Le Mans Ultimate vs iRAcing tyre model

iRacing and Le mans ultimate have both a new highly expected tyre models to fix some issue in each title. After a week of testing each title with more patience, in more scenarios, against people online, here are some of my thoughts. 

Driving the new tyre model is not just driving the tyre model by itself, the setups are important, like the stock setups provided in each game, those tend to be safer as a good portion of the playerbase will use them in fixed series or because they will feel safer with them like you would be by subscribing to the channel. That does help me a lot as well.

Ive also tested both titles with also the channels sponsor Coach Dave Academy esport setups.Esports setups are generally more manouverable, less draggy, more sensitive and thats is important to figure out where some of the limits of the tyres are when they are not loaded by aero. Speaking of Coach Dave Academy, sponsor shout out here, Coach Dave Academy Delta provides setups for Le Mans Ultimate and iracing, as well as ACC or Gran Turismo 7. They have telemetry to compare your inputs against esports drivers helping you, as they are helping me, get faster.

They have faster safer setups as well as esports setups made by top drivers like Yuri Kasdorp. Link available in the description

Non sponsor part, for both lmu and iracing ive jumped between fixed setups, or fixed fasts setups in the case of lmu, and the multiple CDA Delta safe and esport types.

What Ive found is interesting, but shouldnt be surprising at all. Lets start with iracing. When the update came out, I have mentioned that the esports meta setups were important to figure out what was going to happen. Once they came out  you get a bigger picture because this tyre model kind has two faces. With the provided setups at the time of the models release there was no guarantee that they would be a good representation of the tyre, or if they were even decently updated.

As you probably already know by now the tyre gets out colder from the pits or starts, this is important. The lower temperature has a huge impact in tyre grip and car balance as it should. The moniker ice racing is back at least for a few corners, theres very little longitudinal grip. This we already know.

What Ive found interesting is that now comparing with feedback coming from the esport setups, or low wing as well as the high downforce fixed setups is that the iracing tyre is extremely sensitive to tyre load. The high downforce setups are naturally understeery that tends to be a constant everywhere. Here its possible to handle the car at exits witha  bit of throttle correction when needed. Theres a decent window to man handle it, not as much as acc, ac or lmu, but certainly more than the last tyre model.

But the moment you start removing the aero and go to a looser setup the tyres change completely the working logic. The tyre patch feels narrower, its not just the slip angle, its as if the aero gives much  more bias to the high values, but at low values even at low speeds, which its generally the case at corner exits, even if the aero load wouldnt be that much, the tyre control simply isnt there and with it the slip angle is far reduced. That means trying to fix a small jerky exit with throttle and respective countersteer will mean more often than not, a sudden spin.

This is not the case anywhere else even in real life, where you can always see a driver providing a good degree of fast countersteering at the last stage of corner exits. iRacing doesnt seem to have that dialled in just yet. 

In general the tyres feel and drive better. They are easier to understand, and to drive and the most frustrating issue from the previous tyre model is gone, the tyre surface flash heat. Also, for some reason, braking makes more sense to me now. Go figure.

Good update, still feels a couple of pegs behind.

On the other hand, Le Mans Ultimate update has had quite an uproar over the new GT3 new tyre model and handling. If iracing made the new tyres generally easier, the new LMU tyres seem to be generally more difficult. Personally I didnt feel that much difference, there are a  few things that may need some adjustment. The tyre model was updated with reducing the rfactor2ness of drifting through corners in mind. Since, I never really drove like that, my driving style was left essentially the same, though some things need to be changed. 

First of all, the cold tyres are more difficult to drive, the grip isnt there for fast changes of direction or load at the front. The tyre still responds to countersteering, but that doesnt matter much if you are trying to the same things as before at dunlop curves slowing down froom 180kmh a hour. They still heat up relatively fast.

The biggest difference will be at corners where a lot of the weight is pushed outside of the car, namely at the rear tyres at high speeds. Porsche curves are a great example of this. The new tyre model makes that the rear tyres start releasing grip, first slowly, then catastrophically without much warning.  I have found that there are generally two solutions. First one is raising the front a few clicks, or secondly, if you like the balance of the car, raise TC3, or slip Traction control. It is still possible to run without TC3 or low TC3 in some cars, like the mclaren, the M4 or the new lamborghini. The Lexus is impossible to use at low TC3 ive found. 

Part of this is also related with the stock setups that seem to be a little too nervous, like they werent updated in a way they needed. Coach Dave setups on the other hand are fast, but ill generally lower TC3 quite significantly. 

Everywhere else, Im finding that the tyres respond to the same inputs generally the same way. The lower slip angle is a welcomed addition even if it needs a good dose of polishing. Coach Dave, David Perel also comes out saying this 

https://x.com/davidperel/status/1933822062260334931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1933822062260334931%7Ctwgr%5Ec4eeffdea591998faef01aa0f269910e18ba0785%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.lemansultimate.com%2Findex.php%3Fthreads%2Fthe-new-gt3-tires.8142%2Fpage-14

“Le Mans Ultimate:

I was directly involved in this one and fought hard for realism and driveability.

New model is much less exploitable. Gone are the long fake drifts.

But I think it’s too easy to spin at max load around the apex (entry and exit) and that needs so work. 

Setups help but the model needs to be a bit more forgiving at the limit.

The more time you spend on the tyre the more satisfying it is to drive.

Step in the right direction, but not there yet and I’ll be the loudest voice for that in the dev chats.”

Now that leads me to my closing thoughts. These are two tyre models are coming from different points, iracing was made easier with less guitar hero driving, and LMU made harder with less slip angle leading to more spins. 

Both still drive like their respective sims, its not that these two sims changed that much to be different games. Nonetheless theres for both somework required at balancing loss of grip and controlability of the car as both these tyre models sometimes will go off a cliff when they dont like something. I still think ACC did this really well, though it suffers from other deeper problems, including one that Im leaving for a next video so subscribe to keep up to date. 

LEt me know what you think.