Does anyone know how exactly Nitro characteristics work?

Nitrous works in the three ways you mentioned.

Well, it seems none of that is true - from current test it looks like the only interesting part is cars PR itself, and the game engine does not care much about individual characteristics.

See following experiment:

Event: Chapter 1, Against the Clock (flow start, Easydrive already turned on) - therefore no difference from start reaction, almost empty streets, no barriers

Cars:

885 PR - Nissan GT-R R35 - 7623 top speed, 9000 acceleration

879 PR - McLaren 650S - 7627 top speed, 9301 acceleration

That is, Nissan has higher total PR, but on the other hand lower top speed and acceleration (and during the race no nitro is used, so it should be irrelevant).

One would therefore expect McLaren should be quicker on the course, as it has better characteristics.

Resulting times:

GTR: 21.37

McLaren: 21.49

I may try to upgrade nitro and see if the resulting time will change :-)

@HeretikJirka Nitrous does work in the three ways you mentioned before in a race. It helps your car accelerate much faster than without using nitrous, it helps your car reach a higher top speed past its top speed without nitrous cap, and more nitrous during a race gives longer burst of nitrous.

As for the PR numbers, Top Speed numbers, Acceleration numbers, and Nitrous numbers for each car....

I have to try that out myself.

My Nissan GT-R (R35) is much slower than my McLaren 650S so I'll have to improvise.

Nissan GT-R (R35) = 763 PR

McLaren 650S = 920 PR

If you're right about the misleading numbers, then NFS No Limits has turned into another NFS World for me.

(NFS World had performance stat numbers that were lies and only the Overall stat was the only honest number.

Overall stat in NFS World is equivalent to PR stat in NFS No Limits)

I know it seems different cars do behave differently, for example you can "see" Skyline accelerates much faster than any other similar car. But I first got suspicious when grinding for Aventador BPs, upgrading my GTR in the process, and even though I upgraded nitro parts only (others already maxed out), it felt easier.

So I waited to find two cars with following conditions:

- one has higher PR than the other

- the one with lower PR has higher top speed and higher acceleration.

Now, when I take cold start out of the equation, go full autopilot and do not use nitro throughout the race, it seems that nitro characteristics should NOT involve the result at all. But in reality it seems it does, which is kinda sad. I got the same result in more events, will post them soon, before I upgrade McLaren beyond GTR...