You forgot that the SpitXVI has a much better sustained turn rate than the F4UC, or any other unperked F4UC. (With or without the use of flaps). On top of this, according to Mosq's data, the full flaps radius of the SpitXVI is 450 feet, compared to the F4U-1C's 443! Wow,that is a *massive* difference there!
Turn rate *WINS* nose-to-tail turning fights, and this is the most intuitive and most common kind of turning fight you see. Extremely tight turn radius against something with the climb rate of the SpitXVI is basically defensive...he doesn't HAVE to accept an invitation to the scissors at all, he can just muscle up into the vertical. Don't let the fact that most SpitXVIs are horribly piloted obscure what it represents as an air superiority fighter.
And it is ludicrous to dismiss roll rate the way you have. An otherwise inferior fighter with good high-speed roll rate can conceivably use this to get the VIII out-of-plane for either an overshoot or enough separation to escape. Such is not the case with the SpitXVI. Roll rate is just as important defensively. A SpitVIII is that much less likely to avoid a guns pass because it cannot roll into an evasive nearly as quickly. The minute difference the VIII possesses in rate and radius of turn is not nearly so important in the MA as roll rate.
If you are using the 16 as a high speed b/z plane I would humbly suggest you are using the wrong tool for the job. The advantage of being able to roll fast at high speeds is a moot point when the planes strength is not its speed.
You don't fly a Spit because of how fast it is. You fly them because they handle so well slow when turning.
I grant you the diff. in turn radius between the two on paper is small, but for me, the 16 has always been "squirrely" when slow and the 8 was much easier to maneuver when I am knife fighting. The 8, for me, not only turns better flaps out, it is more stable when doing so. Always has been, and I am not the only one that has that opinion.
So the VIII is superiour in the catagory that matters the most when you are flying a Spitfire.
Which is why I hold the opinion that handling and performing at stall speeds is just as, or more important than how well it rolls when fast.
I might add that in a nose to tail fight, if a XVI tries to use the verticle on the VIII they are going to be in the tower quick. The 16 just doesn't have enough of an advantage in climb to pull something like that off and live vs. a VIII.
A SpitVIII is less (not by much imho) likely to avoid a guns pass because it cannot roll into an evasive as quickly as a SpitXVI, but if I am in THAT situation, I have screwed up somewhere. The key in that situation is timing, not performance.
An otherwise inferior fighter with good high-speed roll rate
can conceivably use this to get the VIII out-of-plane for either an overshoot or enough separation to escape, but if they are able to, I have screwed up somewhere. That move is just too easy to counter.
