I seem to be winning a lot of riced up Japanese cars, I guess thats because I'm early on in the game. Anyway I just wasted all my money on a lovely Ford Focus to complete the American races, its basically 20k off its rear wheel drive conversion and racing block, then it will be fully tuned.
My BMW M3 E34 (i think its e34) is still my favourite car at the moment, I've given it a lot more power now so its ready for another assault on the ring, I want to get a mid 8 minute time if possible. The handling and physics seem much better than the first Forza, they feel like Rfactor but a lot better...basically what Rfactor should handle like.
The damage is something similar to what I would love to see in LFS, although a little more extreme. Basically you can stop your car working, but it takes a lot of big hits to totally kill it. Bumpers, body panels, spoilers, mirrors...all fall off when hit enough, but they also dent from smaller crashes. The scratching of the paint looks pretty good when combined with a dirty car (cars get dirty when racing a long time). Your engine smokes when damaged, you can kill the steering, transmission, gearbox, drivetrain...quite a lot of stuff.
Whoops went on a bit there, just buy it if you have a 360.