Forza Motorsport News

Get 5 Epic Racing and Drift Cars in the Forza Motorsport: Racing Heroes Car Pack

Experience the ultra-elusive 2008 Mazda Furai and four exhilarating new-to-Motorsport cars.

Unleash your adrenaline with the Forza Motorsport: Racing Heroes Car Pack. This new, optional downloadable content pack includes 5 epic racing and drift cars to add to your collection.

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Get behind the wheel and experience the fan favorite and ultra-elusive 2008 Mazda Furai, the exhilarating 2024 Ford Mustang GT3, the power hungry 2001 Formula Drift #215 Nissan Silvia Spec-R, the iconic 1997 Toyota Mark II Tourer V JZX100, and the classic 1984 De Tomaso Pantera GT5.

[h2]2008 Mazda Furai [/h2]



[h2]2024 Ford Mustang GT3 [/h2]



[h2]2001 Formula Drift #215 Nissan Silvia Spec-R[/h2]



[h2]1997 Toyota Mark II Tourer V JZX100 [/h2]



[h2]1984 De Tomaso Pantera GT5 [/h2]



Additionally, the 2024 Ford Mustang GT3 has been added to the Forza GT3 Spec Series in Featured Multiplayer.

Forza Motorsport: Racing Heroes Car Pack is now available to purchase on Steam for USD $4.99|EUR €4.99|GBP £3.99.

Please note, the Forza Motorsport: Racing Heroes Car Pack is not included with the Forza Motorsport Premium Edition, Premium Add-Ons Bundle, or Car Pass. Once purchased, the 5 cars are instantly added to your garage, with no additional in-game credit cost required.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3472460/Forza_Motorsport_Racing_Heroes_Car_Pack/

Forza Motorsport Update 20 is a celebration of our 20-year history, and there is no better way to mark this milestone than with the return of a fan favorite track that has a legendary status amongst our community: Fujimi Kaido.

To help you make the most out of Fujimi Kaido with your friends, this update also introduces one of the top-requested features for Motorsport: Public Meetups. These new multiplayer events will feature Open Track Day and Drift Meetups, where you can vote for the next track to play on, a 24/7 Fujimi Kaido Drift Meetup, and Nürburgring Nordschleife Track Day Meetup.

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You’ll be able to take the wheel behind each of the cover cars from previous Forza Motorsport games– each with newly updated audio – in the Spirit of Motorsport Tour, the 20th Anniversary Multiplayer Series, and Spotlight Rivals. In addition, we’ll have driver suits themed for each previously released Forza Motorsport game as well as the new-to-Motorsport 2022 Acura NSX Type S and 2024 Nissan Z NISMO in the Challenge Hub.

Meanwhile, the new-to-Motorsport 1984 Toyota #25 Horsepower Techs Starlet Time Attack and 1995 Formula Drift #34 Toyota Supra MkIV can be earned and added to your garage for free from their respective Featured Rivals and Drift Rivals events. Both cars alongside the 2005 #1 Sierra Enterprises Lancer Evolution Time Attack are also available in the Showroom.


There’s even a new Car Pack! Unleash your adrenaline in the fan favorite 2008 Mazda Furai and 4 exhilarating new-to-Motorsport cars – the 2024 Ford Mustang GT3, 2001 Formula Drift #215 Nissan Silvia Spec-R, 1997 Toyota Mark II Tourer V JZX100, and 1984 De Tomaso Pantera GT5. Get the Forza Motorsport: Racing Heroes Car Pack for $4.99|€4.99|£3.99 at the Microsoft Store or Steam.

We also have a special gift to help you get started in the Spirit of Motorsport Tour. As the cover car of the original Forza Motorsport game released 20 years ago, the 2005 Honda NSX-R has a new MUGEN body kit ready to be fitted, as well as a special 20th Anniversary livery that is being sent to all players.


