FM4: LeMans GTE Pro Endurance Race: Practice Sat. June 2nd, Race Sat. June 9th

[derekthetree]

I might try watching some of your ghosts, the RSR isn't the quickest in a straight line but I'm still having fun!

[GRD 4 3L]

Wish I could have made it. The Xbox I use blew its HDMI port so I'm out for a bit until I can get it fixed. Doesn't sound like it's a simple soldering job or anything so I think I'll have to actually send it in or something.

That's a major downer!  We were looking for you to come in to the lobby on Saturday so I figured something urgent has happened but not something like this.  You would have been in the thick of it with SuperNovaDave and myself (both of us in 3:57s).

Good luck with the fix!

[ShiBorui]

I'll try to make the race this week - got it set up with old cables so I've lost sound depth, widescreen, and half the resolution, but it's playable. Gotta adjust to the fuzzy screen, lack of peripheral, and lack of good tire noise, so I suppose I'm lucky it's le Mans.

[GRD 4 3L]

That's a relief, Shib.

Aside, I hit a new low yesterday . . . or about to.

I was at 1+ second faster than the 3:57 time and at the Porsche curves close to the end of the track, 360 froze up!  I was upset, but what could I do.  So I fired up Minecraft.

[derekthetree]

I might have to miss this Saturday, family staying now!

Enjoy the race guys!

[GRD 4 3L]

That is too bad, dtt!

[GRD 4 3L]

Just finished the race about an hour ago and it was both a huge rush and exhaustion.

I had a back pain before I started which certainly did not help.

SROTH, aquiel2k, Superdavenova, KreepnSlayer, totalownership, and Shiby (although he arrived too late) for showing up!

SuperDaveNova was the star of the races in his Porsche and won 2 out of 3 races.  In fact Porsche's were the favourite among many.  Aquiel2k and myself were the team BMW.  What happened to you on the last race, SROTH?

There will be more endurance races in the future.  Next one is going to be Indy 200 (50 laps at Indy) in R1 race cars.  To be formally announced later in the month.

[sroth88]

Sorry I was assended on the first lap had 100% damage in the rear, didn't feel like waiting around. AI's with damage on is a bad idea.
Indy sounds fun Oval or road coarse.

[aquiel2k]

That was some hell of racing.
1st race I was last in the grid. A.I. cars are so unpredictable. A passed a view without problems but then the super fast JT1 A.I. car ran into my rear just before turn 10. That damaged my aero 100% and I went through the pits. But my car was crippled really bad and I gave up.

2nd race I was around 9th or so on the grid. This time I had a lot of connection lags with "jumping" and "flying" cars. I was behind Sroth and tried to have enough distance not to run into Sroth. But just before the first chicane the car "jumped" right in front of me, my brakes locked an I ran into Sroth  (so, my bad - not the A.I.)
My car was badly damaged and Sroth's car was dead. Just before the next chicane an A.I. car was "flying" above the course and hit me, again - and I went through the pits. I lost 40mph top speed, but the car was running. Then in lap 9 my wheel decided to loose connection to the XBox 
Luckily I reconnected just before GRD lapped me before the Porsche turns. There was a good chance for GRD to ran into my driverless car.

3rd race I was around 7th or so on the grid. I had some rubbing with one A.I. car but only moderate damage, but I lost 20mph top speed, so my lap times were not so fast. So I could't keep up t.o.'s speed, he was too fast on the straights.

I don't know why the connection was so bad yesterday. The chat was also very choppy.
I have no replay from the 1st and 2nd race. It would be nice if someone will gift them to me. 

[aquiel2k]

Main Event Race Format:   LeMans Endurance Race

Start Time:   2:30pm Easter (GMT -5), 11:30am Pacific (GMT -8), 7:30pm Greenwich (GMT 0), for both Qualifying & Race

Yesterday and on June, 2nd we began at 6:30pm GMT-0 

The time conversion is a real pain, IMHO.
GMT time has no daylight saving time but most other time zones. And GMT-0 is not the time used in the U.K. in summer due to the daylight saving time.
The only country using GMT-0 time the whole year is Iceland.
Most of the time converters also do not account the daylight saving time. 
GRD, you are in the Easter (GMT -4) timezone? So the race started 2.30pm in your time zone?
The race started at 8:30pm (GMT+2) in my time zone (central european summer time CEST).

[GRD 4 3L]

Sorry about the time confusion, aquiel.  I was going by the time difference shown in my phone.  I will keep in mind that you are GMT+2.

Daylight savings time is a real bugger.

I saved all the races so I'll gift them to you, aquiel.

SROTH, that's too bad.  AI was aggressive and being boneheaded.  In that respect, they were predictable . . .

[sroth88]

Thanks GRD for hosting the event. Eventho the race result was not great the experience was invaluable for me to be a better driver. I like the idea of the AI and I think we should use them all the time to fill the field. Also we should make them as fast as possible just turn off the damage. From my perpective I can't race head to head with you YET I can at race the AI.
Thanks again

[GRD 4 3L]

Yeah, maybe long races with no damage, short events with damage.

I know I have my share of frustrations with AI when I'm racing them with similarly equipped cars . . .  But it is a great training tool.  The track day events are also great training tools to learn the AI behaviour and their patterns.

[derekthetree]

Sounds like you guys had fun. Shame I couldn't make it but went out and had some really nice food instead!
Indy 200 sounds good, any idea for which R1s yet (old/new)?

[GRD 4 3L]

Sounds like you guys had fun. Shame I couldn't make it but went out and had some really nice food instead!
Indy 200 sounds good, any idea for which R1s yet (old/new)?

After trying several the R1s (Toyota GTOne, Mazda 787B, Ferrari 333SP, Peugeot 305, etc.), I think I will change to S class.  The reason is these cars are fast but does not require much skill at Indy.  It is mostly a matter of car selection and timing of the turn-ins.  Even with minimum downforce, I had no problem full throttling it all the way around the track.  It is not much fun if you know car X is faster and there's nothing you can do about it.

However, taking a 4,000 lb+ car around, is a completely different story.  It requires skill and minute adjustments to go around fast.

So currently I am considering A-Class, 4,000 lb minimum weight & 2 doors.  There are many cars that fit this bill so it will be a lot more interesting in my opinion.  My lap time target in these cars is about 1 minute therefore 60 laps would be a good start (hopefully requires at least 1 pit stop).

I suppose we can have 2 races, an R1-20 laps and A-Class 60 laps.