If hotlapping for the sake of enjoying the physics is your thing, don't think twice and get AC. It outshines PCARS 1 in that department in my humble opinion. And once you experience that feeling it's hard to go back to PCARS for its merits as driving feel is the essence of a driving game.
This is a fair assessment I'd say. Although, some cars in Pcars do feel close to the natural feeling you get from AC, such is the inconsistency in Pcars. Some cars are sublime (a fair few race cars), and some are downright awful (almost all the road cars). I've yet to find a car that feels truly awful in AC. Some feel a little off, or certain behaviours are exaggerated, but even the worst cars in AC feel a whole world better than the worst cars in Pcars. I think most of this is down to the issues that were baked into the tyre model in Pcars. If SMS can rectify all of the problems in the Seta model, as well as other physics hiccups Pcars has, then I believe Pcars 2 will be in another league to anything currently available.
With that said, AC only really has it over Pcars in perfect conditions, because that's all it really simulates. Pcars, for all the problems in the physics, still very nicely simulates a wet circuit, and cool night conditions. The transition from dry track to wet track, and vice versa, do sometimes happen ridiculously quickly (likely another bug), but when the track gets wet slowly, it really is nice feeling the grip slowly going away lap after lap, until you suddenly start aquaplaning. It's also nice to find that in the middle of the night at the Bathurst enduro, you're noticing how early you're having to brake compared to the daytime stints and qualifying. It's a pity that there is very little penalty to overheating the tyres, but when they get cold you definitely notice the difference in grip.
Basically, for me, AC is the better hotlap in perfect conditions sim. Trying out different cars from different eras, in very different circuits, and just enjoying the unique feeling of each car, is what AC does beautifully. Not many cars, but at least good variation, and not many tracks, but incredible track accuracy.
Pcars is better for actual racing, either offline or online. Many more cars, great variation, but with a decent number of cars in some classes. Huge track count, but some of them are pretty badly lacking in accuracy (Monza springs to mind, which feels the same as it did in Shift and Test Drive Ferrari, and is vastly different to the laser scanned version in AC). The properly dynamic time and weather, and the more thought given to the race weekend setup of the game, just makes Pcars the better game for doing races, especially long races.
I simply couldn't pick one or the other. Both are better than each other in specific areas. Both co-exist perfectly in a game collection. I'm glad I've got both, and when I can find time, I still play both.
I know it takes more time and consumes more resources, however, if you do it right - like Simone at Kunos, Fat-Alfie, Lilski or the VIR guys - you can have beautiful, natural looking trees.
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I hadn't even noticed, and I'm usually someone who puts a fair amount of weight on graphics.
