It's been a while since I did a post like this, but GTP's reliable as ever JohnBM01 has been keeping plenty of great ideas floating about with his usual attention to detail. Take a deep breath
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Custom Tuning - I'm going to seperate this from the body mods directly but keep it relatively related. One thing I'd like to see in GT5 is the ability to strip and rebuild a car with custom parts right down to modifiactions to the chassis itself.
In GT4 one of the tuning options you could select was the Stage 3 weight reduction. That reduction included swapping the cars chassis for a carbon fibre tub, which not only saved eight but added extra rigidity to the car too. So I'll start with weight reduction mods.
The way I'd like to work the weight reduction is to change it from GT's timely fashion of Stage 1, 2 and 3. Infact I'd like to do that with all the parts, but to keep on track here goes.
Weight Reduction
In the weight reduction menu instead of stages I'd like to see different aspects of weight reduction listed accordingly. I'd like the options to look something like as follows....
Remove rear seats
Remove front passneger seat
Remove sound proofing, trim and carpets
Replace windows
Carbon racing seat
Carbon dash and wheel
Carbon centre console
Removing the rear seats and front passenger seats are pretty self explanetory, however I've seperated the options for rear seats (which will only be available on cars that have them, obviousely) to the front passenger seat because I would like GT5 to feature a co-pilot for certain race types that reflect real word races that use them, such as rallying, in which case a co-pilot would need a front passenger seat to sit in. The removal of the seats would be reflected on the car, since the cars in GT5 are modelled with seperate body parts, it's not a huge stretch to imagine certain niterior objects being modelled seperately too, such as the seats. So ermoving them form the car model would be a doddle.
Removing the sound proofing, trim and carpets is an option that would not only affect the look of the interior and the weight of the car, but the mod would also be relected on the sound of the car from the cockpit view. Perhaps the sound would have a slight echo added and the volume raised to relect the lack of sound proofing from the noraml levels. However I'm not a sound expert so I don't know what the actual changes in sound should be other than volume. Replacing the windows would simply replace the windows with a lighter material.
Carbon racing seat would replace the drivers seat and if still in, the passengers seat with a carbon racing seat. There wouldn't be much difficulty in giving you a simply chouce of basic styles and colours and this would typically be lighter than the standard seats and save weight.
Carbon dash and wheel, this would simply relace the dash currently in the car with a carbon one. I'm not sure if it would be best to simply re-texture the existing dash and lower the cars weight slightly or offer a choice of carbon racing dash's but I wouldn't want it to get too complicated, but at the end of the day my idea is to create your own racing car and the interior should reflect this as well. You should have a choice of racing wheels which like the seats wouldn't be hard to implement.
Carbon centre console, this would replace the centre console with a racing console that would excude things like the CD player, sat-navs and such and instead have a range of switches that you would find in a real racing car. In the game no doubt these would be for show only, but in a real life car they would all be functional.
I've left off carbon body panels for a reason, I want the body work to be a seperate menu to the weight reduction. You may also notice that so far I haven't mentioned the carbon tub I talked about that was in GT4, so without further ado...
Chassis, Safety and Sub Frame
Chassis and sub frame should be a fairly advanced mods and the prices should reflect that. A carbon tub doesn't come cheap you know, also I'd like to see options that I beleive are a possiblity that we already see in some of the Concept by GT cars in GT5
and then the asafetly part refers to the roll cage. These are as follows...
Widen track
Roll cage
Carbon tub
The widen track option is there for all to see in GT5
on cars like the Lotus Elise and Mitsubish Evo VIII Concept by GT cars. Basically, for a nice price, this option will make the cars track wider, generally resulting in better cornering ability. It won't be an option that relects simple methods such as spacers, rather this mod will relect actually changing the track by replacing the axelts, steering arms, suspension mounts etc. To relect this modification on the virtual car model wouldn't be overly difficult either. For cars that perhaps don't feture specific wide-body body parts you can manipulate polygons to widen the bodywork over the wheels instead. It wouldn't be difficult to simply have the wheelarches for example, extend further out, you wouldn't increase curve, you'd simply extend them out. How smooth this looks depends on how many polygons are used in that portion of the car, I'm going to assume that it's enough being GT.
The roll cage could offer a choice of a half cage that only takes up the rear portion of the car, it would be lighter but have a smaller effect on the cars rigidity. Or a full cage which would weigh more but make the car more rigid.
And finally the carbon tub, this is the mother of chassis modifications. Much like in GT4, this mod will basically replace the core chassis of the car with a carbon fibre tub which will not only save weight, it will increase the cars rigidit no end and as such will offer a much higher potential for the cars performance ability. This and the widened track mods should not be cheap.
