You are correct, you are capped to balance the performance of each car so that no car has any advantage. Same with tuning, all tunes are kicked out and returned to stock, supposedly for the same reason. You get the tune back after the race is over, Whew!
The Lord gives, and the Lord Takes Away!?! Therein lies the FOLLY of GT Sport! What is the use of tuning when it cannot be used for racing. That said, there are some cars that drive OK out of the box. You can find them by looking at the different races and seeing what the really fast guys drive. One of my favourites is the VW Beetle Gr.3! Not your usual grocery getter, and very nimble.
Now that Kaz has refurbished GTS with the beginning of a career mode, your tuning can be used in those races. They appear to be "in the game" but the race results are only saveable online?? Go Figure! So Joe Blow, living out in the boonies with no internet, cannot really use GT Sport. He would be unable to buy any cars, also an online feature. I guess Kaz doesn't know much about Canada. The only thing available for Joe, would be racing in "Arcade" mode, with a gift car, and his results are not saveable to the PS4?? I know this because I created a new PS entity and password, and opened a new game with the PS4 NOT connected to the internet, and played for a day. The next day I started my PS4, and it was as if I had never played the day before, I had to start again? So I re-connected.
Enjoy, if possible,
Cheers, Pete
