Hi everyone,
Recently I just completed to Honda Civic Castrol endurance event on the Nordschleife and I managed to get the seeker elite trophy. It took me about 1hr 19 and I was having to take constant breaks throughout it, I mean i loved the event, but it was just sooo long.
I still need to do every other endurance event, so what are your tips for doing long races at once? Like what could I do not to get sick of it after 3 laps in a row… xd
Cheers
Hyzard
It’s why it’s called - endurance racing. Try turning on the 12 hour Bathurst Endurance Racing that’s running this weekend on 7 Mate. . .
With lap times of 2.03:5. Imagine doing that for 12 HOURS straight, you can’t. They must break the entire 12 hours into 3 x 4hr blocks fir each driver, and each driver can only spend no longer than that in a seat at one time.
During a single day race, they can loose 6klgs in body weight through sweat and body muscle stress.
Now, put yourself back in the lounge chair, and try doing how you’re supposed to do it, in one stint. It’s achievable, but like those drivers, it takes LOTS of practice.
And that is the golden rule of racing, practice, practice, and even more practice before you can call yourself an endurance racer.
My tip, for what it’s worth, and I trust you’ll take it, I s pick that track on Free Play, set yourself up to run by yourself, and then attract the track a lap at a time. Starting slowly by finding your breaking points, your entry exit points, adjust your brake balance and pressure, so all you need to do it touch the trigger, not hammer it. Don’t try and beat the lap record on the first 10 laps, build up to it.
Then increase your laps on each consecutive lap. Slowly building up your awareness of each corner, how your car reacts to it, and notice if the car changes any as time goes on. As it supposidly should get lighter, and more squirirely as it gets lighter.
You do that so your brain starts to remember every imput, the more you imput information, the faster your reaction times become. You’ll be able to go deeper into corners, exit faster, cut straighter lines and use every millimeter of those rumble stripes. That’s what they are there for. So long as you keep that inside wheel just in the edge, you’re still technically still on the track.
Then, just enjoy the drive. You’re hands will relax their grip, you’ll take corners perfectly, adjusting and over/understeer in a flash.
And above all things, have some fun, test YOURSELF. Pop in say 2-5 opponents, screw up,the difficulty level, set theblaos to 50, set it for say 4 pit stops, then play the pit stop game . .
Endurance racing is a different Animsl to Super Sprinting. But in the end, just learn those tracks, and have fun. On a side note. Scott McLauchlan set the FASTEST lap ever at Bathurst in 2017 and even the worlds greatest endurance racers are at least 2 seconds slower than Scott’s winning shot. Point being, repetition helps cement every nuance of a track into your brain.
Be it in real life, or your virtual racing career., repetition is the key to easier driving, and thus faster times. And again, enjoy it . . .
Length of the other events:
Sebring is very long and very hard because the AI does well there. As if it wasn’t enough, the Ford GT is difficult to drive and does not seem to have much straight line speed compared to the other cars. The best advice there is for Sebring is to do what Katherine Legge says at the beginning: go flat out, all the time. Don’t coast, or you’ll likely lose the race and 2h30 hours of your life… 
Le Mans can be difficult because the leading opponents are capable of much longer stints than you. In fact, I can manage 5 laps on the 919 while the AI on the diesels such as the 908, R15, etc. are able to push it to 11 laps. The Porsche is a bit lacking on the straights so you’ll have to make up most of the time in the slower sections. Tip: the AI is absolutely atrocious near the Indianapolis corner so you can make up plenty of time by doing those corners right, but the AI can easily get in your way if you’re near them, so be careful.
At Spa your main problem will be to manage fuel, as you’ll want to do it in a single stint, yet the Corvette is not capable of doing it without some coasting. Best way to do it is to take the lead as soon as possible, build a large gap then control the race from there. This doesn’t apply to Extra Long length of course.
Absolute perfectly stated . . . And like you’ve stated, once you’ve learnt those tracks backwards, you can push your cars to their limits. I’ve experienced the GT’s slower straight line speed myself, as well as a few others, but they make up for it through their ability to take bends better, a little less squirely etc. I think the OP wants to learn how to drive the tracks, in earlier iterations of this game, some dedicated drivers did a blow by blow, or corner by corner as it were, ‘How To on how to attack each track.
A group of dedicated players, has anyone done anything like that in FM7 . . .?
My method involves setting the difficulty all the way down, getting ahead, turning the assists on Super Easy, and wrapping a rubberband around the right trigger. Occasionally I have to poke the controller because it counts as inactive with a button held in. If there was a Hire Driver option, I’d do that. Those races are too tedious for me.
Then why do them ? Or are you a ‘Completionist’ ?
I wouldn’t claim to be a completionist, exactly, as I won’t doggedly pursue every achievement and reward, but I might go after them if I feel they’re within reach. If the endurance races were separate from Career and didn’t involve vehicle rewards, I’d probably ignore them even if they had Achievements.
While I completed all the Cups, I’ve yet to do the Entire criteria. And I’m unlike;y to, as I’m no drifter, nor domindomwell in the silly ten pin bowling stuff. But I generally get to the 98% mark . . And without MP as well. . . . It used to be a thing for me to get every car, even if they were, well, rubbish ones just thrown in by Turn 10mdue to legal commitments etc.
Now I simply want the great cars that are being held back by the system. Everyone should at least have the option to access them through gameplay, notbthrough some lottery of selection through various non-discrpit game functions.
Let us have access through races, and I mean everyone, not the top tier racers that can win easily. As that rules out new players, or those less skilled, but simply love the game.
