I think that it would be a viable option for varients of the same car be available within body kits or appearance modifications.
Such as the Ford Mustang have the shelby option and the super snake option
Bmw have Vorsteiner, M Motorsport, Hamann and standard series options for examples
Would be better for file sizing and adding more cars into lists.
absolutely. been going on about this a lot here it seems, glad some others feel the same way.
They already have done this with some cars such as the Group B Lancia Delta S4, and the Group 4 Lancia Stratos. All either of these cars need is the interior swap option and better weight reduction options to allow them to drop to the weights seen in the race cars. I wouldnt even mind if that extra weight reduction was added via the interior swaps. want a stripped out lightweight car? better gut the interior, although that already seems like a very polarising opinion in the wheels option alone so maybe its better to just add another weight reduction modification to each in this example and let people chose if they want the interior or not.
maybe if you apply a specific bodykit or selection of visual mods/engines/etc, the name of the car and the class its in can change.
in the lancia examples, by applying the bodykits, their name changes to that used in the blizzard mountain DLC they were added in with the Stratos becoming “Lancia Stratos HF Group 4” and so on, then it gets moved in to the Rally Monsters class. Same could be said for something like the BMW GTR, add the widebody and it gets the name and gets moved to Track Toys instead of Retro Saloons, the Valkryie becomes the Valkryie AMR and goes from Hypercars to Extreme Track Toys, etc.
The stock forms and tunes of these cars could then be directly availible by using the Presets seen in the likes of the Audi Quattro which has an option to turn it in to the rally car (although, its not a very accurate replica, they should really put more effort in to those). The options used in the presets could also be marked by brand, including the performance parts. Much like you can apply a “Saleen” front bumper, you should be able to add a “Saleen” camshaft, or be able to use a “Brabus” Turbocharger.