- 16
Le' Sarthe-II - 98 Mercedes CLK-GTR, 179 points, 437 laps.
Car had about 90 miles on it starting the race; all of those are setup miles. Car has no modifications but the pit crew gathers up a full complement of racing tires and probably puts in fresh oil before the race. Race setup is minimal downforce, long and soft suspension travel, with the gearing pegging the limiter all the way down the last 2/3 of the long straight. I figure with this gearing, as the car goes away it will still pull good at the end.
Race came in at 179 points, 437 laps with the 88C-V one lap and maybe 20 seconds down in second place. The C9 was in third place not sure how many laps down but quite a few. The rest of the field was rounded out by the R89C, 787B, and the XJ-9R, no idea how they came out. I lost track of the C9 when he went down 3 and lost track of the others long before that.
Started on R2/R1 tires and was able to turn 3:10-3:13 laps but the 88C-V was able to turn the same lap times depending on how much fuel they had on board. Hit the occasional low 3:09 lap and by hour 4 was able to pull out a 40 second lead, mainly due to my longer pit strategy. He's running a 7 lap window and I'm on 9. But hooked a tire pitting-in which resulted in a spectacular spin that had the car in the sand up against the outside wall way down past pit entrance. Lost all 40 seconds and then some getting out of the sand and working back into the pits against traffic.
Built up another 20 second lead by hour 8 but the poor CLK wasn't pulling as hard and the lap times were creeping up to the 3:11-3:16 range (full fuel load is now more penal). By hour 13 the CLK is shaking badly and it is a struggle to stay on the track, it has also slipped back to trail the 88C-V by 17 seconds. In a desperate move the pit strategy was changed to R2/R3 tires and short fueling to 70 liters. This move pays off as the car is drivable again and back on a 3:10-3:15 pace with and occasional 3:08-3:09.
Unfortunately between the hours of 18 and 20 the CLK's handling deteriorates significantly but not to the point where it is anything but a pain in the differential. At 22:38 the oil light on the CLK comes on, thankfully the lap times are holding but the handling is still slipping. However it looks like the 88C-V is also suffering, in fact it looks like the only car on the track that isn't falling apart is the C9 and to a lesser extent maybe the 787B.
In the last half hour the CLK has deteriorated to the point where it is barely drivable and crashes every three or four laps. Most of the crashes are on the long straight just past where the first chicane for Le' Sarthe-I turns in. There is a bump there and if the car hits it with it's tail wagging just right, the car snaps straight left into the Armco. So the strategy becomes to coast thru that section off throttle. Unfortunately there is also a smaller bump several hundred yards further down track that also occasionally snaps the car into the right Armco. But even with all the crashing the 88C-V isn't able to make up more than a dozen seconds, so it is clearly experiencing issues of it's own.
Post race in the garage the CLK shows 769 HP, and jumps to 819 HP with an oil change (over 6%?). I'm baffled at some of this data. I was under the impression that the oil light will not come on in any single race ... I was surprised when it did. However, since then I have read other reports where it did also. I thought HP loss was limited to 5% max. I'm also surprised that no one mentions how badly the handling of the car goes off ... ok maybe I can dismiss this as a poor setup issue on my part. In Famine's race reports the 88C-V is about 10 seconds off the pace I was seeing (and it's finish seems consistent with that, 11 laps down). I wonder what the difference was, tires, tuning, or something else?
Lastly there is no longer any mystery in my mind why some people report the computer driver sometimes crashes at this track. No software bug here, I crash myself in the same way, at the same spot, and I assume for the same reason. Although strangely I have never seen my "Bob" do the crash bit here but I never let him drive this car either
Car had about 90 miles on it starting the race; all of those are setup miles. Car has no modifications but the pit crew gathers up a full complement of racing tires and probably puts in fresh oil before the race. Race setup is minimal downforce, long and soft suspension travel, with the gearing pegging the limiter all the way down the last 2/3 of the long straight. I figure with this gearing, as the car goes away it will still pull good at the end.
Race came in at 179 points, 437 laps with the 88C-V one lap and maybe 20 seconds down in second place. The C9 was in third place not sure how many laps down but quite a few. The rest of the field was rounded out by the R89C, 787B, and the XJ-9R, no idea how they came out. I lost track of the C9 when he went down 3 and lost track of the others long before that.
Started on R2/R1 tires and was able to turn 3:10-3:13 laps but the 88C-V was able to turn the same lap times depending on how much fuel they had on board. Hit the occasional low 3:09 lap and by hour 4 was able to pull out a 40 second lead, mainly due to my longer pit strategy. He's running a 7 lap window and I'm on 9. But hooked a tire pitting-in which resulted in a spectacular spin that had the car in the sand up against the outside wall way down past pit entrance. Lost all 40 seconds and then some getting out of the sand and working back into the pits against traffic.
Built up another 20 second lead by hour 8 but the poor CLK wasn't pulling as hard and the lap times were creeping up to the 3:11-3:16 range (full fuel load is now more penal). By hour 13 the CLK is shaking badly and it is a struggle to stay on the track, it has also slipped back to trail the 88C-V by 17 seconds. In a desperate move the pit strategy was changed to R2/R3 tires and short fueling to 70 liters. This move pays off as the car is drivable again and back on a 3:10-3:15 pace with and occasional 3:08-3:09.
Unfortunately between the hours of 18 and 20 the CLK's handling deteriorates significantly but not to the point where it is anything but a pain in the differential. At 22:38 the oil light on the CLK comes on, thankfully the lap times are holding but the handling is still slipping. However it looks like the 88C-V is also suffering, in fact it looks like the only car on the track that isn't falling apart is the C9 and to a lesser extent maybe the 787B.
In the last half hour the CLK has deteriorated to the point where it is barely drivable and crashes every three or four laps. Most of the crashes are on the long straight just past where the first chicane for Le' Sarthe-I turns in. There is a bump there and if the car hits it with it's tail wagging just right, the car snaps straight left into the Armco. So the strategy becomes to coast thru that section off throttle. Unfortunately there is also a smaller bump several hundred yards further down track that also occasionally snaps the car into the right Armco. But even with all the crashing the 88C-V isn't able to make up more than a dozen seconds, so it is clearly experiencing issues of it's own.
Post race in the garage the CLK shows 769 HP, and jumps to 819 HP with an oil change (over 6%?). I'm baffled at some of this data. I was under the impression that the oil light will not come on in any single race ... I was surprised when it did. However, since then I have read other reports where it did also. I thought HP loss was limited to 5% max. I'm also surprised that no one mentions how badly the handling of the car goes off ... ok maybe I can dismiss this as a poor setup issue on my part. In Famine's race reports the 88C-V is about 10 seconds off the pace I was seeing (and it's finish seems consistent with that, 11 laps down). I wonder what the difference was, tires, tuning, or something else?
Lastly there is no longer any mystery in my mind why some people report the computer driver sometimes crashes at this track. No software bug here, I crash myself in the same way, at the same spot, and I assume for the same reason. Although strangely I have never seen my "Bob" do the crash bit here but I never let him drive this car either
but still a stunner for sure.
!
