Marco entered the final sector: straight, then the right-left chicane before the finish. But something was wrong. His delta time—the ghost car of his own best lap from the previous patch—was displayed on the overlay. It was pulling away on the straight. Impossible. v1.6.3.0 had more realistic drag. His top speed should be lower .
“Uh, Marco? That’s not in the session,” Lei said, his voice tight. Automobilista 2 v1.6.3.0
The next morning, Reiza Studios released a hotfix: v1.6.3.1. Patch notes: “Fixed a rare memory leak causing phantom AI ghost cars in Time Trial mode. Removed deprecated track mesh data from pre-1980s Nordschleife.” Marco entered the final sector: straight, then the
Marco followed. The McLaren’s engine screamed past 12,000 RPM. The two cars—one real, one ghost; one alive, one memory—crossed the finish line together. It was pulling away on the straight
Marco didn’t reply. He was approaching . In v1.6.2, the car would have taken off like a ski jumper, losing all steering authority. Now, the patch notes had mentioned refined aerodynamic ground effect simulation at high-speed crests . The McLaren compressed, then released—but the front tires stayed planted. He landed with a twitch, not a spin.
In the replay, the Porsche ghost did one final lap alone. It drove slowly, deliberately, to the pit entrance. Then it pulled off the track, parked on the grass at the exact spot where, in reality, Richard Bell’s accident had occurred. The engine sound faded. The car flickered once, twice, and was gone.