I'll disagree on the walls - somewhat - try this:

Walls CAN SLOW YOU DOWN MORE - like in the original Wipeout - BUT, none of this magnet wall stuff. I hate how I'll brush against a wall, and I get sucked INTO it. This is painful enough as is - and would be downright frustrating if they slowed you down more. Especially considering the next paragraph.

This is NOT a 1.26 vs 1.3/1.4 b!tch - this is serious. I have noticed that my perfect laps are few and far between since 1.3/1.4. Back when I deleted my entire game and reinstalled 1.26 - I was getting perfect RACES all the time (granted, on single player mode - but I was unable to do single player perfect laps on 1.3/1.4) So there IS a variable, maybe a sub-shift of maybe 10 frames, who knows - but the game DOES still handle wonky at times - please don't argue this point - I only bring it up because I have noticed it, and have been able to repeat it by downgrading and playing on the old version.

So if the game handles 100%, or even 99% consistently as it did on the 1.2 builds, then yes - bring on the punishment of the walls. But if they can't achieve this, I don't want it, because the game becomes a random physics generator - that isn't my bag.

***PART TWO***

Jabber, this is nothing against ya - but I'd also LOVE to have XL/2097 wall / collision physics, that scraping noise as you rub the paint off was - IS - the cats @$$. Many, if not all who played that game, will agree. And if you scraped too hard, THEN you hit a brick wall and stopped - that was the most rewarding and punishing collision/scrape physics to date, IMO. I'd love to have that in place of even the original Wipeout - 10-years-to-life for contacting ANYTHING scheme.