Ryk's Second Attempt at LeMans

[Ryk]

Previously I tried to do the Aspec 24 hours of LeMans in a 908 FAP. And All was going well: a grand race with the lead car well into the night, neck and neck swapping the lead back and forth... Until my PS3 froze ... Wabbajack!

So here I am several months later - with no Seasonal or GTAcademy commitments - Let's get some laps down eh?

Car - hmmm... The Gillet and Lister Storm won't have the speed how about the Pescarolo Hybride? - Sounds nice. (This was me looking through my car list - I watched a Demo run - Engine note sounded good enough...)

Let's tweak the set up... (To be a bit like Will27's Pug 908 set up.)

58/82 Aero

4.000 1st
3.000 2nd
2.300 3rd
1.825 4th
1.500 5th
1.250 6th
2.000 Final
(285mph top speed indicated)

0/-10 RH
11.5/12.5 Springs
6/7 Jounce
5/6 Droop
2/3 Roll Bar

1.7° / 1.0° Camber
-0.05° / 0.10° Toe

5/3 Brakes

(Set up Guru's can tell me how bad this is, - Point at my Quaint Gearbox numbers -
Carrol Smith: “Always split the torque as many ways as practical - use the maximum number of gears on any given road racing circuit”. )

Bought a full set of Race tyres -
No Turbo added.
And once I got in the race it had the Red Oil Light on. (So the Car will now be known as Roxanne.)
3,539.3miles

I then slipped on some fresh race dudes from my Usual Glitch Gear suit.
Trickster 28 Lid (White and Green)
Foehn 28 Babygrow (White Blue Green)

(Nice for those Cinematic Pit stops... I guess)

Ready to hit the track?

Nope visitors dropped in. Relatives... You can choose your friends

Several hours later...

To the track

Grid - Cracking hot sunny day in France. Looks like a Dry start Lets look at the grid.

McLaren F1 GTR - ....................................
............................................- V RAMIREZ
Bentley Speed 8 ............................................
............................................- D ROSI
R390 GT1......................................................
............................................- J CLEMENS
Toyota GTOne.....................................
............................................- B ALFORD
Dodge Viper GTS-R .................................
............................................- W LOWE
Pescarolo C60 Puegeot......................
............................................- W GILLIAM
Pescarolo C60 Hybride ......................
............................................- RYK
BMW V2 LMR ..................................
............................................- S VECA
Audi R10TDi ....................................
............................................- B HEATH
Mercedes-Benz CLK-LM .................................
............................................- D GRUBER
Dodge Viper GTS-R .................................
............................................- J HUFF
Pescarolo C60 Hybride......................
............................................- M NGUYEN

I had no real idea just how good the car was going to be, what gremlims I had put into the car. If an Old tired car with no driver aids could even keep up. But There lies the fun.

Started off like a bullet, zipepd up the other, but the Bentley had gapped me and I was well behind. The Car was fast, Gears were instantly thumbs up, 6th had the length to let me use a car as a slipstream.

The vices were the car was chewing up the tyres. I was locking up in places, mostly the slow fiddly stuff, and the car was breaking traction under power out of several corners, Bumps made this worse. (Exit of the Dunlop Chicane, Exit of Tetre Rouge, Exit of the Second Mulsanne Chicane, Exit of Mulsanne Corner, Indianapolis, Arnarge, Part of the wimpy Porsche Curves (Can you say the P word in GT5?) and the Ford Chciane... so pretty much all the lap the rear tyres were losing the battle to put down the power of my 5 litre Judd engine.

This was a learning process, I had to get on up the track, And this made me spin, leave the track a few times in the first couple of laps.

I then got with the program and drove smooth. Every off track bit of grass cutting (Arnage - nobody messes up Arnage, Takes real Skill to do a 360° here.)

