The Daytona 500 and lessons learned

Forza Motorsport Legacy Motorsport
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I decided since the Daytona 500 is going to be run this weekend I’d do 500 miles at Daytona. I decided to use Historic American Muscle cars for the race. I chose the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona Hemi because it sounded right for the course. I did 4 races in free play of 50 laps on the Daytona Tri Oval with 23 unbeatable drivatars. I turned off all assists and drove with cockpit view. They were simple races but I learned a lot.

Lesson 1: Driving on the Daytona tri oval with all assists off using the cockpit view is easy.

Lesson 2: Beating unbeatable drivatars on the Daytona tri oval is easy. I’ve been told it is easy on any oval.

Lesson 3: Drivatars are dangerous around the pits. When entering the pits they will cut across the track from the race line to the pit without regard for any other cars on the course. When exiting the pit they will instantly go to the driving line even if they 50mph slower than the cars on it, including other drivatars.

Lesson 4: Drivatars don’t pull into their pit stalls at Daytona. They stay in the driving lane of the pit. Fortunately they behave as if they are ghosted and you don’t collide with them.

Lesson 5: Slower drivatars are more dangerous. If you are coming up on two drivatars drafting and go for a pass, sometimes the drafting car will go for a pass by cutting right in front of you. This happens more with the slower drivatars. It is like they don’t see you coming because you’re going much faster than they are.

Lesson 6: Drivatars’ cars don’t auto upgrade in free play. There are other threads and wish list entries about this.

Lesson 7: Fuel consumption doesn’t seem to be related to the upgrades of the car. I started with a B class Daytona before I learned lesson 6. When I ran the B class Daytona it took 17 laps to run out of fuel. When I returned it to D class it still took 17 laps to run out of fuel.

Lesson 8: Fuel consumption is related to throttle position. I tried backing of the throttle about 10% for a few laps to test this out. When I did this, I found I could go 19 laps before running out of fuel.

Lesson 9: I think there needs to be an upgrade option for the fuel tank. Since I had to pit every 17 laps, I had to pit 11 times. This is a wish list item.

Lesson 10: Drafting increases your speed. This is obvious but you need to remember that when approaching a corner. I got used to taking the corners a certain way. One lap I drafted a car down the back stretch. I passed it a little before the corner. When I entered the corner I did my normal steering. I almost tapped the wall. I was doing about 3 mph faster than I normally do in the corner.

Lesson 11: Since I was driving using the cockpit view, I learned the gauges work or at least they do in the Daytona.

Lesson 12: Looking at the gauges in the car is sometimes easier than looking at the HUD. To me, the slight look down seems more natural.

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Just like to ad my experiences if I can.

You’ll find that not all AI/Drivatars on Unbeatable, are beatable, even on ovals like Daytona and Indy.

Try jumping into the S Class Volvo V8 Supercar Polestars s60. Unless you’ve tuned the car to get the most out of top gear and 5th, you’ll be pushing for the first 10-15 laps before you have enough lead, about half a track length, meaning as you turn a corner, you can see them coming around the previous corner.

They will try and take advantage of you if you try coasting for a few laps. They’ll be up your tail toot-sweet. I had one race where I had the gears a tad too small, and it was a stretch to keep them at bay. It’s good racing actually, you’d enjoy it.

But, even if your tyres needed changing, keep going till you see the others starting to pit. You’ll most like.y be running close to empty yourself, but this will give you a lap ahead of them and allow you to pit as you get towards the end if your fuel.

You should come out of the pits still in first place. I have most of the Hud turned off, so I don’t know if I’ve been lapped or still retain the lead of current position until I pass the split timer points.good racing mate

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Another fun way to have fun at Daytona is run a free race with class X cars using the 1990 Lola IndyCar. With a full field of 23 other cars 21 of them will be the modern DW-12 Honda or Chevrolet IndyCars. In my experience it’s a NASCAR restrictor plate race experience except with open wheel cars.

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Are there any streams that broadcast the Daytona 500 and you don’t have to sign up and pay for? NASCAR interest is like zero here in Europe but I’d like to view the race a bit if possible. Or if there are any good summary videos on YouTube over the next few days that would be fine too. Talking about summary videos, is there a good one on the 24 hours of Daytona from a couple weeks ago?

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The whole race may be uploaded to youtube soon, in a fewweeks maybe. I found last years race on there this morning and it was uploaded 11 months ago.

1 Like
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Get a group together with identical built cars that can suck up well in the draft but are limited in speed. Muscle cars can work as too can rotary powered vehicles.

You’ll realize quick how difficult the track can be and that driving 3 wide while bump drafting is difficult. You’ll also realize how challenging the draft can be if you catch someone too fast.

Unfortunately 99% players don’t know this and the game will never provide this activity via single player. It’s sad really.

2 Likes
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It’s really great having this circuit in the game, there is so much history of American racing associated with this track. Many thanks to T10 for having such a GREAT circuit in the game!!! Now all we need is Monaco and the game is complete!!!

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In your tests did you see if drafting improves fuel economy? I ran a short race on Daytona yesterday and honestly, I’m not into the ovals. The track gets boring.

-k

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I did try drafting but I’m not sure if I can say it helped fuel economy. When I was drafting I was behind a drivatar that was going slower than my top speed. I wasn’t full on the throttle. I was probably going faster for than normal for the throttle setting, so I was probably saving fuel.

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Some of the best and closest racing I’ve ever had was on the ovals in Forza 3 and 4 and there weren’t too many idiots deliberately ruining races believe it or not. Those were the day’s. Forza was a different world back then.

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I’ve learned that lesson in a previous Forza. I think it was Motorsport 2, because in FM4 the races usually weren’t long enough to get into the pits. Back then the drivers were standard AI and not drivatars though.

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