Ummmm... I know that I have not posted in this forum for a while, but I guess the old hands will recognise me, and the newbies can make of me what they want.
Firstly,
Soda666, I am not pursuing an argument, I simply want to see some clarification on both sides to this discussion. Now, the way I read this, you are technically correct, it is not officially cheating to use a car within regulations but overpowered/underweight/cherry handling/whatever. If they meet the requirements to run the race, they are legal, and thus it is not cheating to use it.
However, I would advise caution on trying to argue this point. Similar to most other games with a strong community, Gran Turismo has a passionate fan base that enforces its own attitudes. Think of it as similar to laws and morals. You can do something that is legal in reality, but is actually immoral (such as pyramid schemes before they were made illegal, or things along that line). Similarly, within this community, we have certain morals that we adhere to (no AIDS in tunes, less is more for power, say no to B-spec, and so on). While bringing an overpowered car into a race is not cheating per se, it is against the ethics of this community, as we strive to make the game an enjoyable challenge rather than a walkover.
I have only had time for about an hour per fortnight on Gran Turismo 4 for the past few months, so I think I can safely say that I would supposedly not have the time to put in patience. But I still attempt to. I do not use group C/LMPs in the enduros that they run in, I use GTs wherever I can in them. I do not use DTMs/JGTC500s in their endurance races, I use the slower PD cars and JGTC300s. And so on. Contrary to causing frustration, I find this actually makes the game more enjoyable, as I can have wonderfully challenging and rewarding races (for example,
this race, back when I had some time on my hands, was delightful and memorable).
At the end of the day, it is down to the individual's choice. You wish to use overpowered cars? Go ahead, we won't stop you, but be prepared to not recieve too much credit on online fora. Want to wall ride around the Ice Arena? Who's to stop you? But don't expect to get your laptimes submitted to a records site as OLR clean. You have different views, that is fine. Just understand that when you go onto a long running forum that has enthusiasts, casual gamers, tuners et al. all in a tight community, several views may be different to your own.
Now, my two cents on rallying. I personally like to go for the old Group B(?) cars for the hard special conditions, such as the 5 and the Integrale, because they provide fun races if used stock. For medium races, I generally use the road car variants of the above, such as 5 Turbos. For easy, I go for fun cars, classics and the like, which have less power (which does help, as you are less likely to get the speed to collide with the other driver and incur a penalty), but handle beautifully. Tarmac rallies generally end up with hatchbacks for easy and medium, both new and old, or tuned clunkers (a used Suzuki from the 90s dealership, name isn't coming to mind, makes a fun Cittia di Aria car
), and a rally car or "self made supercar" for hard (examples would be the Stratos Rally Car, or one of my old tuned cars). Tsukuba wet generally has a front wheel drive entered, with road cars for easy and medium, and a rally car such as the Xsara for hard.