1. 3m47.? Started with RM/RM Tyres
2. 3m38.?
3. 3m45.?
4. 4m02.? RS/RM No Fuel
5. 3m43.1
6. 3m35.2
7. 3m41.1
8. 4m00.4 RS/RM No Fuel (3rd place)
9. 3m36.6
10. 3m33.2
11. 3m42.7 (In Lap)
12. 4m18.6 RS/RM 40 Litres
13. 3m34.8
14. 3m36.0 (2nd)
15. 3m37.7 (Forgot to pit...)
16. 6m21.6 (In Lap - Out of Fuel at Mulsanne Corner...)
17. 4m16.7 RS/RM 40L
18. 3m33.7
19. 3m37.1 (3 minutes down in 7th place)
20. 3m38.5 (In Lap)
21. 4m17.? RS/RM 40L
22. 3m34.?
23. 3m34.?
24. 3m40.5 (InLap)(7th - 3minutes 26 seconds down after stop)
25. 4m18.0 RS/RM 40L
26. 3m31.9
27. 3m34.5
28. 3m37.2 (Forgot to pit)
29. 3m45.5 (InLap... 3 or 4 litres of fuel left)
30. 4m18.7 RS/RM 40L 6th place - 190 seconds down)
31. 3m34.2 155seconds down
32. 3m33.6 148 seconds down

And that was where I suspended the race.

A good thing about suspending is the Marshalls get a chance to replace the bollards the AI seem to like to knock over... not an issue now, but at Night having an Apex marker at Mulsanne Corner would have been nice.

Mistakes
Running out of Fuel - Cutting it fine with the 40 Litres of Fuel... but if I had only done 4 laps I would have been good...

Pulling a Surprise 5 lap stint later was again my own fault - I was pushing to get past a Viper before the Ford Chicane... and I did, nice clean move up the inside... I was lucky that I had enough fuel to let me make the pits a lap later.

The AI seems to be on 5 lap stints, I had the lead of the race at times as the pit stops plans crossed over, but I am going to pull an extra stop every 20 laps, But I think I run faster stops - less re fuelling time - I think I am reeling in the leaders, (only 22 hours to go!)

Questions?
Do I stick with my current 4 lap sints.
4m17 + 3m34 + 3m34 + 3m40 = 15 minutes 5 seconds

Do I fuel longer, and push for 5 laps?
Tyres, RS/RM
The RM's were pretty thin when I did run 5 laps, with 4 laps I can push moderately hard and get away with a few smokey exits.

I had softened the brakes, from 5/3 to 4/1 - and generally sorted my act ot over the lap so me much smoother and easier on the car into and out of corners.

2 hours and I'm in 6th...

 

[Ryk]

Well I just spent an hour typing up a load of fluff for Explorer to "fail"

High Body Magic Indeed. (Internet doens't know this, but Humans with a(n un)natural electro magnetic field that disrupts electronic devices (Watches/ Phones Radios/Lorrentz force inducers...)
Bottom line is I have eeked away the gap and am about to pit at the end of lap 77 in 3rd place 20 seconds down.

Night is falling, but I seem to be lapping and pitting with purpose to reel the leaders in. My 4 lap stints are short - I think the AI run 5 or 6 Laps, The tie dones't exactly fall away during a lap. but there must be places they are much slower... it isn't the Mulsanne straight.

FL is a 3m31.1 - but that was Slipstream assisted.

Not had much slipstream action. That will change during the night.

I think the car uses 35/36L of fuel every 4 laps. Still run RS/RM tyres.
Tyre wear is good, but If I am running hot early in a stint, then I get a few added moments on the inlap... thankfully in pretty easy put down the power onto a straight locations where I am waiting for the back end to get loose anyway.

Back Markers have been good, Except the Audi which just loves to park on an apex, or hog the centre line on the narrow bits of the track. The Vipers and the McLaren are both well behaved.

 

[Ryk]

Short stint today
Lap 70- 77 and
laps 78 to lap 101

All 4 lap stints.
Same pattern of RS/RM tyres and 35kg of fuel.

Light levels went from pretty dark to proper dark, My lap times were bad in the sort of 80% dark light levels, but then I sorted myself out and start putting down some really tidy stints.

I am now in the mix of a three way fight for the lead. I've seen the Bentley but the other contendor is my team mate Nguyen in the other Pescarolo Courage C60 Hybride.

