Spits, Nikis are forgiving machines. I took my roomate and gave him a spit, after 1 consecutive hours of spins he was good enought to dogfight people and even put some bullets in them.
Watching him, I was impressed of what he could do (I flew P47 too long I think

). He was stalling top of loops or in turn and still being able to maintain directional control to where he wanted to go.
If he had been in a less forgiving plane, he would had spined and got shot down right after recovery.
Thus I believe that the airplane helps big time. Put a newbie in a Spit and he can survive, put an experimented pilot in it and u have a serial killer.
Flying the P47, my policy is something like that : Co-alt or higher spit, I give it a short try (like an initial pass or an evasive), and I see how the other pilot reacts. If he looks newbie I try to fight him. If he looks like knowing what he is doing (usually not always pointing nose back to you, but trying to pull a stunt), I do a hard turn toward his 6, shoot some bullets to scare him and dive away as fast as I can. The time he realizes(finishing his evasive), I'm 1.3k away.
But because off course they fly as fast as me and accelerate better, I usually end up dead if someone doesn't come bother him.
I don't want to take a niki myself and go Niki/Niki/Spit, I love P47 shape and I keep it as main ride. (Bone head).
I like the P47 and I like to turnfight, I have a real problem there

.I don't find interest in going to 25K, engage only lower targets, perform loops only, and don't go below 10K. I understand and respect people who are doing this, especially their patience, but for me the fun is to find a way to bleed the other guy E and shoot him down, even with a plane who turns less, climb less blahblahblah... you all know the P47 performances

My 2Cts, Salute all, have a great day!