The endurance events aren’t that difficult but you need to be able to stomach Sebring’s Turn 17 for a while.
That corner is an inexplicable anachronism in today’s motorsport, but without it Sebring would be just a worse version of Silverstone.
I ordered dinner during the race. And we should never be afraid of pausing to drink water, go to the bathroom, etc., as the drivers do that inside the car during the race anyway.
Near the end you get bored and tired… No way around it.
As for the bowling, go as fast as you can and don’t bother focusing on the yellow pins.
That’s a feature I miss. Hire driver was very fun. Similar to how many sports fanatics like building a team in EAs sports games and simulating the season to see how their assembled team did, I liked creating a car and tune for a track that was so good and see how my driver would do.
Simulating a race is as useful and fun as similulating a sports game or season. This feature should be brought back.
I would do this at my cottage all the time on forza 3 and 4 and while we play drinking games and party, I’d have a driver hired racing an endurance race. Come back to a bunch of money every hour.
I like to make sure I have a full glass of whatever beverage I’m drinking at the time…ensure I’ve emptied the bladder…then start racing. After a few laps I’ll start to pay attention to the lap speeds and remembering what I did when I went through that section the fastest. Then I keep trying to beat that time.
If you get tired, pause the race. Get up and stretch your legs…splash some water on your face…make a phone call if you need to hear something different from the engine and tires.
Try your hardest not to constantly check the lap count. That’ll make the race drag on forever in your head.
So you dont have a problem with the actual racing, its more of a sitting through the constant repetition of a LONG race kinda problem? If thats the case then I dont know what to tell you. Im perfectly capable of sitting through a single 2-3hr race from start to finish. Just a single race though, I wouldnt want to do those one after the other. Maybe try putting on music during the race? Thats what I do, I use the Spotify app.
Be warned though, as has been noted the other endurance races are longer with Sebring 300 being the worse at 81 laps at Standard lenght. I clocked in at like 2hrs and 50 something mins for Sebring 300 and, I think NeoDragonout is right about the AI there. I play the game mostly in pro and I can usually get away from the AI a bit but, during Sebring 300 they were right at my ass the whole time. And when I stopped to pit it would take me a while to catch up to them. As I was nearing the end I started to think that I wasnt going to win so, I resorted to turning on Friction assist and when my fuel was low I put the setting at cosmetic only. I did not want the past 2 hours to go to waste, ‘‘honor’’ be damned!
So theres my tip for you, set the AI at a lower setting than what you normally play for endurance races (specially for Seabring 300) and, dont be afraid of turning on assits if you dont think youre going to make it. The AI cheats you already so cheat them!
Both Lightning and XXXevious make great pointers mate, add them to your list of tips. Make sure you have a few nibbles handy as well. Something that have a little sugar in them, we all love our sugar hit lol. But it’ll help you keep up your attention levels as well. Something easy to,grab and throw in your gob . . .
Memorise thevtrack you’re attempting to take on . . Don’t flip around and go backwards and forwards trying this track and that. You’ll only confuse your motor reactionary responses. Stick at it, work your way up the number of laps . . .
You’ll get there eventually, and you’ll be very happy once you’ve cracked it . . .
Then you’ll do it again on the next one, using the same methods . .
Ultimately, have some fun . . . . .
Turn 17? Is that the final, bumpy turn? I love that turn., personally. Not enough to drive around the track for hours, mind.
To each their own.
Unless you are running TCS/STM , you shouldn’t have to be saving any fuel in the Corvette/Spa race… It should only take 55~ minutes running flat out and the car should run an hour on fuel… Unless they changed it anyways, I did it in the first week the game came out and was surprised at how long it could run. Finished the 23 lap race with fuel in the tank for another 3 laps or so.
In general endurance racing is about finding a groove and getting settled in, having an attention span, and being able to re-focus or re-settle after a change, whether that change be a pitstop or an off-track adventure or whatever. Getting settled/into a groove is probably the most important part, as once you are comfortable you can make reads on the other things you need to do, whether it be catching someone, building a gap so you can make a pit without losing position, fuel saving, or whatever. It’s hard to make adjustments mid-race if you aren’t settled.
I always find there’s a bit of a pattern to it for me. At the start I’m a little nervous because there is pressure when the other cars are close and you know a mistake early could make you suffer for the rest of the race. Then things settle down a bit and I can get into a groove and relax. Then after a little bit I kinda come to the realization that there is still a LONG way to go and get a bit… bored isn’t quite the right word, but lose some enthusiasm. Then after a little bit more time I just become numb to the distance, and kinda zone out and just click off laps. Many people tend to lose pace when they zone out as they lose focus, but for whatever reason it seems to be when I’m fastest. I’ll often blank out blocks of 10 laps or something, only to realize I’ve run my best lap ever during that run and I can’t even remember what I did differently to try to replicate it.
Lots of water and snacks. Once I have a sizable lead I like to throw some music on and change to automatic transmission since I can no longer hear the car.
Also for the Sebring event, I had to turn the difficulty a step down because the Drivatars become stupid fast.
Energy drinks, lots of them if you want to do them on extra long.
Use the telemetry and lap times to set yourself targets on things like fuel, tire wear and lap times. It takes your focus of the length, makes you more consistent and gives you something to do. I drive with a wheel, not sure if you do, but I’d always have a bottle of water next to me during the race. Go to the bathroom beforehand though lol. Also this might sound crazy, but doing stretches before hand can really help. If you’re driving with a wheel, resting your hands on the straights help massively too.
Longest endurance race I’ve done was 12 hours.