I think I may have had a rain glitch - But I promptly gave much of the time I seemed to gain with an unforced spin at Porsche T1R -

Not sure why, I was on Lap 2 of a stint (Usually the fastest - so grip levels shouldn't be an issue) I remember feeling I was going into it too slow, and pootling a bit, maybe I put a bit more steering lock and added a bit more power and hit a bump - whatever the back end slewed out and corrected but that just got the pendullum swninging and I lost the front tyres as well - goofy mistake

The rest of the stints all felt so so, but the lap splits and times were slow. +30 seconds over a 15 minute stint. My best came later - with a full four lap stint only taking 15 minutes and 01.9 - just 1.9 seconds over my benchmark (I've yet to pull a Sub 15 yet but I think I will when the light comes back and I really nail some of the softer corners.

Had another off... a bit of a "Vettel vs Alonso @ Monza Royal Park" really, went side by side with the Nissan on the run to Indianapolis... just went too deep, off line, wheel on the grass, and spin city into the kitty litter. Went from 3 seconds lead to 6 seconds behind.

Fireworks are distracting and the run from Mulsanne to the pits are very touch and go. I've made some committed passes, but one off will kill your flow and add 10 seconds or more to the lap.

 

[Ryk]

PLugged a few laps today - At this rate it could well take a week real time to finish the race.

The Fire works stopped a short while ago (8 hours in?) But prior to this I had a bit of a scare as the sky seemed to lighten with blue/orangey brown clouds - but they have gone now and it is back to being really really dark.

My pace is iffy as I was up till 4-30 watching Payton Manning lead the Broncos to victory over the old and older Steeler's Defence.

Packers lost, to the 49'ers - I'll have to find out more on the results - but I think every NFC North team won - Even Minnesota.

I used to be a Running back like you - then I took a Punt to the knee.

133 laps in I think, just over 8 hours, The lead is swapping between myself the Bentley and a car I've not seen (You don't count lights in mirrors) - But I guess it is the other Hybride. My pace is faster now, going way deeper into several corners, just overall much more sharper laps, less dithering about near corners. Pulled a 3m30 today - but I think it was slipstream assisted, but also had some tardy laps, even though the felt pretty good.

Traffic has been hit and miss.
The Audi R0 is by far the most awkward plod to pass.
His latest party piece was to slow down mid apex at Arnarge and practically park the car.

Bloody Four Ringers - they come to our country - take our jobs... (Pay our Taxes, do those naff things we don't like doing (like hard work.).)

Looking forward to the sunrise, No rain yet, My pace seemed to be about 2 seconds faster over 4 laps than the other two cars, but we seem to take turns leading, Only to loose it in the pits - I did make one pass for the lead, but that was just as the Bentley puleld into the pits... so not really a true pass, but a rare time I went over the line knowing I would be leading by Dunlop.

 

[Ryk]

A very short stint today - curse you real life. But I pulled in some fantastically fast times relative to my previous pace. Two sub 3m30 normal laps and the in and out laps were both very committed - I gained a huge chunk on my usual just over 15 minutes for 4 lap pace.

Both sub 30's had helpful drafts And I was a bit more confident in the Porsche curves. And my line into Mulsanne has been trimemd down so I am full banana, brake... off the brakes and turning in without any of the previous waiting for the turn in because I had dropped the anchor too early.

And I have to remind myself this is in the dark. - Maybe less visual clues means you really focus on "that" tree you brake at. Maybe with dawn all the scenery will distract and my lines will not be so - clinical.

I also had a bad crash, traffic went to pass but the car sort of leaned over on me, I don't like the way they get off the racing line and sit in the middle of the track.

The car I was passing was the C60 Peugeot, and his tyres were shot by the way he was crawling along when I passed him later in the same lap.

Lesson Learnt? Don't rush to pass. The car in question left the usual line (Left hand lane) moved to the middle, but I had already commited to a pass on the right, the Ai car then just seemed to bleed over more than I wanted. (My right tyres were not on the grass but they were close.)

So If I leave Arnage and a car is ahead>>> I may follow for an easy pass into the Ford Chicane or on the pit straight.

