This is a bizzare suggestion, but hear this one out.

I've never heard of a driver disconnecting during a real race (), and discos can be a PITA for endurance races regarding trackers and stuff. It's a side issue but this also fixes the intentional disconnection problem.

I won't exactly explain this, here is the procedure.

1. Driver A from team X disconnects
   
2. Immediatley, the car goes in to an AI controlled autopilot. Similar to the GTR2/rF autopilot, but with LFS AI and probably ran on the PC of someone who is not currently running a car.
   
3. The car continues to drive around with it's T glowing for someone to take over.
   
4. Driver B from team X connects, clicks the T and the car pits in and driver changes.
   
5. After (say) ten minutes, the car on autopilot parks up in a garage.
   

It sounds a bit crazy, but I guess it could work

a very good idea, although i have no idea how such a thing could be implemented, but i like your thinking, as it is very annoying if you are doing well and you disconnect.

Quote from danthebangerboy :

a very good idea, although i have no idea how such a thing could be implemented, but i like your thinking, as it is very annoying if you are doing well and you disconnect.

How I said - a player that is on the server with no car in the race would run the autopilot on their PC.

Quote from duke_toaster :

How I said - a player that is on the server with no car in the race would run the autopilot on their PC.

What if they lose the connection? I think this could be handled differently. I think the players position could be saved. Then, when they re-join after losing the connection, they just start out from the pits and find there way back to whoever they were behind. They would just let the people in front of them pass, and then LFS would start updating their position again, just as it was before.

i need this option badly, because i don't want to lose my connection in the upcoming 16h event.

Quote from Sueycide_FD :

i need this option badly, because i don't want to lose my connection in the upcoming 16h event.

Well, if you lose your connection then oh well. Just pretend it was a random engine failure.