All right, like most people, I've decided to make a Le Mans update, however, this one is a little different...
Two days after the real Le Mans ended (Tuesday, June 14), I decided to do the actual in-game Le Mans race. That's all 24 hours. I drove 4 and a half hours Tuesday night, then went to sleep, drove about 13 hours the next day, and then the final 6 and a half hours yesterday (Thursday, June 16). Anyways, I recorded all of it onto my hard drive (which weighed in at about 87 gb), and I've taken a few screenshots, which I wanted to post here. You know... to share my experience with you all.
I've divided it all up into the 24 sections (one for each hour), and at the start of each, I've included a little photomode photo, to make it just a
interesting. Since I obviously couldn't take photos from the actual race, I've instead driven a few laps afterwards, with accelerated time shift, and then taken some photos. I tried the best I could to match the time and weather with how it actually was in the race...
Well... Without further ado:
1st hour:
And here we go!
First lap almost completed. As you can see, it was a little cloudy, however it wasn't raining yet. I was hoping it'd stay this way, since I
hate driving in rain. I'd even had to re-enter the race a few times, because it rained from the start. Unfortunately, not too long after, it started dripping...
Four laps in, and you can see that it has now started raining a little (there's a little visible in the top of the screen. I still had plenty of grip, however it wouldn't be long before I had to pit in for new tires.
Before that though, I managed to set this 3:25 time. I didn't know it at the time, but this ended up being my fastest lap for little over 18 hours!
Lapping the slowest car for the first time. As you can see, it's still not raining that much yet...
My first half hour driven! Only 48 of these to go!
Pitting in for the first time. The rain is pretty easy to see now, however it's not really affecting lap times yet.
That pit stop put me back in second place. I won it back not too long after though, when the leading car (Audi R8), pitted in. This exchange went on for a while, until I got far enough ahead.
I came in a little too hot here at Arnage, and the rain isn't exactly helping. It's about time to put on some tires better equipped for the weather...
Unfortunately, the rain tires ended up being a bad idea...
2nd hour:
16 laps driven.
An hour in, and you could now start to see water spray when looking back.
It didn't even take me
two laps to figure out that rain tires weren't very useful
yet...
This mistake put me all the way back on third place.
It wasn't much trouble catching up though. Here's me overtaking the previous second place car.
I still wasn't used to racing in the rain, and lost it in the Porsche curves. I've been used to pretty much just gunning it through there, though now, when it's raining, I really had to be careful and feather the throttle, to not spin out. It took me quite a while to get used to it...
The water spray from other cars is also incredibly frustrating sometimes, as it makes it hard to see where they're driving. This is especially irritating at night, when your headlights illuminate the spray, and makes it hard to see anything else as it almost blinds you (at least when it's close enough).
Winning back 1st place, after having lost it, about five or six laps earlier.
Two laps later I'm already over one minute in front of the second place Audi, after he had pitted in.
Time for a pit stop! Re-fueling took
forever! By now, it was also raining so much that I needed to use the rain tires. In the top right corner, you can see that all the lap times are above four minutes. This pretty much went on until the rain went away again, 15 hours later...
3rd hour:
30 laps driven.
Two hours driven! Only 22 to go!
Here I spun the car around before the Ford chicane. By now, I had gotten
really tired of the rain. I just wasn't used to it, so I lost control quite a few times, and it was really frustrating. I even almost quit, since it required more concentration than I was willing to use, however I decided to endure. They don't call it the hardest race in the world for nothing, after all.
4th hour:
44 laps driven.
3 hours driven! In this screenshot you can see how the rain is causing me to do some involuntary drift action.
Lost 1st place again while in the pits. And while we're at it; I was kind of disappointed at how they didn't include "Le Mans style" pit stops, where the gas is pumped into the car, and not "dropped" from the can, and also where there's only two people to change all four tires. At least that was what I saw happened at this year's Le Mans. Changing tires took a long time, while re-fueling didn't take very long. It was the exact opposite in GT5
50th lap!
It's starting to get a little dark now, and you can already see how the illuminated water spray clouds make things a bit more complicated than they should be...
The water spray cloud from my car is also quite big. As you can see, my car has also gotten a few bumps and bruises...
Not only is it hard to judge how far away the car is, it's also hard to see where they're
actually driving.
5th hour:
57 laps driven.
I've only been driving for four hours, however it feels like I've been driving
forever. By now I'm beginning to question whether or not this
really was a good idea to begin with.
About to win back 1st place for the billionth time.
Here, I somehow managed to do a sub 4-minute lap in pouring rain. It probably involved a little "creative driving" in the Ford chicane
My car is getting more and more beat up.