I maneged to pit and stay in the lead, SO I may have to dip into the bag of make the race interesting...
Swap tyres? RM/RH and find how long they last?
This I will probably do anyway.
Forced tyre conservation with RS/RM tyres?
Sometimes I have spin, push real hard and on the forth lap my tyres (Usually the fronts) are shot. I have already done a 5 lap stint with RS/RM... can I make 6 work?
I will probably do this as well, even if it is just one stint it is another aspect to try, and then when I return to the usual 4laps RS/RM stint I can push real hard rather than driving with kid gloves, nursing the car around.
Same 4laps RS/RM - but go fuel conservation.
Currently I refuel with 35Kg of fuel, and my pit crew tell me this is - just less than the stint requires. Can I run and use less fuel and still be pretty fast? This will be even more short shifts, getting up to 6th sooner, Not dropping beyond 3rd gear. All those fun things.

The flip thing is saving fuel will also save the tyres... and I will feel a bit naughty stopping after 4 laps if my tyres are still good for a few more laps.

Hopefully a few hours of spooning about won't end up with another Out Of Fuel moment of clarity.

 

[Ryk]

Up to lap 193 now, Still dark, at 11 hours I expected the dawn to break as the sky went from Black to a light glow of orange with a bit of blue and the edge of a large cloud bank - most noticible at Chicane 2... but the expected ""amazing" sunrise didn't happen... tth sky just remained 95% dark...

Pushin pretty hard, and my fuel is dropping, every stop the suggested "Fill her up, Sir?" amount gets larger and larger. When I was out of fuel it wanted 100 (With a chance to improve that to 101kg. -

I've been putting in 35kilos every stop except for Lap 118 when I put in 40 as the Brim it value was 92.
After that I was at 87 - and the amount has crept up almost every stop, I did a brief few laps in fuel conservation mode, Never letting the revs get over 7,000 (Red line is just about 8,100) This was easy to do, saved the tyres, but cost alot of time - The time it takes to put in an extra kilo or two of fuel to compensate is more than balanced by the Hard lap times being several seconds per lap faster -

best lap is now 3m27.9 - not in a draft... where do I get the time? Not sure as the "Guide" lap time for my car is 3m20... I've still some time to find, but I had been struggling to make 3m36 laps and Now I could, if asked, pull a sub 3m30 on lap two of a stint if needed.

Improved places.

Ford Chicane - much more faith in my initial turn in, kiss that curb, kiss the other curb - just feels right, and the second part I don't have to throttle up and then brake for it. It is more a case of getting the car back over to the right side of the track to set up a nice turn in so I can get a very soft final right handed line for the run to the start line.

Places I know I am bad...
Esses - car isn't happy here. In fact the whole section from the Dunlop Bridge down the hill to the curvy esses, and down to Tetre Rouge I feel like I am skating on ice. The Back end skips about, The front end locks up more than other place - making me understeer off the good line.

Tetre Rouge should be a Corner to make sure you can nail - but I am not. A Good Tetre Rouge pays back all the way to the First Chicane - and that is a long long way.

I am least getting the inside right wheel to kiss the curbs, but I am slow as I don't carry the speed through and drift over to the left side of the track and nearly kiss the ripple strip on the left... I am either too fast/offline and clatter over the left side curbs (Not often - twice after 194 laps) Make total horlicks of the turn in and cut the corner jump those neat yellow glow strips and fumble my way up the hill (Once out of 194)
Or tool through - and feel like I am leaking liqued lap time at this spot)

Indianapolis feels liek it has wrong footed me a few times, Maybe I could go in deeper and brake later - but you gain so very little for being a hero here, and you lose so much if you balls it up.

Arnage - Feels like a smooth line here in 3rd, If I go a bit hot here, put the power down too early the car really lights up the rears, and with the steering lock I always end up with a heart in mouth moment of trying to catch a slide with much more than a mere "Dab of Oppo".

