I've been hunting for the best no tuning car at or under 500pp. I decided to do a little work with the following constants:
Deep Forest Raceway
absolutely no tuning
DS3
SRF: off
ABS: 1
TC: 0
Grip at track edge: Low (I usually opt for Real, but I had gotten 11 cars deep before I realized I wasn't catching this)
Sports hard tires
Every car tested came with sports hards as default tires except the Mazda RX500, which I switched to Sports hards for this testing. I have tested 31 cars up to this moment. I gave each car a minimum of 5 laps to lay down its best time. I will admit that sometimes I hated a car, and I told myself it got its best time within 3 laps. If a car was near the top 10 performers on this course, then it got more attempts. I figured this would be a good idea, since as I learn a car and tweak my driving approach through particular corners, the small time differences between the top performers emerge. I will share the top ten here and eventually (later) figure out how to share the spreadsheet with those interested.
Right out of the box and under 500 PP at Deep Forest
1. Ferrari 365 GTB4 '71 1:21.770" 3.45 kg/HP 496pp
2. Acura HSC '04 1:21.913" 3.54 kg/HP 490pp
3. Lotus Esprit Sport 350 '00 1:22.681" 3.68 kg/HP 493pp
4. BMW M3 GTR '04 1:22.837" 3.60 kg/HP 497pp
5. RUF RGT '00 1:23.087" 3.51 kg/HP 499pp
6. Lotus Elise Sport 190 '98 1:23.482" 3.58 kg/HP 488pp
7. BMW M3 CSL '03 1:23.572" 3.91 kg/HP 490pp
8. Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione '08 1:23.647" 3.58 kg/HP 500pp
9. Mazda RX500 '70 1:23.840" 3.44 kg/HP 474pp
10. Chevrolet Camaro SS '10 1:24.420" 4.11 kg/HP 498pp
Others tested include (not an exhaustive list): Audi S4 '03, BMW M3 Coupe Chrome Line, Ferrari 512BB '76, Maserati GranTurismo S '08, Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Coupe '00, BMW Z8 '01, Ford Mustang Boss 302 '13 (placed in the low teens), Fisker Karma EcoSport '12, Gran Turismo 350RS, Autobacs Garaiya (a personal favorite ride), and more...