Vehicles aren't controlled by the same bits as the map, I'm not actually sure what controls when they flip to LOD..
The draw distance mod was a .exe editor wasn't it? if so I don't know anything about .exe editing so I wouldn't be able to go beyond whatever it was capable of.
Your best bet is to replace the LOD with the model main model *they're both inside the same .dff file* I'd do it for 1 but then I'd have to go through and edit all the stunt vehicles for people.
If you ask him nicely, I taught Radioaktive/Mellon/Greg/whatever else he goes by yesterday how to replace a .dff with another model so he'd be able to do it but whether or not he'd be willing to I don't know
EDIT: actually seeing as it's already a working part of the .dff if any one with importing/exporting knowledge wants to give it a go:
1. Import the .dff into MAX
2. Select the "Chassis_vlo" part and delete it
3. Select the "Chassis_hi" part and duplicate it
4. Select the "Chassis_hi001" part and re name it "Chassis_vlo"
5. Select the whole thing and export for VC
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The name "Chassis_" could be slightly different on each model, last night I found out my skimmer had "chassis_vlo/hi" and Greg had "boat_vlo/hi" so it's just a matter of replacing whatever "
_vlo/hi" is in your DFF file.
I won't go into how to go about importing models and all that because it's a whole bag of worms I just can't begin to describe especially through basic text communication but if you've ever mucked around with 3ds max and gta files then you should be able to do this with possibly some googling