I haven't driven the V8SC, but did try the cadilac with baseline and with a number of sets from iracing forums, one of which allowed me to immediately go 4secs a lap faster, but given I was 7-8 secs off the lap record, I was still miles behind with the better set.
If I may interject here, David.
I read countless posts at iracing forums around this debate (lap times in-sim and real life). Some think the harder the driving is, the better as it keeps lap times within realistic values. It's a failed argument and we're back to "harder is realistic" nonsense.
Others say they're as fast or faster as real life, which proves that the sim is real. This is at least awfully bizarre thinking: no matter how realistic a simulator is, even considering the lack of proper feedback (seat of the pants and other things), a simracer is always potentially faster because he/she has the ability to push harder with ZERO CONSEQUENCES (crash, injury, death, team budget catastrophe).
But there is something else. I have sat side by side with pro drivers trying LFS, iRacing, NKP and Race07. Even after trying the best setups and tinkering with them on iRacing, these guys were fast BUT still a few seconds slower than the so called alien drivers. When we analysed replays, lo and behold, most "alien" drivers were doing things they (pro drivers) would never do (constantly sideways, constantly dive bombing, constantly using kerbs). No wonder these "aliens" are fast - and obviously, there are exceptions, Huttu and Towler being the most obvious. The pro drivers showed me this: if they're to use a sim as a tool, they cannot use the pseudo-techniques some aliens use. Which means, realistic use of the sim implies renouncing to "being the fastest guy around". Which, for them, is fine.
For me it's simple, I don't drive sim cars I can't control and feel in control at some point, and I've spent 100's of laps on various cars, so if I can't get the hang of it by then, it's time to hang up the gloves on that car, especially as I put some of the Netkar owers in the top 10 within 30 laps{I uploaded my replays to the netkar forum}.
Well, I don't know how often you went to iRacing forums, read a lot of guys saying exactly what you write here and the usual "choir boys" bid them farewell with comments about lack of talent or willingness to work hard...Shameful.
My problem to a T, but mainly the faster cars, the MX5 was something that was far more controllable, though it might just be a case of it's low power minimizing the grip problems.
Tommy Milner twitted several times about iRacing. He was called a "clown", "paid by another dev company", "talentless" (go figure) by the usual "choir boys".
But what he said was simple: cars felt odd, wrong, lack of grip, stability. That's what most people complain about iRacing.
Why is that? It's only a problem of tire modelling - true, aeros are still not on par with the rest of the service, but tires (OTM or NTM) still suffer from the problems I mentioned earlier. And why is it still that way? Given the team and budget Dave Kaemmer has at his disposal, there's only so much he can do. Given time, he will solve all this but atm he has a lot to deal with besides tires.
But to say iRacing has the best physics all-round is absurd.