i used to LOVE street rod games and been following your progress through the years with sr3.
i have a few suggestions that may help.
i dont mean to be rude or anything, but you may have very VERY high spectations.
what about going for something smaller, like... modding and existing game (could be an open source code or something).
then if you have enough fans/attention, make the big jump and start a huge project from scratch.
i dont mean to offend or piss anyone, just a suggestion.