Porsche Curves - My lines feels better here, I'd like to swing in for a late initial apex, maybe comming in to the right side just as the rumble strips terminates. However I seem to be braking turning in and hugging the inside (right) all the way through... if I am too fast then I spiral away fom the curbs, and compremise the following Left just before the timing split.

example stint
4m11.5 Out
3m27.9
3m32.2
3m38.6 In

Best Out lap
4m08.7 (!)
3m27.9 is my best hot lap Usualy the 2nd lap of a stint,
Best 3rd lap is 3m29.4 (But it could have had a draft)
3m36.8 is the most eager my inlap has been.

Gap is now over 2 minutes (So I am passed Mulsanne Corner by the time P2 crossed the line. and the 3rd place Bentley got lapped a short while ago.

Half done, Half to go. I may upset homelfe I pull an all nighter, and quaff some liqued Cat Krunchie Drink (Red Bull - or any other Taurine/Caffeine syrup).

 

[Ryk]

Really chugging along now, The shame of resuming is that familier tyre marks on the track get cleaned up and helpful moved bollards get reset.

The light effects on the tarmac and put down rubber is really nice in the early morning, Had a really nice "bad line lock up" on the outside racing line at Tetre Rouge which is a bit of a bogie corner, but this thick black line (Locked the left front into the corner and ran a wide line missing the apex by a cars width) This black line was such a nice helpful guide - but lost when I resumed...

But At least I don't muff up the corner as much now.

Moved Bollards - for some reason an Ai keeps plowing into the Ford Chicane green bollards next to the pit in point. Some of these bollards end up further down the track but add a bit more detail for the slow tighter final part of the Ford chicane.

My lead is 2m40 or so, I've grown up a bit not pushing all the time, but not pushing when I come to lapped cars, Much more realistic.

15hours and 25minutes into it, so just a couple of proper sessions and it will be over.

Getting better at the Porsche curves, spotted a tree (Now it is light!) that I can aim for for the first right hander, this gets a nice line on the right for the turn in for the fast left before the GT gantry split.

Tyres, I am pushing more at times, and burning up tyres and making the pit in lap a bit dicey .

That said I am saving fuel using 35kg per stint compared to my usual 36 (Wow that was an exciting piece of news - James Allen worthy - what next Tyre pressures?)

May swap to a 54kg fuel and RM/RH tyres and what I guess would be a 6 lap stint on harder tyres.

I predict it will be slower to do two 6 lap Medium/Hard stints than Three of my current 4 lap Soft/Medium Stints.

No sign of any rain, just 25% broken cloud . I kind of wonder if It will stay dry or how quickly the weather could change.

Another wonder is how good my set up isn't. May post it in the Set Up area and get an expert opinion - "You did 24 hours with that? You're braver than I thought!"

 

[Ryk]

Plugged away a bit - Had a dash at a 6 lap RM/RH 54KG stint, and that went - not so well.

First few laps were pretty good, grip felt nice, lap times were quite good, but then the grip just fell off... the tyres overheated mid corner and would pitch the car into a slide - a spin and a crash. The final lap the tyres were only useful to put on the front of your boat to stop it from hitting the jetty.

If I gain 10 seconds for not stopping I lose 10 seconds in out and out pace plus a lucky bag of bonus time lost with bodged corners, and tardy turn ins.

Back to RS/RM - but my fuel economy is much improved now it is light. 35kg per 4 lap stint.

Had some off stints, Pushing pretty darn hard, but not treating the tyres well and spending the tread depth early in the stint only to run out on the final lap. When you run on thin rubber the grip gives up ever so easily if you push too hard (Heavy brakes, hard Acceleration, snappy loaded steering.) and when it does lose grip it takes a while for it to come back.)

But it is all a learning exercise, and Now I am getting much smoother at Tetre Rouge. Still feels a bit coasty at times, but the line feels safe enough, I get my clipping point and the speed is enough I drift out to the white line (I never use the curbs) - however getting the power down can get the back end to start to wag a bit, so I have to lift, feed in a Dab of Oppo, and save the day - but that sort of showboating costs time down the big fat straight (Which I think runs to and through Reims and Rouen-les-Essarts - Both French Grand Prix Tracks - But when F1 came to LeMans they used the Bugatti Circuit, which misses out the Mulsanne straight.)

only 5 hours to go, half a lap up on the other Judd C60.

