I am probably being a simpleton here but I record midi in more or less free time all the time on an external workstation. I record it into Sonar by matching Sonar to the wkstn tempo, so I have the midi data available if I want to edit something or want see some notes in staff view - but usually I am done with that track. Then I just convert to audio. Rest of the tracks are recorded with midi (instrument track or midi plus audio track) into Sonar, but since I am playing along to my free time track, I don`t really care about the midi timing. Limitations are that it doesn't work if using drum loops (or any loops for that matter) and it makes a complete mess of staff view. But for purposes of just getting down a song that sounds the way I want, it works fine and depending on genre sounds better than tracks locked to tempo.

Thanks AZSLOW - got 'em and will give them a whirl
 
In this case I do want to try to get the performance on the grid to try out a few other ideas

filtersweep
But for purposes of just getting down a song that sounds the way I want, [recording without a click and leaving it that way] works fine and depending on genre sounds better than tracks locked to tempo.

My main reason for syncing the timeline to a freely played MIDI performance is that I like to record improvisations that often have extended pauses while I decide where it's going next. I've found that the easiest and most flexible way to smooth out the performance after the fact is to align the timeline with Set Measure/Beat and then adjust the resulting tempos rather than dragging things around in the PRV to close up the gaps.
 
And if I decide later that the piece wants some sort of accompaniment, I'll flatten the tempo map completely so I can record additional parts without having to follow the piano player's crazy rubato.