But I like your suggestion better, especially with that attitude. If you want to 'better the game', buy S2 and let the DEVs put your funds to good use. Who knows, maybe you'll get your "SKREEEEE" noise later down the road.
I like it the way it is. Having a time limit on qualify means you have to plan your qualify run, not just jump into it knowing exactly how many laps you get a shot at.
I also prefer having cars on the track during qualify. Usually that's how it is in real life, so why change it?
When you visit a server you have to be willing to follow the rules of that server, no matter what they are, or there's a chance you will get banned. So, if they say no contact and you continue to bump and rub other cars, even if you don't wreck those cars, you've broken the rules of the server. Same goes for blocking. If the admins don't want you to block more than once, then it's best you follow those rules or find another server. Those are really you're only two options in this case.
Currently, there is no way to increase baseline HP or torque. From what I've read, there are no plans to add such features.
Nope. The cars are the way they are because it would be to restricting to the development of the game to use mostly real-world counterparts in the sim. What I mean by that is, for example, if the game had a Mustang, Ford Motor Company might not want any damage modled onto their car, which in turn would make it silly to have damage on other cars in the game. This has happened in many games before, and it stinks. There are also no mods to change the cars appearance, but you can use 'skins' to give the car a new paint job. Search the forum on how to skin if you're interested.
As far as tweaks and other mods of that nature, those are pretty much all gone as well in this current version. LFStweak will let you change your HP and other aspects of the power of a car, but only in an older version (can't recall which one). That also means it can't be used online.
So, I hope that helps a bit
EDIT: LFS does have three real world cars by the way. The MRT, the BF1 Sauber and the Raceabout (RAC). You need to have a S2 license to access those cars though
To be constantly on the movie, you'd need a PCMCIA card that can connect to a wide-area WiFi network. There are a few in the states, not sure about where you are, but they have similar covereage to cellphone networks. These usually require you to signup with a data plan though, and normally they give you their own card to use as a reciever for their network.
Best way to know this is to know the "Native Resolution" of the monitor. If it can natively display in a HighDef resolution, then it is capable of HD content. Many CRTs are even capable in this regard. The difference is, since it's a monitor, it wont have a HighDef reciever. What that means is, you can watch some HD content (assuming your resolution and CPU supports it), as long as it's on your local drives.
HD Content is very CPU intensive, especially at the higher end of HD.
If it's a WiFi reciever, you should be able to pickup 'hotspots' for service while on the road. Those spots will determine the speed of access more so than your hardware (based on network load). So, yes, you can access the net while in the car, as long as you have an open/unrestricted Wifi access point within distance of your reciever.
In home use is where you will see a speed difference between wired and wireless the most. Wired doesn't have much restraints on distance and interferance, but even then, unless you're working with HUGE files to transfer over wireless to your local LAN, you shouldn't be overly impaired by a 54mbps speed
Most laptops have a method to opening them, much like tower PCs do. Except a lot of the time it involves removing the keyboard. Your manual would be the best place to check this. If anything, google the make of the laptop with "upgrades" appended and see what results you come up with.
If I'm not entirely off, hard drives can be upgraded in a laptop. Just check NewEgg for example, should find plenty of laptop drives. You MIGHT have some sort of propriatary enclosure around the drive, best to check that first. It really shouldn't be an issue.
The network speed is 'ok'. The average LAN speed is what, 100mbps? So, unless you are really pushing the network, 54 shouldn't be too much of an aggrivation, but you will certainly notice a speed difference between that and a full 100mbps network connection.