Yup, and it sounds like EA may not have been the problem, it almost sounds like they never properly calibrated the Shift/SMS eng, and they're only now attempting to do so.
I just dled b189, so I'll give that a go and see if there's been any progress on the physics.
I didn't understand how Shift 2 was released they way it was, but the QA is run by EA, as many other big publishers, how cannot EA be the problem. Imagine if they asked ISI to make a brand new game in 1 year, and they tell you wants wrong with it and what you have to fix. Instead of the dev fixing what he thinks it has to be fixed.
Part of the problem with Shift 2 is that people have to remember that it's an EA game that is being released every 1 or 2 years, that's the way they ruined the NFS franchise, and no dev no matter how good it is can keep up with that.
TD Ferrari Legends is going to be released soon, it's also from SMS, and guess what, it's not a sim, it's quite arcade instead, guess who is to blame, according to SMS, Atari wanted the game to be "accessible". Now put yourself in SMS position, what you do, do the game like Atari want, and earn money, or do nothing and shut down the studio.
My point is that there is no publisher in pCARS that tells SMS to do the game "accessible" it has been said several times that the game will be a sim, there are the members who tells SMS physics needs to improve, the handling needs work, that track is wrong, and since October 2011 i have seen progress in all those areas. Rfactor 2 was not made on 1 week, it's still in BETA, the same with AC or GTR3.