Forza Horizon 4 News

As you may know, we recently announced the release of Forza Horizon 5 (surprise!) and you might be wondering what that means for Forza Horizon 4.

Although much of the dev team is focused on Forza Horizon 5’s release over the next few months, they are working to ensure that Forza Horizon 4 continues to be a great experience that will keep you behind the wheel.

Starting with next month’s Series 38, the seasonal playlist will become a mixtape of rewards, championships, and challenges from previous updates, starting from Series 7 through Series 32. You can expect more chances at some rare cars and rewards that have only come around a few times, and relive some of your favorite seasonal challenges.

In addition, the team will continue to work with the support team to identify bug fixes that we are able to reproduce and fix.

Beyond the release of Forza Horizon 5, we plan to make sure Forza Horizon 4 continues to be a fun experience for everyone and will share details when we are able to.

In the meantime, let’s get into the details of what you can expect in Series 37.



First off, did you solve the latest Worben Wednesday tease?

1. The compass with North pointing towards Guanajuato and East pointing towards a checkmark is a reference to the fact that Querétaro is East of Guanajuato and is where the Vuhl was designed and built.
   
2. Coming soon, with a dictionary definition of “soon” is a reference to the long-awaited High Stakes mode of Super7.
   

[h2]2017 VUHL 05RR [/h2]



It’s the first supercar of Mexico, and a fitting tease ahead of the opening of the Mexican Festival. The VUHL 05 is lightweight, fast, and distinct in its styling. Each VUHL is handmade, sporting an all-carbon fiber body that makes it less than 1600 pounds. The engine, a 2.3L turbocharged Ford Eco Boost, is located in the back with a turbocharger that takes air directly from the open cockpit. This gives it 360hp and a 0-60 time of 2.7 seconds, thanks to the incredible power-to-weight ratio. The low positioning of the chassis counterbalances that light weight to make cornering at high speeds a cinch.

The VUHL won the Race of Champions in 2019, and is available now by completing the seasonal championship “VUHL In The City”.

[h2]Super7 High Stakes[/h2]

It’s finally here: the evolution of Super7. The new High Stakes mode ramps up the intensity by making both the risk and the reward much greater. In this mode, you have a chance to bank prizes after each round of challenges and walk away with something nice—and if you press on to the next round, those prizes, including more exclusive cars, become more valuable. But if you fail even a single challenge, it all goes away.

Are you willing to step up to the High Stakes? Hold your nerve and earn rewards, or quit while you’re ahead to make sure you don’t leave the Super7 empty handed!

For additional information on bug fixes, check out our support site, and for the latest news and updates, follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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The Horizon Festival is headed to Mexico!

This week we announced the highly anticipated next chapter in the Forza Horizon series – Forza Horizon 5, coming this November 9th. Players will get the chance to traverse some of the most diverse landscapes ever seen in a Forza Horizon title including a living desert, a dense jungle, and an active volcano in an authentic and vibrant depiction of Mexico.

Get ready for the return of seasons, first introduced in Forza Horizon 4. Only this time, you’ll feel its impact in unprecedented ways. Each of the eleven biomes found on the new map will be uniquely affected by the change in seasons. So that means if you’re deep in the jungle during spring, expect heavy rainfall, but during the dry season you’ll be able to access and explore areas you can’t reach any other time. No two seasons will ever be the same.

You can also expect powerful, all-new graphical features like HDR captures of the vibrant Mexican sky, sweeping vistas, and an unparalleled attention to detail. Available in 4K 30 FPS on the Xbox Series X (1080p 30 FPS on Xbox Series S) with an optional 60 FPS performance mode, and ray tracing added to cars in Forzavista, you will be immersed in the open world of Horizon like never before.

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We want to give a shout out to one of the cars you saw in the demo - the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE. Reaching a maximum speed of over 350 km/h, the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE transfers the latest and most efficient Formula 1 hybrid technology almost one-to-one from the track to the street for the first time ever. Stay tuned for more information and content from us about the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE and prepare to experience it in Forza Horizon 5 this November. For more information, please visit the AMG web page.

But what will you get up to at the Festival in Mexico? Forza Horizon 5 has the most social and connected experience we’ve ever created, alongside a deep and rewarding campaign to expand the Horizon festival.

Experience a deep and rewarding campaign, where you’ll meet new characters and determine the outcome of their Horizon Story missions. You’ll take on expeditions across the map, battling the elements in hundreds of the world’s greatest cars.

In multiplayer, experience the most social and connected experience we’ve ever created. The Horizon Open takes the best parts of the traditional Forza Horizon online competitive experience and smashes them all together. Seamlessly jump into Races, Drift challenges, Eliminator sessions, and more. Horizon Tour is your chance to meet up like you would at a car meet and race co-op against Drivatars on circuits all over the map, forming up as a convoy as you hop from one race to the next. From there, you can head to the Horizon Arcade, where you quickly and seamlessly take on some truly wild challenges and minigames with other players.

Next, our creator community can hit up the EventLab. Imagine the Blueprint Builder you’re familiar with in modes like Super7 and Blueprint races, but blown way out with a powerful new toolset that includes custom races, challenges, stunts, entirely new game modes and so much more that you control, down to the rules of the game itself.

After that, it’s time for Gift Drops, like a personalized Barn Find Blueprint. Tune a car, paint it, then leave it hidden for others to find somewhere on the map. It’s a whole new way to share your prized cars with friends or others online.

