I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees how bad all of this was. Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for an increase in difficulty, because let's face it, it was kinda easy to get 1st place with a good consistency. These changes however were just overkill. I mean if it affected the NPCs, which it really doesn't seem to have, then it would be easier. They seem to have the same stamina pools though and accelerating doesn't seem to hurt them much like it does the player. I mean if you take such a drain from trying to accelerate, then you have to back off it to avoid just draining yourself to 0%, then the NPCs pass you like your sitting still, then you HAVE to drain yourself just to get back to where they are while they still have 30% left on the last straightaway.