24 Hours of Le Mans

[topgearhead]

So I am looking at completing the 24 hours of Le Mans in GT5 in real time with 3 of my friends.

Our experience levels vary, I am the most experienced playing since GT1. However one of our drivers has only played a handful of times.

I have been entering the race to do testing and I have to admit I am concerned about our ability to win doing this legitimately. By legitimate I mean, no corner cutting with 10 sec penalties for violations, no pausing (EVER) if we loose a minute in the pit because a driver is in the bathroom then so be it. Each driver must drive at least one full stint, with drivers staying in the car no more than 4 hours at a time. I am trying to make this as realistic as I can without getting in a real car.

After extensive testing we have decided to use the 908 HDI FAP (even though I am not a fan, it is great on tire wear, and it corners more consistently than any others we have tested with) I have determined that a stage two turbo will be fitted to better compete with the 2001 R8's that we are put up against. The traction control will be set to 10 with no other driver aids turned on. (I was against this but after testing in the rain I am afraid I have no other option with a novice on the team)

For those of you who have completed the race in A-spec I have a few questions:

1: Would you feel confident in your ability to win the race with the conditions above?
2: How much rain (in hours) did you have to deal with.
3: How well were AI cars able to deal with rain (did they pick up time on you in the wet?)
4: Are you willing to share your pit strategy? (we are currently looking at 8-9 lap pits on Soft/soft for the more experienced and 6/7 lap pits on soft/soft for the less experienced players) keeping the car at roughly 3/4 tank after the stop) I have confirmed that I can make time on the AI cars in the dry on soft/soft with 8-9 lap pits. But I am concerned with the 6/7 lap strategy for some of our drivers however it may be our only safe bet as the last lap requires a fair bit of car control skill.

We may also be looking at documenting our process with video cameras good idea? bad idea?

Thanks for any input!

-Blake

EDIT: Just noticed I posted this in the tuning forum. If a mod would like to move it to Q & A forum I would appreciate it.

 

[-raVer-]

1. I didn´t do this race yet but I would try it without the Turbo and TC less than 5
2. If you´re unlucky you have 8+ rain hours (my B-Spec had 11)
3. I don´t know.This needs to be tested.
4. I would match the fuelling time with the tyre change time.



raVer

 

[topgearhead]

Just wanted to give an update: Cycled the Le Mans race till we were starting on a wet track. I had read somewhere on these forums that racing soft tires actually have more grip on a wet track than racing rain tires. I can confirm that this is in fact the case.

I have raced for about 2 hours in pouring rain on rain tires and It only took a few laps to see how much better the softies were. Took my 4:15's down to 4:00's. I also had no problem pulling about 23 seconds per lap away from the AI cars. I will do some more testing with no turbo upgrades. Now that the engine is broken in it is making quite a bit more power than it started with.

Feeling a lot better about the whole thing now this certainly simplifies our pit strategy a bit.

 

[CMvan46]

If your pulling away from the AI at 23 secons per lap then:

Your driving 240 minutes at a time (4 hours). Lets give you an average lap time of 4:15 (just because of boredom and tiredness) means your doing about 56 laps per shift that your driving. Even if your gaining 15 seconds on average per lap that is a lead of 14 minutes in just your shift and remember I'm keeping this quite conserative here. If you drive twice then you've given your team a lead of a half hour. Even if your other drivers just barely keep pace with the AI you should be fine.


Also since your in the tuning section check out RKM tuning's thread. They have a 908 tune in there called the 908 Killer Whale and this might decrease lap times and help make it easier to drive for your novice driver.

 

[bartonesq]

I would recommend mapping TCS and ASM settings to your controller. That way, you can take the TCS off when you race, but still have a stable, slow tune for your novice friend or for when it rains. I mapped the on-the-fly menu to the R3 button, replacing the horn,

When I did that race I was very glad I could adjust the settings just to break the monotony a little. I don't recall it raining for much of the race.

By the way, I think the on-the-fly menu is useful for nearly all races. I rarely adjust anything other than TCS, but sometimes online will increase it when I've gained a lead and just want to maintain it without stress.

 

[topgearhead]

If your pulling away from the AI at 23 secons per lap then:

Your driving 240 minutes at a time (4 hours). Lets give you an average lap time of 4:15 (just because of boredom and tiredness) means your doing about 56 laps per shift that your driving. Even if your gaining 15 seconds on average per lap that is a lead of 14 minutes in just your shift and remember I'm keeping this quite conserative here. If you drive twice then you've given your team a lead of a half hour. Even if your other drivers just barely keep pace with the AI you should be fine.


Also since your in the tuning section check out RKM tuning's thread. They have a 908 tune in there called the 908 Killer Whale and this might decrease lap times and help make it easier to drive for your novice driver.

Thanks for doing that happy math for me, it does make this see more possible. The problem I have is that one of the drivers has played GT5 probably 4 times now total. I'm doing my best to get him trained up but it is hard to just plop someone in an LMP and get them running fast laps.

That RKM tune has some pretty crazy-aggressive suspention settings, I'll give a try. The one thing I'll add is that I have tested the brakes on the LMP's and have found that even on 10/10 break bias the car is unable to lock up the tires (ABS off) while breaking from 6th gear (really anything over 160 MPH) So if ABS is set to 1 any setting less than 10/10 bias is increasing straight line breaking distance. I thought this was interesting. Even more interesting is that even with rear break bias equal to front break bias the fronts will lock first under hard breaking (shouldn't be possible with weight transfer).

