As I said before, whatever experience I have IRL, I can't say for sure which sim has the best physics engine. How others can is beyond me. I do know that AC feels right in many ways but there is something wrong, something missing with pCars.
Also, a lot depends on the hardware you use. It is my personal opinion and experience that FFB is BS.
* steering wheel and brakes. Eventhough insidesimracing onces said that the brake pedal is the most important part of your equipment is IMHO not true. The steering wheel is equally important. I'm using the G27 with a real OMP 35cm (13.8") rim. December 30th, I had the opportunity to try out the AccuForce for almost three hours straight. The difference was subtle and still huge. Strange to say this but it is true. A DD wheel is a wheel to have if you are into simracing and you want to best real life experience.
When I lost the control of a car in AC, I immediately did what I should do IRL with the AF (> steering wheel control and steering wheel techniques). Problem with a sim is that you don't feel the car and you don't have any G-force acting on your body. I have to rely on the visual cues only, in AC. Don't forget that I barely use FFB because when you lose a car in a sim, the FFB makes the the steering wheel heavier and starts to countersteer (or something like that) automatically. IRL, the steering wheel doesn't get heavier when you lose control of the car. You need less FFB to be able to start countersteering fast enough before the car goes over it's slipangle.
I think but I'm not sure but I have this odd feeling that the handling of a car in AC is more sensitive than IRL. I think and again I'm not sure and this can be subjective or I may even be wrong, that in certain conditions you lose control of a car in AC a little bit faster than IRL. But this can be due to the fact that I'm not sitting inside the car and I don't feel the car.
Also, don't forget that the speed in AC is much higher than the speed when I'm doing carcontrol IRL. This is also a factor that has to be reckoned with.
The steering techniques I've learned IRL are the same in AC with the AccuForce. Less with the G27 because the G27 is a simple toy wheel. I lose control much more often in AC than I would IRL though because of the limitations of the G27, playing on only one monitor so I won't be able to
look where I want to steer the car at and not feeling the car and having to rely on only visual cues.
I can only comment on the general behaviour of the cars in AC. I drove the Toyota GT86 IRL and in AC but the difference of sitting in a real car and driving it and driving it in a sim is so big, that I can't say if the car feels correct or not.
I also drove the Alfa 4C IRL, on a public road and again this is very difficult to say is it handles the same and the AC's Alfa 4C. IRL the 4C has no powersteering and feels very strange when you are used to drive a car with powersteering. This feels not the same in AC when driving the Alfa 4C. Also, the steering of the 4C IRL also feel strange because when you turn the steering wheel, the car starts to turn faster of slower the more or less degrees you turn the steering wheel. This is not implemented in AC.
I think that the FFB in AC is a general feedback, the same for every car. The feedback (not
force feedback), how little IRL, differs from every cars IRL.
I think that the typical steering behaviour of real life cars is not implemented in AC, yet. Again these are my personal
feelings.
It is my opinion that the handling of cars in AC feels a lot and very close like the real thing, more than in pCars. pCars is not bad and does at least one thing better than AC and that is this (see my quote below).
AFAIK there is at least one physic's flaw in AC. In AC when you stop a car downhill, put the car in neutral or disengage the clutch, the car doesn't roll downhill, it stays stationary. pCars has got this right.
I mentioned this on the AC forum and other members told me that it is the slow speed physics that is a bit off in AC.
I'm just repeating what they said.
I still prefer AC over pCars. I'm not someone who clames to know which physics engine is more correct but AC feels so much real than pCars. MPHO (my personal humble opinion).
Whatever experience I have in real life, I can't say it AC has a better physics engine than pCars or vice versa.
I don't have to comment on the brake pedal of the G27. We all know that it is, mmmm, crap.
Some people are probably not going to agree with certain things I said because some things are subjective and also, I might be wrong with certain things I said.