In addition to all the anniversary content, Forza Motorsport Update 20 introduces improvements to AI and racing wheel features. With a new multi-line AI system, you’ll experience cleaner and safer racing from Drivatars. For players who use wheels, we’re introducing steering wheel calibration and lock-to-lock turns designed to be specific and authentic to each car in the game.

Thank you for playing our games. Your passion and dedication to both cars and Forza has fueled the community over these past 20 years. Have fun driving sideways with your friends at Fujimi Kaido, enjoy a nostalgic trip through automotive history in the Spirit of Motorsport Tour, and participate in Public Meetups to show off your favorite cars and skills to the world!


Update 20 also introduces one of the top-requested features for Motorsport: Public Meetups. In addition, there are improvements to AI and racing wheel features.

There’s a lot to cover in Update 20, so let's take a closer look at each of these new additions below, as well as a preview of our release notes.

[h2]Fujimi Kaido: A Legend Reborn! [/h2]

You’ve asked for it, and it’s finally returned...


Welcome to Fujimi Kaido, a legendary destination for drift enthusiasts and motorsport lovers alike!

At 16.5 kilometers or 10.24 miles, with an elevation of 826 meters, or 2,711 feet, this iconic stretch of winding mountain roads is a true paradise for those seeking the thrill of precision driving. With its sharp hairpin turns, steep inclines, and breathtaking descents, Fujimi Kaido challenges drivers to master the art of controlled slides as they navigate its serpentine path.


Whether you're a seasoned drifter or a newcomer eager to test your skills, this drifting and touge racing mecca offers an unforgettable experience, blending adrenaline-pumping action with stunning scenic views of the surrounding landscape.

Experience Fujimi Kaido across all modes including Career, Featured Multiplayer, Rivals, and Free Play, as well as our newest addition, Public Meetups.


Fujimi Kaido is both a love letter to Japan and a tribute to our fans. We hope you have fun racing and drifting with your friends on all 144 of its extreme turns.

Discover even more about the history of the track and explore the details of its latest incarnation in our behind-the-scenes Fujimi Kaido blog!

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[h2]Make New Friends in Public Meetups[/h2]

Public Meetups are here! Meetups invite you and your friends to join other players on-track without the pressure of competition, car restrictions or race rules. Jump into Open Track Day Meetups where you can put down your best lap time or flaunt your drifting skills in Drift Meetups!

In Meetups you can drive, tune, upgrade your car, or just find a nice parking spot and enjoy the dynamic time of day and weather on any one of your favorite tracks. With Track Voting you can vote to change the track at any time for the current Meetup event!


In Update 20, we will have four Meetups available to select from at any time:

• Fujimi Kaido Drift Meetup – Go sideways on massive stretches of serpentine Japanese mountain roads in this 24/7 Meetup at Fujimi Kaido with Drift Scoring enabled.
  
• Cycled Track Drift Meetup – All 73 track layouts are available in this Drift Meetup where you can vote for your favorite drift track.
  
• Nürburgring Nordschleife Track Day Meetup – Tackle the ‘Green Hell’ in this 24/7 Meetup at the Nordschleife – the perfect track to test any car build and put it through its paces.
  
• Cycled Track Day Meetup - All 73 track layouts are available in this Meetup where you’re encouraged to set your best lap time on any track, in any car.
  

Select the Race option from the main menu to join any of the above four Public Meetups. To switch cars while in a Meetup, you need to go back to the pre-race menu. Pause the game and select ‘Exit -> Leave Race’ to return to the Pre-Race menu.

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[h2]New Steering Wheel Features in Update 20[/h2]

This update adds new wheel features to Forza Motorsport, including steering wheel calibration and authentic car specific turns lock-to-lock. This will be most noticeable for race cars, which typically have fewer degrees of steering lock-to-lock. 

Prior to this release, the default steering behavior was to use the full range of your steering wheel for all cars – which could be tuned globally in the Settings menu or per-car through the Tuning Setup menu.


