrt noise and crashed the entire Playstation, prompting me to issue a report to Sony about the crash.

My Playstation is brand new, bought on the 7th of May. For a brand new piece of kit, I've never heard a more unhealthy system when playing Pcars. The fan noise is ridiculous!. Any other game, it's almost silent. 20 minutes on track an it's about ready for lift off. I mentioned it to a friend of mine, worried it might be a duff PS4, an he said the same back. He was worried his PS4 was knackered.

Short bursts of on track from now on. Endurance may have to wait, for the time being.

 

The Bathurst pit bug is one I encountered as well in the GT4 AP series. Not sure how the devs could miss that to be honest.

 

I just don't want my PC/ console being on for days, trying to do a longer one

I did the 24hr one in GT5 myself after they implemented the mid race save feature there. Stints of 3 hours and in a couple of days i did it. Had to enjoy the driving only as after a couple of laps the lame AI was already non existent and it rained the whole time (there was this bug?, that even if you selected changeable weather, the weather at the start of the race continued for 24 hrs)... But in the end despite these setbacks, it was one of the most enjoyable races i ever did.

 

What I said in the bug thread about ffb wheels playing up in pCARS relates to consoles too, imo. I wouldn't be happy if my console blew a chip or something whilst playing pCARS

 

How do you know your tyres are wearing low on the longer races? Do they turn red on the HUD?

 

No. You'll have to feel (and listen?) to find out.

Red tyres on the HUD just means that they are overheated..

 

Ah ok...nice realism then

 

I'm confessing to a quite short attention span. I can't see me doing many (if any) long races

Next up for me in career is 30 minutes (shortest available) at Watkins Glen and I'm overjoyed at the prospect

My bad of course. Fair play to those of you that can hack the long stuff

 

If long periods of racing seem to stress out the system to much why not just pause it now and then and give it a little break.

When I got my first Fanatec wheel there was an issue with the cooling fan in it. I could get about 1 lap around the ring before it kicked in and started becoming a problem. So when I was hot lapping or running a career race I would pause it on the last straight and let it cool down a little then I could do another lap without issues. Of course after replacing the fan it was no longer an issue but that worked fine as a work around.

 

It's me. I just don't want to do a single race that long. Many years ago, I did the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in 2x5 hour stints. That was on LM24 on the PS2, great game. No big deal anyway, pCARS has much to offer in quick race mode

 

Generally I need to refuel before my tyres wear out.

 

Just in the 2 hour Le Mans now, ran 40mins myself now just relaxing while the AI does his thing.

Can't be bothered to run the whole thing myself but online I'll quite happily run 2 hour races.

 

Endurance racing was one of the main reasons for me buying this game.

But I'll wait for patches. There is a lot of things going sideways on long races.

 

I guess I'm not used to long races. Get tired and lose attention after about 40minutes. I have FFB on 100% (Fanatec CSW) and for longer races this takes a lot of energy. But I will try, started career with karts (100% race length) and will continue to LMP with 100%.
How do others manage 3h+ races?

 

I'm getting to the end of season 3, so I should have some endurance races coming up in my calendar. This time round I'm going to prepare for them better, and go for the win.

 

did 55 laps of Road America in the Mclaren GT3 Last night, I only needed to pit once, but I pitted twice as I stupidly miscalculated the refueling. (lasted 2 hours give or take a couple of minutes).

Lapped second place on the last corner of lap 54. probably need to up the difficulty to the next one up for the next race!

struggled to keep the tyres warm though as it got darker, I don't know if it was because it was colder being night time or a bug or something but I managed it ok.

Silverstone tonight, probably do 66 laps there..

would love to do a longer race, just don't have the time really! mid race save feature would be cool.

 

A question for those who completed some endurances: how's the AI tyre degradation? So far my longest races have been around 30/40 minutes long, but it's been enough to notice a big difference on longer stints. They seem to have no wear at all.

 

You tend to run out of fuel before you need to change tyres in my experience of them.