If you go on the leaderboards and go to 'friends' and press a you can go on race ghost. It will give you the ghost of that friends fastest lap in that car class on that track.
I haven't really played it much yet so the bounty money I have is enough for me at the moment, then I'll probably just move onto paint/vinyl like you say. The bounty you get from the challenge is based on the rival's time/place on the leaderboards so all events have a top bounty of 150k just some are much harder than others.
I understand what you mean about the free parts but I quite like being able to experiment with set ups without spending all my money on just a few cars.
Well you don't get something do you, I'd rather get up to manufacturer level 4 than be spending lots on parts for every car of that make.
There is plenty of money in rivals mode as long as you only do enough to beat the ghost and not go flat out on the first go. If you can't beat the next person then move on to a different rivals challenge. If you have a better way of making money please do tell?
If you get to about level 4/5 with a manufacturer all their parts are free which saves quite a bit of money.
At the moment it's pretty easy to get into the 100k/150k range particularly on stuff like the top gear track and go a little quicker each time. Made a million or so easily in an hour. I haven't found any better ways of making money yet.
I've just downloaded the demo, seems pretty good but on the 458 rivals mode the AI keep running in the side of me, driving as if I wasn't there and sometimes they just slam the brakes on , on the straights. Anyone else finding this?