24h Le Mans (Real-time progression) experience

[Quelxes]

I always wanted to do the 24h Le Mans race but I always perceived it as such a huge commitment. Project Cars came to the help. I am in the middle of WEC championship and 24h Le Mans popped up as a next event. As I always set all the races to 100% length this was the moment to finally drive this behemoth of a race.

Realism:
Racing conditions were set to full realism, tire wear, car damage, real assists (which in case of LMP2 cars there are none), etc. No HUD at all but the mirror. Shorter races I drive in VR and do not even need virtual mirror but there is no chance I am driving 24h Le Mans in VR. 6h with short breaks was the longest I did in VR and I felt really tried after it.

Difficulty:
I am driving WEC in LMP2 class in Oreca 03 Nissan car. Practice 1 was used (as always) to find suitable AI difficulty level - I always drive a few laps to check what lap times I can set and then I restart a session a few times, adjusting AI to find a setting which makes them competitive enough - the worst thing is an AI which is too slow and you just drive the whole race by yourself. Unfortunately, even at 100% difficulty, AI is lacking in speed at Le Mans. My qualification time was 3:42 while AI set 3:47. I further improved that time in the race, setting 3:39 while AI did not improve at all. Fortunately for me, 24h long race is a challenge in itself so I was not bored. 4 classes on the race track, GT3 and, especially, GT4 are much slower which forces you to stay focus all the time. There is also LMP1 which has a tendency to appear in your mirrors from nowhere - they are so much faster!

Co-driver:
It is not just any endurance but 24h long one so co-driver was a must. Not only to help me finish the event but to add more to the realism. In real racing we have driving limits so it was natural to have a co-driver. I used Practice 2 to test its behavior, pitting, returning to PIT on a PIT command, etc. All worked well but track cutting - AI cuts like crazy when overlapping slower classes. If I kept flags and penalties ON we would get DQ before his sting was finished. That was the only thing I had to disable though to be honest AI opponents ignore flags and penalties anyway so it was not a big loss.

Setup:
Haven't change much. Gearbox setup to make the final gear a bit longer, set the tire pressure to 150 and kept it that way through the whole race. Had very good tire temp in haze during day and a little less optimal during cold night temperatures. Reduced downforce by lowering splitter and spoiler settings. Besides that I made sure there was no clipping on the wheel - had to modify the force feedback for that track a little bit by reducing tire force by a few clicks

Weather:
Was lucky and avoided rain. The weather differed from haze at late stages of the second day (39*C track temp and 27*C ambient) to heavy clouds during night which reduced the temp to 19*C track and 14*C ambient.

PIT Stops:
I was able to do 12 laps per stint and the fuel consumption was just below 6 liters per lap. AI was doing 10 laps so in addition to doing faster lap times I was also building advantage (long term) by pitting less. In addition to that my tire use was minimal so I was double stinting so every second pitstop was around 20 second shorter which was also adding to the advantage. My most used tire (LF) was at around 78% (still green) after second stint. I could probably triple stint them but there was no need. I was doing 4 stints to start with with my co-driver was doing 3 stints. For some reason AI co-driver was not using my car setup but a default (like all other AIs in LMP2) so his top speed was limited to 277 while I was hitting 290+. AI co-driver was also doing 10 laps per stint like other AI drivers in that class and was using tires much more than I was - his were always yellow when he was finishing his stint.

Additional software:
CrewChief - strongly recommend for any sim racing game
pCars Dashboard for iPad - another great piece of software which shows all car details on a tablet. A quick look right and I can see tire wear, fuel consumption overall, average per lap, last lap, aero damage if any, engine wear, suspension damage, brakes wear, etc.

Strongly advice to donate software creators as those are great pieces of software

Attempt #1 (yes, there were 2 attempts at 24h Le Mans)
All was going very well up until 21 hours and 20 minutes when AI co-driver, while being on his final lap of his final stint, hit GT3 car and completely destroyed the car. Yes, he was about to give the car back to me and I was about to drive the last 2h40m of the race and he destroyed the car. The car was instantly moved to the garage, our status changed 'in garage' and it was over. Almost like Toyota in 2016 :D I took it calmly, after all this is part of endurance racing and especially one like Le Mans. Every car racing fan knows how it looks like in the big endurance races like 24h Le Mans, 24h Daytona, 12h Sebring, Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, 24h of Spa or 24h of Nurburgring.

Attempt #2
This went much smother and I had a new plan. The idea was to use AI co-driver to certain point. So the first 15h of the race we were changing. I was driving 4 stints and AI was doing 3. Till the 15h mark when I decided to drive the rest on my own as I was afraid that he will destroy the car again. So I had a long stint, around 9h, of driving which I did all by myself. There were no big mistakes though I 'kissed' the band once, luckily it was a little one at small speed. LMP1 was overtaking an LMP2. This was happening in front of me as I was about to lap the LMP2 and I let the LMP1 free. This is the best strategy. As soon as you see LMP1 in your mirrors, let it go - you will lose little time by doing that and it is much safer way of being lapped by faster class than trying to rely on AI doing it safely. LMP2 was pushed out of track and I knew it will come back in the least safest manner possible so in anticipation of that I slowed down. Not enough, as it came back just in front of me, I had to push the break pedal hard and locked the wheel, span a little and kissed the band. 2% aero damage, no other damage. Fixed it at the next pit stop. No other serious mistakes but there were a few minor one which did not have any consequences. I repaired brakes and engine twice during the race due to its normal wear. Wanted to keep it above 90%. I won the race with around 23 minutes advantage over second LMP2 car (372 laps vs 366 laps) and with around 56 minutes loss to the last LMP1. 3 out of 6 LMP1 finished so I was 4th overall - almost overall podium

Great experience overall and I am preparing for the other long endurance races in Project Cars - I believe there are 24h of Nordschlife, 25h of Nordschlife and 25h of Mount Panorama. Those 6h long Endurance races at Dubai track or Road America seem so short now. 6h of Road America is my next race in WEC season and it will be like a sprint in comparison to Le Mans behemoth.

I hope it will help someone who plans to do 24h race in pCars. I had a lot of fun and I wish good luck to anyone who plans on doing that

[Wahkeen]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I always wanted to complete a 24-hr LeMans but just like you, I found it a bit daunting. I tried it while playing Gran Tourismo 3 on the PlayStation 2. I got as far as three hours and was in 5th place. Couldn't finish it though. The longest I played any game was probably for five hours and that was it. But going on 24hrs non stop, it was something I wasn't ready for. I bought the second game of Project Cars though and I came to this forum to ask PC1 owners if there was any difference playing this game and the second version.

I also sent you a friend request.
:)