6th hour:
71 laps driven.
After 5 hours, darkness descends. It's the thing I've looked the most forward to, and also feared the most. It's always very interesting driving at night, though on the other hand, it can also be very tough and grueling. Needless to say, I was both very excited and very nervous...
13 minutes later it was completely dark. I was kinda surprised how fast it went. At first it's pretty bright, and you have no trouble seeing, and then 15 minutes later it is just
dark.
It took a while to get adjusted to the darkness (like the rain wasn't enough). Here I missed my brake point at the end of the Mulsanne straight, and took a trip into the sandbox.
And a little in-car view. It amazes me how much detail PD put into the lighting. I absolutely love it! Makes the night a million more times bearable. Just looking at lights.
7th hour:
86 laps driven
Things went pretty slow in the night hours. Even after an hour of driving in the darkness, it felt like I had driven for
very long time. Something told me that it was going to be a long night...
Here, six and a half hours into the race, a little over a quarter way done, I lap the second place car for the first time.
100th lap!
Here I've captured a screenshot while the 908's headlights are flashing (this was obviously taken in between two of the flashes). Quite a bit up ahead, you can see the lights from one of the opponent cars. This was one of those things that always made me gasp in amazement. It always just looked so epic, seeing a pair of taillights a kilometer or two away. I don't know if it's just me though...
8th hour:
99 laps driven.
This disappearing glitch took me by surprise while I was racing. I looked away from the screen for about a second, and when I looked back, the road had suddenly gone missing... Apart from this, nothing really happened in the 8th hour.
9th hour:
113 laps driven.
8 hours driven! I'm one third of the way to victory!
By now, the rain is really starting to get on my nerves. I was
very close to yelling at my screen a few times...
Some more in-car action.
Again, here you can see how the water spray obscures the view. Almost all of the road is blocked by a huge cloud of
light! Combine this with the fact that I had to be very careful with my steering input, to not spin out, and you can probably imagine how frustrating it was sometimes. Especially when a car suddenly popped out of that cloud (which was usually the case).
10th hour:
127 laps driven.
After nine hours, the side of the car had gotten pretty beat up.
Yet another reason why I couldn't take photomode pics from the actual race. It only records the first nine hours
11th hour:
141 laps driven.
Woo! double digit hours! I officially have no life. And I'm not even halfway!
Grr! By now the rain was driving me completely
insane!
Some more water spray. At least the opponent car moved to the side of the road this time.
Classy.
12th hour:
155 laps driven.
Just about to lap the second place car for the second time.
Okay, here's one of my more unfortunate situations where
everything went wrong. For starters, it's completely dark, and the rain is pouring down. Also, it's the end of the Mulsanne straight and I've missed my braking point. Like that wasn't enough, it seems like there's a car in front of me...
Yup... At least I didn't hit-- Oh wait, there's one more. This isn't going to end well...
BAM!
I ended up taking the Pescarolo with me out in the sand trap, and I lost a ton of time (or, well... I cut the Ford chicane to make up for the lost time).
That front end has seen some better times.
13th hour:
169 laps driven.
Who wants donuts?
For some reason, the AI always ran a little wide here.
When I saw this, I was overjoyous (is that a word?). If you look closely, you can see that the sky is slowly changing into a less dark shade of black
And four minutes later... YEEEEEESSS!! I have endured the long night! It's still raining, but whatever. I can see again! Yes! Racing in the night really was an incredible experience, however, I still prefer racing in the daylight...
14th hour:
182 laps driven.
Again. 13 hours driven, where about 8 of those hours were in darkness, and the sun is
finally coming up again! Good morning! By now, I had a huuuuge grin on my face.
The AI running wide again.
Here, just as I had lapped the second place Audi again, I got a little too enthusiastic coming into the Porsche curves, and ended up facing the wrong way. My tires were also completely fried.
15th hour:
196 laps driven.
Crossing the start/finish line for the 200th time!
The lighting is still cool, even in daylight. And I must also admit, as many problems as it's caused for me so far, the rain still looks pretty awesome.
Some nice morning sunlight. I wish the clouds weren't there though. And the rain...
Pit time is message time!
16th hour:
210 laps driven.
By now, I really just want the race to be over with. I've gotten what I'd come for. A day-night-day race. It's been raining for pretty much the whole race. The interesting night time experience is now over, and it's day again. That was pretty much what I wanted to experience, and I
did, but now I still have to drive for another
nine hours?! Just kill me now...
Lack of concentration made me lose the car at the Dunlop curves. Apart from this, nothing really happened in the 16th hour...
17th hour:
225 laps driven.
