From where I'm sitting, the shame is on LFS members who know better, dragging this forum down. Do what you want on your machine on your own time, but there's no justification or excuse for taking this forum with you - a GAME developer's forum of all places, for goodness sake!
Well I have tried it in Sim Mode, yes you can drift but the car still feels very odd and the damage isn't so great either. The best arcade game driving physics IMO is in GTA IV.
I can't even comment on the Arcade physics, as I haven't even drove a mile with them enabled.
That is the whole point in Simulation physics. The cars are meant to be more of a challenge to drive fast.
I seriously cannot see how you think the cars in Mafia 2 are not fun to drive though. Coming sideways out of your driveway with both the rear wheels smoking like mad is awesome! Personally though, I think the handling is quite realistic. Go play the demo again, and drive with a controller, not a keyboard.
If you take notice, the cars steering is slow, the suspension is soft and bouncy, and the cars tyres are of a huge profile, which means the car is slow to react to input...In my opinion, that is the way a 1950's car with leaf springs should react!
Correct would be, that you don't like the cars then.
You have to remember that the cars back then were a lot heavier (no Alu or CF) and had a tyre-width half (heck even a 3rd) of what the tyres of today have, which simply means, that alone, provides half the grip.
I have no idea. I'm pretty sure people have managed to get PS2 controllers working on LFS with the adapters you can buy off eBay, so maybe it would work on PC. I know that the Xbox 360 PC Controllers work on Mafia 2 though.
I have a X-Converter for Xbox 360, I used it to use my PS2 controller on the PC and it mimics the Xbox controller for PC, so vibration and everything works! Used it on Mafia II earlier today