So with that out of the way, I'm finally moving on the bodywork, what I envisage with this is perhaps braketed body parts based on maximum potential downforce. This could be tied into the events structure by having certain race car based series restricting cars based on maximum potential downforce. You'll never see an S2000 spec touring car with a GT1 regulation rear wing and front splitter for example. So I'd have certain body parts categorised by class, so I'm moving in to...
Bodywork
I'd split the bodywork into these main areasand I'll expand on each along with any sub areas and options afterwards.
Front Half Body
Rear Half Body
Additional Aero
Additional Parts
Front and real haf body options are, like the seat removal options, failry self explanetory. These options will allow you to change standard body panelts from bonnets to front and rear wings (quarter panels) to the front and rear bumpers and so on. Upon selecting a body part you will then be offered a choice of material such as carbon fibre or perhaps the cars standard material. The Carbon would be lighter but more expensive. You could also replace the cars stqandard panels with carbon fibre ones if you wished to keep the car looking standard but wanted to additional benefit of a lighter body.
Additional aero, this is where the downfoce classed parts would come into play. You would have the following options...
Front Splitter
Cannards
Winglets
Rear Spoiler
Rear Wing
Rear Diffuser
These options will then offer parts with the following ratings...
Class D - Very minor mods, would offer minor imporvments to downforce.
Class C - Would fit cars in porduction based Touring type events.
Class B - More of your higher performance Touring type parts, would fit cars that race in lower spec GT competitions.
Class A - More of your typical GT type parts seen on cars like the Aston DBR9's and C6-R's.
Class S - These would be more specialist parts and would be more suited to top performance racing, more suited to keeping a 1000bhp track demon on the road than anything. Perhaps the closes to compare these wings and parts to would be the GT1 of the 90's. 1000bhp Supra, this wing'll do for you.
The additional parts could be things like replacing the lights for vented units that have an air intake integrated into the unit like for example the FTO LM Edition in GT3 and 4. Perhaps you could add a light pod to the front of your car if you were to engage in night time rallying. Basically any smaller mods that would be easy to implement into the game could be added here.
Another option you could add might perhaps be pre-determined kits. You could perhaps have a Touring kit, GT kit, Rally kit etc depending on the car you've selected. These kits would basically offer a pre-chosen combination of body parts that would match the racing type indicated in the name and would be usefull for thoes that would rather a simple one or two click process to having a race modded car and would be more reminiscent of selecting the race mod in GT1 and 2.
Going back to the custom tuning I would also love to see engine swaps and drive train mods. Like the chassis and sub-frame mods, these should be relefcted as higher mods in thier price.
Powertrain Conversions
As state above, these shouldn't come cheap. Due to licensing issues I doubt you'd be able to put a Mazda rotary into a Ford Mustang (if you should so wish to do so). Engine choices would be limited to what would realistically fit into the car you;ve selected, and what the manufacturer of the car you've selected provides.
Engine Swap
Drivetrain Conversion
Unlike Forza 2 I'd like the engine swaps and driveertrain swaps to be seperate. Sometimes In Forza 2 I wanted such an engine in my car, but I didn't want 4wd, ofcourse not every engine can work with every drivetrain combination, at least not well and without extensive alterations. So ofcourse certain powertrain limitations may be in effect depending on your choice of engine, but the drive conversion should be a seperate option.
By my reckoning, using an options list such as this I would be able to take a factory MG ZS 1.8 (thanks for spotting the deliberate
cough mistake homeforsummer), strip the interior, fit a roll carge, racing dash and seats etc.
Widen the track slightly, replace the body panels with carbon fiber parts. Add a Touring car style wing, diffuser and splitter.
Do all the other mods such as suspension, brakes etc.
Replace the standard inline 4 with an MG Rover 2.0 V6 at which point I'd have the option to keep it fwd or make the car 4wd or rwd. But for this car I'd keep it fwd then after a visit to paint shop I could, if I chose to, come out with a car like this...
One way to keep these mods in check is the have different race series offer restrictions on powertrain mods, for example some series might allow any car with any engine. Others might allow any car with a V8 so if you're driving a Ford Focus that's been swapped out with a V8 you can enter. Others may restrict you to 2.0 engines only, other to the cars standard engine. The same goes for drivetrain, some series may resrtict you to standard drivetrains only, other will give you the freedom. This race restrictions should carry over to the online mode, including extrensive variations in restrictions like this basically prevents every man and his dog from taking a humble car, fitting it with the biggest and/or most powerfull engine, giving ir rwd or 4wd (it it isn't already), the best aero parts and just caning it. Having a varied set of restrictions ensure that all these mods have uses and limitations, pro's and cons and all have thier place.
You can breath now
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), diffusers, canards, vents, D1/Super GT/Touring Car graphics, GT/Racing rear-spoilers, etc. The parts that help the car achieve better downforce, less air-resistance, etc.
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Secondly, you couldn't get a 1.4 in the ZS (let alone the ZT, the Rover 75-based model)... the smallest engine was a 1.8 