Wait. Forget what I said before. It looks like this race is just getting started!
16 hours driven, and it's still raining... But wait!
When I saw this, I thought: "Wait... This can't be true. Is that really the rain dying down?" I figured it was probably just the sunlight making the rain hard to see, but just to make sure, I also took a look from the in-car view.
"There's almost no rain on the front window..."
"YEEEEEEEEEEEESSS!!!"
This was almost too good to be true! I'm pretty sure
this was the song that went through my head at the time.
Suddenly, I had no problem with the fact that I still had to race for nearly eight hours more! Now I could finally actually
race.
Blue sky! Oh how beautiful you are. This whole hour was really just a morality boost hour. I had a huge smile on my face all the way through, and the next hour was almost even better!
18th hour:
240 laps driven.
Now you can almost see the shadows of the trees.
And now the shadows are completely visible! I really,
really deserved to see that sunlight after sooooo many hours of rain. Let me tell you; there isn't much that's more satisfying than that! This is also the first time I've become so happy by seeing shadows from trees.
Oh yes. Oh,
YES! Now it's
finally time to go
racing! This is what I have been waiting for for 17 and a half hours!
And on my first out lap, I set a new lap record
Now all the annoying water spray clouds were also gone! And you could also suddenly see how incredibly dirty the other cars had gotten overnight.
19th hour:
256 laps driven.
I punished my new racing tires a little too hard on my first go, and completely annihilated them!
And here I set
the fastest lap of the entire 24 hours.
SLIPSTREEEEAAM! I got up to 405 km/h while slipstreaming the 3rd place Pescarolo.
I can't remember how those skidmarks, leading out towards the tire wall, got there, however every time I drove past, I was reminded of Alan McNish's crash.
20th hour:
273 laps driven.
On my way towards the Porsche curves, I lost concentration, went out onto the grass, and then this happened...
After 19 and a half hours (and a little crash), the whole left side of the car was pretty screwed up.
21st hour:
290 laps driven.
20 hours driven! 2x no life combo!
Aww... It's getting cloudy again. At least it's not raining.
Starting my 300th lap from the pits.
22nd hour:
306 laps driven.
Nothing much happened in the 22nd hour... Except that I came in too hot at Arnage once.
23rd hour:
323 laps driven.
Lapping the second place car for the 5th or so time now. Ever since I put on the racing tires, I've been lapping the Audi quite consistently.
Wow! That's a dirty Mercedes.
24th hour:
339 laps driven.
17 hours of rain. 6 hours of sunshine. 23 hours of racing. 1 hour to go!
Overtaking the R10 at 403 km/h.
Going in for my very last pit stop!
Also, the sun had come out again for the final 40 minutes of the race. What a way to end it!
Last lap! When I saw it was possible, I made sure to try to hit 355 laps, since that was the amount of laps the first and second place Audi and Peugeot, respectively, managed to drive last weekend.
When I went in for my 355th lap though, I still had 8 minutes to go, so I just cruised at about 130-140 km/h through the whole track. It was sooooooooooooo satisfying. After having pushed the car to it's operational limits for nearly 24 hours. It was nice to just gear down and enjoy the scenery.
Here, you can see I've driven the 355th lap for 3 minutes and 25 seconds, which is what it normally took for me to drive one lap. Here, I'm only at the end of the Mulsanne straight. Feels good man.
So many cars passing me. What's the hurry?
The second place car... Now only
5 laps behind me.
More cruisin'. Oh man, I've never enjoyed going slow this much before.
And the final chicane, with one minute to go... Hmmm...
The last minute...
354 laps driven. In one minute. That'll be
355.
Apparently, I wasn't going slow enough, so I still had some time to waste in front of the finish line. What better way to use that time than to make some celebratory donuts!
And there we go! 24 hours raced! Well... 23 hours and 50 minutes. The rest was just cruising. Now, the only thing I had to was cross the finish line and I was
done! I wanted to finish in style though, so I made a quick donut, and then a long burnout across the finish line! Epic ending to an absolutely epic race!
Well, that's that. 24 hours in pictures, screenshots, and a couple of videos (and some text). First of all; I'm surprised if anyone actually reads all of it, and secondly; if you did, I hope you enjoyed it! For me, racing the 24 hours was really tough, really fun, and totally worth it! The 900 degree steering kinda ruined the illusion of actually driving a 908, but apart from that, I was amazed by the realism of it all. It felt pretty genuine. Now, all we need is proper pit stops, and a heck of a lot more cars and classes on the field! Also, since I recorded all of it, I'm planning on releasing a time lapse video of the entire 24 hours some time by the end of next week, so look forward to that!