Le Mans 24 hours: Wrong start time.

[snowgt]

I haven't found anyone mentioning this before, but finally driving my first 24 hours of Le Mans in game, I couldn't help but notice that the 24-hour clock is obviously set wrong for this race in the game.

The race in reality is always started at 15:00 CET. (That's 13:00 GMT, since it's also DST)

According to the web (and also corresponding with what you can see on TV when the race is run), the sunset should be slightly before 22:00 local time, and sunrise at about 05:45. (that's in the mid of June)

In the game though, it's pitch dark after 5 hours. That would mean that night falls at 20:00 local time, which is ridiculous when it's close to the longest day in the year and we have DST as well.

Confirming my suspicion was that I could notice the first traces of the sky getting light after 12 hours and 42 minutes of my race, which would translate into 3:42 am in the game. Again, impossible.

So, basically, what's happened is that PD set the time wrong. Instead of 15:00 CET, they set the start to 15:00 GMT, so the race now mistakingly starts at 17:00 local time.

 

[Famine]

The race in reality is always started at 15:00 CET. (That's 13:00 GMT, since it's also DST)

Only since 2009.

Until 2008, the race started at 16.00 CEST, with exceptions in 1968 (14.00), 1984 (15.00), 2006 (17.00) and 2007 (15.00) due to various other things - the race in 1968 was so early because it was in September following French general strikes in May.

The 2006 race started at 17.00 CEST on June 17th. For Paris that day, sunset was 21.57 and sunrise the following day was 05.47. That appears to gel pretty closely with your findings.

 

[eran0004]

You can check which time the race starts by taking the McLaren MP4-12C and starting the race. You'll see the time of the track on the clock on the display on the dashboard in cockpit view.

I can't do it at the moment because I'm doing another endurance...

 

[Brend]

I had no idea you could do that. ^ Bloody awesome.

 

[snowgt]

Only since 2009.

Until 2008, the race started at 16.00 CEST, with exceptions in 1968 (14.00), 1984 (15.00), 2006 (17.00) and 2007 (15.00) due to various other things - the race in 1968 was so early because it was in September following French general strikes in May.

The 2006 race started at 17.00 CEST on June 17th. For Paris that day, sunset was 21.57 and sunrise the following day was 05.47. That appears to gel pretty closely with your findings.

Thanks for the fact finding!

Which basically proves they made a mistake or didn't bother to check the details of the race of more current years. Since they are using the 2009 track, and the race has always started at 15.00 since, it should also do that in the game, I would say.

Not that it particularly matters for a race that's running twice around the clock.