Question regarding engine "damage"

So, I decided to take out the 1200+ HP Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera a few minutes ago. I haven't spent much time with this Stage 3 Superleggera - I usually drive the stock version. I noticed that when I really hop on the throttle and get the revs high that my vehicle damage indicator pops up and the engine starts flashing red indicating that what I'm doing is not exactly doing the engine any favors. I had Turbo set to 100%...

Now, I usually only keep Mechanical Damage set to 10% because I don't want to have to run back to the pits and start a lap over, especially on the Nordschleife, if I make a silly mistake and crash. I'm guessing that if I had Mechanical Damage set to 100% that it would be possible to blow the engine if I were red-lining every gear. I noticed that the Mercedes C9 Sauber does the same thing if you have Turbo set to 100%.

Is this realistic? Does this mean that you really shouldn't be running the car with Turbo set to 100% boost? I understand that a Gallardo pumping out 1200+ horsepower probably wouldn't want to be pushed to the limit over and over and over in real life. But, should the engine damage indicator really be flashing the very first time you put your foot to the floor and the engine is only spinning 5,000 RPM?

I'm just trying to get a better handle on how Mechanical Damage, especially engine damage, should be interpreted via that Mechanical Damage indicator that pops up. I've only blown an engine in Assetto Corsa twice since I started playing. Both times were before they added the downshift protection and I foolishly downshifted into 2nd gear WAY too early.

Any thoughts?

 

This could be totally wrong, but I think I read somewhere that 100% turbo was really only for qualifying and would damage the engine significantly if used permanently.


edit: It is not usually best practice to change gear in the red, you should change gear before the power curve drops off.

 

I have a bad feeling when the engine icon is flashing red, too. These extreme engine power mods (as in Lotus 98T) were always only for qualifying, after the session some parts have to be really changed, usually turbocharger, as they were completely destroyed. The 100% turbo boost in Superleggera S3 is definetly only for one hotlap, same as the Lotus 98T and qualification tyres.

The flashing can be understood as a speed of degradation of the engine or parts. It was bugged in the previous AC releases where you can't complete one lap with Lotus - the engine was gone extremely quickly. Now you can easily do 3 laps at 100% turbo boost - outlap, hot lap, and one more lap to go back to pits - as it is usual in real life conditions. The downside is that the engine icon is flashing like hell. If you stop after 3 laps the icon will be slightly yellow. I guess it might be that the engine is at it's 80% of vitality or power, and it seems quite real to me. Engines are loosing power and vitality simultaneously - but if you push everything more to the limit, the faster the loosing will be (geometrically).

Maybe it wouldn't be bad if the flashing will appear only after you get at around 80% or 75% of the engine vitality. Or to make it appear if the power/vitality loss will be even much faster (bad downshift etc.).

 

a nice small looking and neat dmg display .. backup before replacing files.
enjoy

 

@TDS Thanks for that!
Do you have a screenshot of it in action, please?

I usually have it disabled completely. In reality you don't know the exact state of let's say an old Alfa GTA

 

Hmm, this "flashing red" engine damage indicator appears sometimes when I am driving the BMW 1M S3. What puzzles me is that I always use the default turbo boost pressure, and I never screw the engine. It just starts flashing as soon as I move out of my pit spot. At other times, it doesn't appear at all. I get the feeling that this is a bug, but nobody else seems to mention it

 

Sometimes the car damage display appears when the car was damaged in the previous session and you restarted or went back to pits, and the car got reset. But that display appearing when returning to pits doesn't mean the car got damaged again. You can check that in car physics app (dev apps). Look for the ELIFE 1000.000, this is the engine at max health.

 

Nope, that isn't it. I am talking about a red "engine damage" indicator that keeps flashing constantly when I leave the pits. It doesn't flash for a couple of seconds and then disappear. It flashes on a permanent basis....and for no reason whatsoever.

 

Does it happen if you return to game menu, then press Start again in practice mode (with bmw 1m s3), and don't touch any keyboard button while pulling out of the pits?

 

Wait, you can change the boost level in the Lambo? Wish these things were pointed out somewhere obvious in the game.

 

It should (it's been a while since I drove it) have that "adjustable boost, change it with keyboard keys" or something along these lines on the loading screen.
I'm 99% sure it's there, but since it's been a while, I leave that 1%. 100% sure it says that^ on the loading screen with other cars (1M S3, Z4 Drift, etc.)

 

That's not really true...

 

Well please tell us when it is best to over rev an engine gaining no more momentum just damage? (That is not a flame but a serious question)

 

It should be, on the loading screen, lower right corner below the vehicle name.

 

Because the average acceleration you'll get from "over-revving" the engine, but then shifting into a rev range with a large amount of power is greater than the average acceleration you'll get from shifting exactly at the maximum power and being stuck in low power revs until the engine reaches that RPM again. Unless the engine drops off more after the peak power than it does before it, you should shift after the point of maximum power (there's a reason cars have redlines at e.g. 7k while the peak power is at 6.3k rpm). That said, typically the redline isn't far from the peak power (500-1000 rpm away usually) anyway.

And you're still gaining momentum, just not as much as you were when you had peak power, but chances are, if you shift, you'll have even less power to work with.

Also, if you take a look at THIS, you'll see that acceleration decreases with lower total gear ratios (on a car, the lower the gear you're in, the higher the gear ratio), so going into a higher gear will inherently give you less overall acceleration.

 

Then again you have the chance in most of the modern race cars to balance your gear ratio and that creates a smooth and continuous acceleration If the car you drive, say the GTA, has a locked gear then you may need to go further into the over rev to keep the momentum. Ordinarily though you want to change gear at the optimum opportunity which is not in the red zone (IMHO). Still as they say 'Horses for courses'.


edit: Anymore of those links will be saved for future consideration.

 

But factually it typically is....

 

This is a little off topic but engine damage I feel can be a bit forgiving. For example I got a new shifter for xmas and going into T1 at bridgehampton I meant to go from 5th to 4th but went to 2nd by accident. The revs went sky high and the car spun out and the engine was only light yellow. In reality it would have been toast with it's guts all over the track.

Also rev limiters on some of the classic cars seems weird to me.

 

::SIGH:: I want a stick shift for my setup SO bad... Unfortunately, I have absolutely nowhere to mount it - my current setup is horrendous. I drive sitting in a recliner with my steering wheel mounted to this tiny TV tray. Oh, it's awful... Driving with an actual stick must be so much more fun with the older cars.