With this release, now that we are accurately simulating steering sensitivity for each car, we needed to reset the user's "Steering Lock Range" in the Tune Setup menu as well as the "Steering Sensitivity" in the Settings menu.

The default force feedback settings have been adjusted for most wheels as well. If you have already tuned your steering wheel settings, the new default settings will not overwrite your configuration.  Check out the Advanced Wheel settings to calibrate your wheel for the best experience.

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[h2]Multi-Line AI System[/h2]

With Forza Motorsport Update 20, we’ve introduced a major update to our Drivatar AI system with significant improvements to collision avoidance and side-by-side behavior, especially during those tricky race starts.

Check out this blog for a more detailed overview about this AI update.

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[h2]Game Improvements and Release Notes [/h2]

Below is an overview of the other changes and improvements included with Update 20:

• Updated audio has been introduced for cover cars featured in the Spirit of Motorsport Tour:
  
  • 2005 Honda NSX-R
    
  • 2003 Nissan Fairlady Z
    
  • 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro
    
  • 2009 Ferrari 458 Italia
    
  • 2013 McLaren P1
    
  • 2017 Ford GT
    
  • 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS
    
• Car Proximity Radar is now enabled by default in Featured Multiplayer. Players can still adjust its placement or disable the feature via the Settings menu.
  
• In Featured Multiplayer, we’ve adjusted the default fuel amount to more closely align with the number of laps in each race.
  
• Fixed an exploit where players could rewind back to before the starting line in Drift events to earn extra score.
  
• As a result of this change, the leaderboards for the Welcome to Drift 101, Welcome to Drift 102, and Welcome to Drift 103 Drift Rivals have been wiped.
  
• Additional fixes have been deployed to help further improve lobby sizes after the multiplayer services change made with Update 18.
  

We’ve shared a full list of fixes, improvements and other changes available with Forza Motorsport Update 20 in the release notes posted on our Forza Support site.

Be sure to stay informed about the latest Forza news and updates by signing up for the Forza Newsletter. Share your favorite Forza Motorsport stories and memories with us on @ForzaMotorsport channels on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) and be sure to include #ForzaMotorsport20 for a chance to be highlighted on our channels. And you can chat with other Forza fans about their favorite moments and keep up to date with events in our Forza Discord server.


Enough said – it’s time to burn rubber at Fujimi Kaido! Tune up your best cars for tackling those sprawling mountain roads and we will see you in the Drift Meetup.

Fujimi Kaido made its first appearance in the original Forza Motorsport – released in 2005 on the Xbox – as a point-to-point track, quickly becoming a favorite among drifters.

After a hiatus in FM2, the serpentine mountain roads made their return in Forza Motorsport 3 – this time doubling in length to 16.5 kilometers, or 10.24 miles. The addition of the “New Hill Climb” section allowed players to complete a full lap by climbing and descending the mountain. Creating a distinctly Japanese atmosphere for Fujimi Kaido was a challenge during the Xbox 360 era. While the track featured many trees and guardrails, there were relatively few set pieces or small details to help bring the setting to life.


During the development of Forza Motorsport 3, the team referred to the original point-to-point layout as “Old Fujimi,” while the new portion was called “New Fujimi.” The FM3 iteration also introduced the iconic waterfall landmark. Fujimi Kaido continued to be available in Forza Motorsport 4, the last installment released on the Xbox 360, and the final time the iconic location would appear in a Forza game... until now.

Our team recognized how much fans loved Fujimi Kaido’s layout, and when we set out to bring the track to the latest Forza Motorsport, we were determined not to “reimagine” or “alter” the track’s layout. Our goal was to stay as true as possible to the Xbox 360-era version. There was considerable internal discussion about this, and this even extended to elements like the pit lane, which were designed with minimal impact on the original track layout.

