frustration with "Protect the Car" in Free Ride

[Maestro Rugosa]

For the entire game, I have patiently waited for a mission in which I get to lean out of a car and fire a tommy gun like a classic gangster.

I finally got to the Free Ride mission where you do that, and I cannot believe what a miserable botchery it is. How frustrating. The pursuing enemies seem to target me alone, doing almost zero damage to my vehicle, and always killing me at long range after a long, tedious pursuit. They shoot me whether or not I'm exposed.

What's the trick? I was forced to waste time restarting over and over until I figured out how to use the tommy gun instead of the mysteriously default pistol (i.e., fire the pistol till it's empty). But even that seems inadequate to the task.

[Maestro Rugosa]

Update: the solution to for me was to put the controller aside and play this scene with keyboard and mouse. It makes targetting & sticking on target 1,000,000% easier. Same goes for the scene with the escaping airplane. With a controller it was impossible for me; with a mouse, simple.