The social aspect of Forza Horizon 5 is huge, with systems like Kudos that allow you to reward other players for positive acts and encourage clean, friendly driving, as well as the Forza LINK system, which enhances your ability to join up with other players by recognizing the things you like to do and finding other players to do similar things with.

All these features and so much more are layered into our deepest Horizon experience yet, featuring all new customization options like 100 new rims, hundreds of new visual upgrades like body kits, wheels and paint options, and thousands of performance upgrades. We’ve also completely overhauled the user interface for systems like tuning and painting to improve usability and efficiency. Even the character customization is getting enhanced, with a more diverse cast of selectable characters, customizable hairstyles, the ability to select prosthetic limbs, pronouns, voices, and clothing.

Additionally, we’re aiming to make Forza Horizon 5 the most accessible Horizon ever, and can’t wait to share more about our commitment to gaming for everyone.

The Festival starts November 9th. However, if you purchase the Premium Edition, you’ll get a jump on the Festival traffic with Early Access starting November 5th. Experience Forza Horizon 5 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows 10, Steam, Xbox Game Pass, and Android phones and tablets via Xbox Cloud Gaming. Players can choose from Standard, Deluxe, and Premium versions of the game. Xbox Game Pass players will have access to the Standard version, and if they purchase the Premium Add-Ons Bundle they can enjoy all the great DLC in the Premium version of the game, including Early Access.

We’ll have much more to share about everything we’ve announced so far in the coming months, so stay tuned here, follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more, and check out the Support Site for FAQ and more details now.

We've made the Forza Horizon 5 trailer available in audio descriptive format too! Check it out in English and in Spanish.

We’re jumping right into the details of the new cars coming to Series 36 at the Horizon Festival. Get them now!

[h2]1972 Mazda Cosmo[/h2]



In the mid-1960s, countries like the US, the UK, the Soviet Union, and their allies were embroiled in the space race, each pouring resources into developing new technologies that would give them the advantage in reaching the stars.

This was the environment at the time when a Japanese car manufacturer decided to make a name for themselves with a new technology of their own. So Mazda set their sights on the Wankel rotary engine, and dedicated themselves to building a car worthy of it.

The first Cosmo released in 1967 as a “halo car”: a type of car that a manufacturer creates to pioneer new technologies for use in future car development, even if the halo itself is never meant to be commercially viable. And it worked! The Cosmo was never a huge seller, as each one had to be hand-built, but the rotary became a mainstay of Mazda manufacturing, appearing in numerous cars in the decades since its first appearance here. The Cosmo’s rotary engine put out more power with less displacement and had fewer moving parts. This meant a smooth and powerful engine in a compact body.

The car itself was designed specifically around the rotary engine. Mazda was inspired by the space race, but also by recent offerings like the Thunderbird and the Jaguar E-type, which informed the Cosmo’s styling. They had a vested interested in demonstrating the value and reliability of the rotary technology, which is why they entered Series 1 Cosmo into the 84 Hour Marathon de la Route at the Nürburgring; it came in fourth.

The final model of the Cosmo was released in 1972.

You can get this pioneering halo car by completing the “Mazda’s Guide to the Galaxy” seasonal championship in Autumn.

[h2]1973 Mazda RX-3[/h2]



If the Cosmo was built as an expensive, commercially nonviable halo car so that its technology would influence future Mazda offerings, the RX-3 would be one of the first beneficiaries. Sensible and affordable, the RX-3 gave Mazda their first chance to build their identity and brand, both as a manufacturer and a presence in the racing world, around the Wankel rotary engine.

The car was called the Grand Familia when it came with a piston engine, while “RX-3” was reserved for the rotary version, and in its home turf of Japan it was known as the Savanna. Just as with the Cosmo, Mazda put the RX-3 up for competition to prove its legitimacy, driven by the same person who had taken them to the fourth at the 84 Hours at the Nürburgring. They took the car to the 1972 Fuji Masters, and upset the favored Nissan with a win (and three more in ’72, ’73 and ’75), followed by a victory in its class at Bathurst.

The RX-3 benefitted greatly from the rotary engine because of its size. Originally designed to house a piston engine whose weight and power were intended for an ordinary passenger car, when the RX-3 was equipped with the much smaller rotary, it became dangerous on the track. A stock RX-3 topped out over 100 horsepower on only a one-liter engine—comparable to engines four times its size. The RX-3 became so popular for motorsport drivers that finding a stock version of this car now is nearly impossible, all of them having undergone some kind of upgrade or transformation.

The RX-3 is available after completing 50% of the Summer seasonal playlist.

[h2]2018 Saleen S1[/h2]



Until the year 2000, Saleen made its name upgrading Mustangs into dominant track cars. But at the start of the 21st century, it was time to release something uniquely all their own, and that was the S7: a 7L supercar that looked more like an F1 prototype, and sold for a cool $388,500. It led directly to the creation of the 2004 Ford GT, and established Saleen outside of their Mustang roots.

Saleen continued to provide assembly services to other manufacturers until 2018, when they finally followed up the S7 with the slightly more moderate ($100,000) S1, a mid-engine supercar featuring a 2.3L four-cylinder turbocharged engine. The S1’s inner workings are all Saleen, while the outward stylings are influenced by the defunct Artega GT. After the makers of the Artega went bankrupt, the GT design was purchased by a Chinese manufacturer called JSAT, which asked Saleen to assist in modernizing the design. That modernization would ultimately prove fruitless, but it would give rise to the S1.

The S1 is available after completing 50% of the Spring seasonal playlist.

That’s the rundown on this month’s new reward cars! For additional info about bug fixes, updates and more, check out our release notes, and make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for the latest news!