With 144 turns, our objective was to preserve the authenticity of each one. For example, originally the Hakone – Grand Prix Circuit that we included with the game in 2023 was going to be the updated starting point for Fujimi Kaido, however we just couldn’t integrate the new GP track with the original Fujimi Kaido layout in a way that felt authentic, so we decided to split them into two separate tracks that share one location in the world. This means you can spot Hakone circuit from the mountain top at Fujimi! You can also see traffic signs directing towards Hakone circuit across the track, and at night, you can even see the light beam on the timing tower!

While the track layout remained unchanged, its environment had to be updated, and this posed a huge challenge for the art team. In the Xbox 360 era, the team had never physically sourced assets from that region of Japan, relying instead on web references and magazine photos to create the track’s visuals. For the return of Fujimi Kaido in the modern era, we knew we wanted to bring it into the 21st century. Therefore, the team traveled to Hakone for a 10-day photoshoot. We captured tens of thousands of photos, hundreds of hours of video driving up and down the mountain roads – and even created photogrammetry scans of the assets we planned to recreate once we returned to Redmond.


Our aim was to go beyond just capturing the “feel” of Japan and instead focus on the specific details of the Hakone region. Located just two hours outside of Tokyo, Hakone is famous for its geothermal activity, hot springs, and spas. The area is also a hotbed for car culture, with automotive enthusiasts from Tokyo flocking there on weekends. Everywhere we went, we saw incredible cars. One day, a Super Formula race team was filming on the Hakone Turnpike, and another day, over 50 supercars gathered at an observatory.

Personal note: Our goal for the reference trip was to capture the feeling and details of Japan, but we were completely blown away by the extent of the car culture we discovered in Hakone. While Fujimi Kaido may be a fictional track, it is inspired by a real place brimming with automotive passion.


To accurately reflect the diverse environment of the track, multiple biomes were created to simulate different areas and elevations. The village is made up of very manicured gardens; overhanging jungle tree tunnels are found in the lower forest; the upper forest opens to see more of the vistas shine through, while the mountain top is arid and dry, with no tall trees. Speaking of vegetation: there are just under 20,000 trees planted around Fujimi Kaido!

From the shores of Lake Ashi to the summit of the mountain pass, the track gains 826 meters, or 2,711 feet, in elevation – making it the tallest track in Forza Motorsport, with its steepest grade over 23 degrees. At 16.5 km, or 10.24 miles, it is also one of the longest tracks we’ve created – just shy of the 20.8 km (13-mile) length of Nürburgring Nordschleife. It is, of course, the largest fictional track in our game. Stretching around the mountain passes are 81 retaining walls – or 'floppy waffles' as affectionately named by our team. These are painted with moss and ivy to give that damp moisture feeling of a more tropical climate.

Fun fact: The speed limit on Fujimi Kaido is between 40-60 kph. We’re certain you will abide by that in Forza Motorsport, right? ;)


Driving on the track today, you can see intricate details and nuances around every corner – small touches that simply weren’t possible in the Xbox 360 era. There are plenty of little shrines and bespoke 'vignettes' across the track, including 3 large Shinto shrines, 14 torii gates, and 86 smaller shrines. There are also 18 gondolas flying around the track!

Everywhere you look, there is always something new to see. For example, the village area is stuffed with tons of cute signage. You'll come across vending machines with our fictional branding on them – as well as our adorable Fujimi mascots – little fishy windsocks on the start line, kei-class trucks (Japanese mini pickup truck), swan boats in the lake, and more. We also named a few restaurants after one of our engineers as a thank you for their help with our Japanese signage across track. Each of the tunnels also has a fun mascot sign on the entrance, telling you which tunnel out of the five on track you're currently at.