 

[topgearhead]

I would recommend mapping TCS and ASM settings to your controller. That way, you can take the TCS off when you race, but still have a stable, slow tune for your novice friend or for when it rains. I mapped the on-the-fly menu to the R3 button, replacing the horn,

When I did that race I was very glad I could adjust the settings just to break the monotony a little. I don't recall it raining for much of the race.

By the way, I think the on-the-fly menu is useful for nearly all races. I rarely adjust anything other than TCS, but sometimes online will increase it when I've gained a lead and just want to maintain it without stress.

wow I did not even realize this was possible! That is super helpful I can put it to TCS and ASM on for him and 1/off for me!! I love you right now!!!

 

[MitchZ06]

Yeah but I'm wondering how...is it the RA select and adjust functions or something else?

 

[topgearhead]

Yeah but I'm wondering how...is it the RA select and adjust functions or something else?

Yes it is the RA menue and options. IT IS ALSO CONFIRMED FOR BEING AWESOME! on the fly aids and break bias!! too cool!

 

[MitchZ06]

Im getting no confirmation that anything is actually happening tho :/

 

[Sohvakettu]

The car in real life has TC so if it's realism then you can just leave it on.

I wouldn't ad power if you have a novice in team. The setup should be neutral or just slightly understeery and kind to tires. Remember that the novice driver will definitely get better during the race. Also split the stints in shorter segments. The 4 hours is the max that rules allow these days but i'd say that most teams don't have their drivers out that long unles the driver feels like staying out.

 

[bartonesq]

At your GTLife Homepage, go to the icon on the left that looks like a gear called "My Home Settings." Go to options, go down to Hardware, go to button assignment. Map RA show menu to R3. Choose a way to map the RA + - functions. Adjust menu on the go. You will be able to adjust TCS, Front-Rear torque (4WD only), ASM, brake bias.

If you want confirmation something is happening. Set TCS up to 10, go through a turn full throttle, and you won't have any power. This effect is greater with comfort tires. Then switch it back down to zero and try the same turn. Your tires will spin.

 

[Basilea]

Do I understand you correct, that you want to have TC at 10, but ABS at 0? Because ABS is the think I would be more concerned!

 

[Will27]

I did this race a while back with the Toyota GT-One stock(802bhp) with Racing Medium tires by myself. I picked the GT-One because it was easy to drive, and has less low-mid range grunt.

The race was dry the whole time.
My pit stratergy was stopping every ~10 laps.
Most of the race was spent short-shifting, and driving smoothly. The AI was as very close for pace at the start of each stint (Pescarolo C60 Hybride), but by the third lap, my tires were in much better shape so I could pull away(still driving smoothly, short-shifting etc.)
Could have got 11-12 laps out of the tires, but that was too much of a risk, especially when I was tired.

By my math:
I did 394 laps in 24hrs 6 sec. (last lap was reserved for donuts, 6min40)
394 laps total. 39 pit stops. 78 in/out laps. 315 race laps(excluding final lap).

Average lap= 3:31.111 (excluding in/out laps + final lap)
Fastest lap= 3:22.862 on lap 296 (Bored)


Good luck! It may feel like you want to quit, but don’t. It feels fantastic when you know you’ve done it!

PS: With some other testing I did, I could see better at night with the 908’s headlights on low beam.

 

[Z1-AV69]

1: Would you feel confident in your ability to win the race with the conditions above?
2: How much rain (in hours) did you have to deal with.
3: How well were AI cars able to deal with rain (did they pick up time on you in the wet?)
4: Are you willing to share your pit strategy? (we are currently looking at 8-9 lap pits on Soft/soft for the more experienced and 6/7 lap pits on soft/soft for the less experienced players) keeping the car at roughly 3/4 tank after the stop) I have confirmed that I can make time on the AI cars in the dry on soft/soft with 8-9 lap pits. But I am concerned with the 6/7 lap strategy for some of our drivers however it may be our only safe bet as the last lap requires a fair bit of car control skill.

1. The turbo seems like overkill for me, choosing softs should be enough for a save victory. All drivers will get a lot of practice during the race. Preserving the tyres is easier without the turbo.
2. This depends on your starting conditions. If you choose the bluest sky for the start, you may have some (1-4) hours or even full dry.
3. This very much depends on your tyre choice. If you choose the same as the AI, rain can be tough. I preferred to choose always one tyre class "better" than the AI, meaning racing softs when the AI (or your pitcrew) choose inters and inters if they choose rain tyres. If the AI is on rain tyres and you use inters, it's easy to gain 20+ sec a lap.
4. On racing softs I could do up to 12 laps without TC (908 without turbo), usually did 11. Preserving tyres is a nice challenge to keep you interested during the long race.

One thing about the 908 though: The lights suck. The long distance beam shines somewhere above the track, making it useless. I used the low beam all the time, but it's not really enough light. You should test online if you can stand it.

 

[gazzamark]

It rained the full 24 hours for me, torture by the end.

 

[topgearhead]

Hey all thanks for the input especially Z1 and Will.

To change Racing Aids you need to bind a button to RA Menu, then bind the others to RA menu up down select (ect). This brings up a visible on screen menue to change Brake bias, traction control, ASM, and Torque split (Totally awesome and useful and realistic!)