Oil warning and long enduros

  • Thread starter Thread starter TJG63
  • 10 comments
  • 4,099 views
T

TJG63

Messages
20
Has anyone noticed a performance drop in their car DURING an endurance race because of oil going black? I'm not talking about after the race when you look at the car specs, I'm asking can you feel it has less power later on in the race?
I ask because I've done a few of the 4 hour and shorter enduros and everytime afterwards I've checked the oil in the car and it has been totally black. Do the oil change and back comes the BHP.
So what I'm asking is does this BHP drop happen during the race or do you only notice it for the next race?
If the Oil has gone black in a 2 hour or 4 hour race then for a long enduro (9 or 24 hours) it's going to be black for nearly the whole race. So you will only get the full BHP of the car for the first hour or so.
Am I right?
My driving is not nearly consistent enough for me to notice a drop in lap times but maybe some of you better drivers out there have.
 
Indy 500 you'll notice it more so.

After about 20 or 30 laps my laptimes dropped about a second. This is after a pitstop with fresh tires.
 
Yes it definitely happens during the race and in the 24 hour races the frame starts to degrade and the car will loose some handling before the race is done as well.
 
I haven't tried this myself, but it works in terms of realism. At the 24 Hours of LeMans last year, the winners covered over 5400 km (3360 miles). Even the best of oils will break down after 1000 miles or so at full bore. I'm sure those cars are down on power too, but it's hard to tell via lap times at LeMans as fatigue and other factors will affect the times.
 
Most definitely. Not to worry, because the competition is in the same boat. Their performance drops as well. So it's a level playing field. The HP loss is noticeable while playing.

In FGT Championships. my car lost 40 hp hp after the series. An oil change did bring the performance back, however.
 
The high horse power cars seem to loose performance more quickly. The small percentage of peak power lost accounts for a much larger number in those high-strung engines. losses will be especially noticable where top speed must be achieved and maintained to run good lap times. The FGT is one of the worst offenders of reduced oil life, I swear that thing looses power if you hover the cursor over it for too long.
 
Many thanks guys.
I ran the 9 hour Tsubuka over the weekend.
I picked a car that I coud do lap times of just under a minute to make it interesting (57-58 sec). For the latter part of the race I was having to be very careful to achieve a sub-one minute lap.
After the race the cars BHP was down about 60-65.
Replaced the oil and got the bhp back. Took it out on the Tsubuka track and did a 57.002 with my second lap. Better than I could achieve towards the end of the 9 Hours.
However I did find towards the end of the 9 Hours that the other cars were becomming better compettition and I was struggling to keep my lead (about 9 laps in the end). Perhaps their BHP didn't drop off so much as mine.
 
In the 9 hour Tsubuka in B-spec I've noticed when I checked BOB an hour or so in that the steering wheel is turned to the left. After each race I rebuild the engine for $500 which does a rebuild, oil and car wash and $500 to fix the body.
 
JCoop
Most definitely. Not to worry, because the competition is in the same boat. Their performance drops as well. So it's a level playing field. The HP loss is noticeable while playing.

In FGT Championships. my car lost 40 hp hp after the series. An oil change did bring the performance back, however.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. In the FGT championship i could easily feel that in the latter races the other guys were noticeably faster on the striaights then i was, where in the beginning i had a slight top speed advantage due to optimized gear ratios.
 
I haven't done a race in GT5 long enough for this to happen, but I know in GT4 it could happen. The best preparation was NOT to get a oil change before an endurance. And make sure that car's power is already bottomed-out. This means at least the car won't lose power during the race. 💡
 
I bought a car from the ucd, and forgot to change the oil before driving it. The oil light came on half way through the race (only like 5 laps). So I guess what I'm getting at is the oil is fine till you get the oil light.

*edit* but the hp will decrease before the light comes on.
 
Back