The team invested as much effort into rebuilding Fujimi Kaido as we typically do with our crown jewel tracks, just like Prague, Rio, and Dubai, which were featured in previous games. Due to its length and complexity, Fujimi Kaido is one of the biggest endeavors the environment team has ever taken on! With new terrain technology, advanced vegetation placement techniques and countless hours of polish, we’ve created something the entire studio is incredibly proud of. This track is both a love letter to Japan and a tribute to our fans, and we hope you fall in love with it as much as we did, when it gets added to Forza Motorsport for free as part of the 20th Anniversary update releasing on May 5.

Get ready for an endurance race at Silverstone in the final series of the Porsche Tour!

Compete in this week’s Spotlight car, the 1978 Porsche #78 MOMO 935/78, which left its mark in the 1978 Silverstone 6 Hour by outperforming its competitors to first place.


Based on production car silhouettes, the GTX Sportscar Series showcases manufacturer’s street models on the track from the late 70s to mid-90s.

Also available is the Lexus RC F Spec Series and this week’s Spotlight Rivals.

Let’s talk about the Drivatar AI in Forza Motorsport, and how we’ve been working on important changes for our community to improve the experience of driving against the AI in traffic. We’re excited to share a preview of those updates today, which you can look forward to trying in the game when Update 20 is released this May.

Before we jump into the changes, we want to reflect on the AI system we created for Forza Motorsport in 2023, and how it has evolved since the release of the game.

Since launch, we’ve made improvements to passing behavior, reduced instances of unnecessary braking, and prevented cars from following the racing lines too strictly. We also added support for new tracks and events, such as the oval circuits that are featured in NASCAR.


With Forza Motorsport, our goal was to make the AI more competitive with our fastest players. We run the simulation through thousands of laps on a per track layout, per car type basis. This builds a custom racing line, enabling the AI to drive really fast on any given track. To dial in the AI system, we also gathered feedback from the community, including sim-racers and professional racing drivers, to help us achieve the desired pace and proficiency. This process even included input from some of our own designers here at Turn 10, who compete in autocross and racing events in their free time.

When driving in traffic, the system frequently moves to a dynamic racing line as the Drivatars try to find their own ideal line on the track. This can result in sub-optimal driving performance, such as collisions, AI driving off track, or things that a professional driver would not do. Here is what we would like to see in our Drivatar AI to ensure you can enjoy fun and engaging single-player racing:

• Faster, even when they are not on the optimal racing line.
  
• Skilled and defensive, providing exciting competition.
  
• Capable of overtaking the player and passing other AI opponents without veering off track.
  
• Able to better limit collisions and off-track behaviors, including awkward mergers when they attempt to return to the ideal racing line.
  

To get us closer to the outcomes listed above, we've developed and will be releasing a multi-line AI system that is trained on multiple lines of traffic, giving Drivatars more options for the optimized racing lines they can follow. This update should improve side-by-side racing in heavy traffic scenarios, allowing AI to skillfully and consistently race without erratic driving behavior when it's not forced to stay on the optimal line.


Another great aspect of our new multi-line system is that the AI can now elegantly blend between different racing lines in traffic. Like before, they can still drive fast by themselves, however with this update they also benefit from race start behavior improvements, collision avoidance, situational awareness, and improved passing behavior. All while being able to drive fast and safe when around other opponents on the track.

The new multi-line system is the new foundation for Drivatar AI training in Forza Motorsport. As we look ahead, it sets us up for more authentic opponents in our games – building offensive and defensive behaviors that will lead to more competitive and engaging racing.

We can’t wait for you to compete against the new Drivatar AI that is being released with Forza Motorsport Update 20 next month. As always, we will be keen to hear your thoughts about it and how you would like to see it further evolve in the future.


For more details on our 20th Anniversary celebration in our Forza Motorsport, including the return of the fan favorite Fujimi Kaido track, check out this blog. Remember to follow our social channels on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Discord, and X (formerly Twitter) where you can stay up to date with our community and the latest, ongoing in-game events. In addition, be sure to sign up for the Forza Newsletter and receive all the latest Forza news delivered straight to your inbox.