Great work gtsomething! ("real" hobby photographer here too
)
I just want to emphasise on panning mode 2 & 3.
You stated that the mode 3 is a perfect following of the car and mode 2 between mode 1 (which is more a zoom burst effect combined with a weak panning technic) and mode 3. I think you're right about mode 1 and mode 3 but mode 2, until last days, was still kind of mystery to me as I didn't saw major difference with mode 3.
But lately I posted this pic in the realistic thread:
One of the comments said somehow it was unreal because of the movement's capture. I agree: you can see that the panning effect shows a slight circular movement due to the fact that the car is turning and gets closer to the camera. Irl it's pretty impossible to get this effect except if you perfectly masters zoomburst and panning on a fast subject.
Then I noticed that using the panning mode 2, you minimize, if not suppress, the circular effect but keeping the nice panning effect. It pursuits the subject movement either on a lateral or on a closing camera pov instead of the mode 3 which seems to follow all subject's movements. To my feeling, Mode 3 is pretty much similar as the camera follows the subject with permanent distance (like you described it : a magical arm fixed to the car) but even predicting the future trajectory of the car.
Another example, you can see it mainly on the track texture:
So I think the mode 2 is somehow the most accurate mode to reproduce real life panning effect. Note that its only usefull when the car has the both movements (lateral and "vertical") like the pic presented.
On this one, I believe I used mode 2 and you can see no circular movements are displayed:
Just my thoughts as I'm not sure about it... What do you think?