Weather has been dry all race, the clouds have sort of bubbles about, but I've never peeked up and thought that it was going to rain any time soon.

 

[goofycool]

Love the approach. "I like the way this car sounds. I'll do a 24 hour race in it." You're off of your rocker, you realize that don't you?

If you're tearing up your fronts to fast, you may want to try evening out your brake bias a bit. Put a little more in the back.I'm running no ABS like you and I'm using 2/2 and getting pretty even wear wich is paying of later in the run. A 2/0 or 3/1 is easier for trail braking and more forgiving but for me the front tire wear was killing me. You also might find more braking performance with a more even bias. You do have to get more of your braking done in a straight line and ease off as you turn in. I know that you already have a rhythm for this race and you seem to have it under control so I'm not say to try it now. Just something that I found helpful for myself that you may want to consider. Good luck with the last 5 hours.

 

[Ryk]

Tyre wear

The balance is pretty even and it is down to the driver which end of the car loses grip.

If I drive like a loony high revs low speeds big smokey get aways from the low speed corners : then my rear tyres will be the place that gives up first.

If I try to brake late and deep into every brake zone - and push firmly into a few flowing corners then my front tyres get the pounding.

Often I push real hard get a really nice lap time, only for the final lap of the stint to be a real test of nursing a wounded car back to the pits for fresh boots.

I prefer the fronts going first as I can live with and drive around terminal understeer, but When the rears go I am scuppered.

I do run with the RA function so I can alter the brake bias mid event (And in Arcade mode) I think I had it quite high but a few stints and you soon work out how much brakes you can have. But, As I have grown faster and more forceful over a lap the more I am putting more strain on the tyres - But I am also much more efficient over a lap, less bad lines and saving an off track moment with an armful of lock and some serious braking.

--

Only managed a few laps today - Sunday Roast and MotoGP and Garden to soak my time.

But in the 45 minutes I did manage I caught the 2nd place car and lapped him.

I did pul a ned PB, which seemed to come out of the blue, and the sun came out and the track was much more colourful - I doubt sunny weather gives you extra pace, I am sure it was down to me really hammering through the Porsche Curves... which I am growing kind of fond of, once you understand the lines and are happy giving up a bit of pace, only to give it the beans through the next apex. (The blind left just before the time split is a feel good when you nail it full banana skimming the full width of the track, but not hitting the curbs... nice.)

I think he was in car #16 - So tip for furture events, chose the Second Car when you do enduros so that you don't get carbonfibre copy cars on the grid. (So the Yellow Nose Audi R8 for example)

---
Yeah was a bit silly to pick a car because it "sounded nice" but I was after doing the 24, even if I lost the race, I would have done the distance, and done it as fast as I could during the race.

I'm looking forward to the Nurburgring 24 - Not sure what car to use for that. The Vertigo may be good enough, I've done a few laps at Nurburg in it - in 650 spec seasonal I remember - and it was good, but the engine note was a bit annoying. On a busy track it wouldn't be an issue but Nurburg has seveal long full throttle points where an engine note that has a Sound Artifact in it will prove tiresome to me.

 

[goofycool]

@tire wear; 👍 You've got a car you can flip backwards in a heartbeat. @car sound; I think you have to like the sound for a 24 hour deal otherwise it could drive you insane. I'm 17 hours into mine and I'm glad I picked the car that I did.
What about one of the Ford GTs for the 'ring? The spec II test car sound just oozes muscle.

 

[sumbrownkid]

For the Nurb 24 hours, I'd recommend the Peugeot 905 for its lightweight and quick turning response. Agility over top speed is the main concern on the Nurb anyway.

 

[Ryk]

Did a short stint today - Prety wasted staying up till 4-30am to watch the American Football... crawling to bed for 4 hours then getting a Douwe Egberts infusion and getting on with Monday.

Very happy with the state of the LeMans race, I've settled into a 4 lap stint. But each stint has the tyre wear vs lap time balancing act. If I drive hard and fast at the start - then I really run the risk of losing loads of time on the final lap... Which is fun to try to avoid.

Still got 3 and a bit hours to go. And I bet when I finish my Online bonus will be 100% or something low...

Nurby24
Need to test it out a bit, Try a few cars to see what could do it.
I don't think I want to run a LMP car - I'd like to run the Ferrari P4 or the Shaguar XJ13.

I like the proper GT40 (Not the D.S.Gurney/A.J.Foyt Mk4)

The Mazda Furai - Nice engine...

Wonder what parts of the track will get painted with black lines - looks so smart at LeMans.

Another wonder is how bad my (Current C60 Hybride) set up is... would a set up with a lower Aero level be much faster on a lap? WOuld it compremise corner speeds?

It feels like I crawl through most corners at the moment, at the low speeds the aero downforce isn't that great at helping, But big fat Aero lvels does mean I can pedal pretty fast at Porsche Curves and the Esses... Logic is telling me that lower Aero will pay back much more in top speed than it will cost in slower cornering ability.

May run a few fun laps later with a few set up alterations just to find out.

 

[Morgoth_666]

I found the corner at the Ring that was by far the fullest of those lovely tire-brush-strokes to be the right turn with the kitty litter after the downhill hop that I believe is the start of Pflantzgarten -- the last time you are usually off the throttle until Schwalbenschwantz after the fast esses.

In all four stints of my 24 hours that one got painted right up. I think it was mostly Tetre Rouge for me at Le Mans until the rains came, I rarely seemed to get that one right. With that corner at Pflantzgarten it doesn't seem to matter how smooth you are, it always gets marked up because of the jump. Looks quite interesting after a few hours.


I don't think I've ever seen anybody provide conclusive evidence of a low-downforce setup having any real benefit on any track. I know I haven't ever been helped by it, for whatever that's worth. Maybe SSRX in some cars? If the drag racers run high downforce(and I think most do from what little I've read about it on here), that should probably tell us something. All the "smart guys" seem to usually say to max it out and then just tweak it for balance.

Even at Le Mans the time you lose seems to far outweigh the time you gain, as adding downforce seems to give a substantial benefit to cornering while only a very small drag penalty. You also will tend to scrub the tires more. It might provide some tactical advantage in high-speed overtaking areas, but that's hardly an issue against the park-bots even in a really tight race. You can also just pass them in the twisty bits where you'd never get past a human even if you can't get them in the "proper" overtaking spots.


Good luck hanging on for the finish!

 

[Ryk]

Done it, I had stretched out my lead to well over a lap but the final push I was very very scrappy and the car seemed to give up in corners - high speed corners - much more than it used to.

The lead just dropped and dropped but all due to silly spins, or running out of tyres. - So be advised you need to keep focus all the way to the end, I did win. But was mighty narked when I couldn't save the replay - or at least the chunk of replay for the end.

Car had more power than I expected - 810bhp, But a factory fresh version has 880 - and I guess with a spurt of fresh oil a zero miles Hybride would be over 900bhp...

Tips if anyone tries this event...

If you do drive this
- The Standard Hybride gets a diagonal hatching of dirt smears - which is kind of off putting in pit stops
- The Other Hybride in my race was Green 16 - So if you want to be different use the Red (Red Mirrors) number 17.

Once you get a pattern even a used, well worn LMP will have the pace to ease away form the other cars, (For me anyhow)

I guess dropping the driver aids on or curb crawling will shave a few secodns per lap off... blatent corner cutting will gain loads of time - SO you can afford to play a hard game with a stint on a testing schedule - but you can cheat the time back if you mess it up.

- If you do pull out too much of a lead.
Limit your fuel
Push your Tyre longevity.

I Coudl have run 5 lap stints on my RS/RM tyres, IF you drive carefully

Driving like a fool you can destroy them in 3.
I'm not sure how ABS TCS and the rest will help tyre stamina, But no lock ups or smokey corner exits must save tyres, - If you are beating the AI, have a try without the aids.

Now I am down to 110 bonus and I only got 5 paints... faff.

I'll post the numbers up later.