Beater or Sleeper? COTW! [Closed]

[Obelisk]

Hey, so you know that phenomenon where the moment you stop doing something, you just completely lose all inertia for it? That's what happened to me with this thread, a fair while ago. The Horizon games have, quite frankly, burnt me out too many times to count at this point.

We have six more weeks following this week's car (posting tomorrow evening), so I'd like to try and get some life back into this thread. I'll see if I can get FH5 fired up on my PC over the weekend to at least catch up.

 

[Obelisk]

We'll be testing the most profane Ferrari to exist - the Ferrari .

That didn't work. Let's try that again. The Ferrari .

Argh. The FXX - K. The Ferrari FXX K is our car of the week. And a race car requires a race track, so we will be running the Stadium Oval and the Horizon Festival Circuit this week.

Try not to swear at it too many times.

 

[Vic Reign93]

(12.963 on the lap time.)

So the Ferrari F-Bomb, a track only version of LaFerrari.

Compared to its road counterpart, it’s over 400lbs lighter at 2,831lbs, a starting PI of 979, has a more aggressive aero package, slick tyres and the 6.3 V12 Hybrid unshackled from all the road legal requirements now kicking out 1036hp, up from 963hp.

Handling is as you might expect, bit dicey at low speeds, but wakes up as the speed picks up.

In terms of upgrades, the V12 can have twin turbos added which takes power north of 1400hp at 1418hp to be precise.

At 2.7 million, it’s a pricey track toy, but you can find buyouts for 700k less at Auction, certainly easier to get ahold of than the road car as LaFerrari is a Car Collector exclusive for collecting all other Ferraris.

Even now almost 2 years later, you’d be lucky to see one for sale at Auction, carrying a 20 million buyout on it.

So yeah, the track version is more common than the road car and is a decent Neutral car on its own.


However…

If you have the Car Pass, you can get the Ferrari F-Bomb Evo, a car that’s slightly lighter by 31lbs, same power output, but an even more aggressive aero package and a starting PI of S2 998, the highest in the game and only shared by the Hot Wheels BTTB and the Welcome Pack version of the Apollo Intensa Emozione.

The F-Bomb Evo is 300k more expensive at 3 million, but can be had at Auction for just over 550k.

Hell, you get your first one for free when you get the Car Pass.

Interestingly, the Evo version doesn’t have a twin turbo option so max power is actually down on the regular F-Bomb when fully upgraded.

So yeah, in a pure vanilla game, the regular F-Bomb is more attainable than the road car and a solid track car, but with the Car Pass and the F-Bomb Evo, it’s shine is definitely taken off its place.

Verdict: Neutral

 

[Obelisk]

Bumping for another week. Sorry. Double header next week to compensate.

 

[Obelisk]

It's Week 100. Which means...

We are in our final month of Forza COTW.



In a collaboration with @XSquareStickIt on the GT Thread for one final celebration, we'll be featuring the 2002 Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type-A. We'll be paying the Lookout Circuit one last visit.

We won't be doing an award show like last year, but feel free to offer any thoughts on noteworthy cars that we've reviewed in the past year.

 

[Edax 76]

It's Week 100. Which means...

We are in our final month of Forza COTW.



In a collaboration with @XSquareStickIt on the GT Thread for one final celebration, we'll be featuring the 2002 Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type-A. We'll be paying the Lookout Circuit one last visit.

View attachment 1293165

We won't be doing an award show like last year, but feel free to offer any thoughts on noteworthy cars that we've reviewed in the past year.

My God that's one beautiful vehicle....

 

[Vic Reign93]

So the Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A, the often considered holy grail of FD RX-7’s.

Built as a farewell tribute to the RX-7, the Spirit R took all the extra features that the other models like the RS & RZ came equipped with and threw them all into one model, plus some bigger drilled disc brakes.

Weighing in at 2800lbs(1270kgs) and powered by the tried and perfected, 13B 1.3 litre twin turbo 2 Rotor, it makes 276hp and 231ft-lbs of torque and all that is sent to the rear tyres via a 5 speed manual gearbox.

With a low centre of gravity, sporty suspension and 50/50 weight distribution, it’s often regarded as one of the best handling sports cars ever built.

It’s handling in game does well to back up those claims, eager, responsive, balanced, any positive meaning for handling could be used to describe the RX-7’s cornering ability.

1504 Spirit R’s were built with the Type A being the most popular and most desirable with 1044 of them being Type A’s, Type B’s were the same as Type A’s, but with a 2+2 seat layout.

420 of those Type B’s were built, but it was the Type C’s that would be the rarest with only 40 built, but that’s because they were same as the Type B, but with a 4 speed Automatic instead of the manual.

Now with such numbers and the fact that a low mileage, Innocent Blue Mica RX-7 Spirit R Type A sold at auction over here last year for over 100 grand, you’d think the Sprint R would be quite expensive right?

Well here’s the fun part, it’s cheaper to buy the Spirit R than the standard ‘97 RX-7 in FH5.

Costing only 30k to the older cars 35k, it’s a bargain, but there’s a small caveat to that.

The older FD offers FOUR widebody kits, 2 from Rocket Bunny, one of which has the RX-3’s front facia on it, a radically cut KRC kit and a full time attack kit from TCP Magic.

The Spirit R only has aftermarket bumpers, wings, skirts & bonnets, no widebody’s.

As for performance upgrades, both get the same 3 engine swaps, the 6.2 LS V8 swap, the 1.6 Turbo Rally swap and the 2.6 4 Rotor swap.

So yeah, both FD RX-7’s have their strong points as to why you should get them.

As for the Spirit R Type A, in a world where the drawbacks of Rotary engined cars aren’t a concern, it’s a car that’s almost without fault.

A worthy farewell to the RX-7.

Verdict: Sleeper 😉👍

 

[Obelisk]

The FD RX7 is a truly iconic car, and a highly sought after one apparently with many good examples averaging between 70k and 90k USD. By comparison, I could get my hands on a very good quality FC for about $15,000 (cheaper than a gen 3 MX5 in my area).

The FD is a very well balanced car with ample high speed performance and quite a few aftermarket options to up the ante. I personally use my FD Spirit R as an AWD rally swap please spare me Square and it's still capable of well north of 200 MPH in S1 class! I think it's on the normal engine, but it's been a while so bear with me on that.

All in, a good investment and a good car to have. Sleeper.

Week 101 announcement in the morning 👍

 

[Vic Reign93]

The FD RX7 is a truly iconic car, and a highly sought after one apparently with many good examples averaging between 70k and 90k USD. By comparison, I could get my hands on a very good quality FC for about $15,000 (cheaper than a gen 3 MX5 in my area).

The FD is a very well balanced car with ample high speed performance and quite a few aftermarket options to up the ante. I personally use my FD Spirit R as an AWD rally swap please spare me Square and it's still capable of well north of 200 MPH in S1 class! I think it's on the normal engine, but it's been a while so bear with me on that.

All in, a good investment and a good car to have. Sleeper.

Week 101 announcement in the morning 👍

Well just as a reminder, I won’t be able to do a write up for this one as i’ll be on holiday by the time it’s announced. 🙂

 

[Edax 76]

Well just as a reminder, I won’t be able to do a write up for this one as i’ll be on holiday by the time it’s announced. 🙂

Have a good hollibobs bud

 

[Obelisk]

Alrighty, sorry about the delay! We're going to sweep through the four race types one last time as part of our send-off.

This week is Dirt, and to tackle dirt appropriately, we need the right car for the job. This week's car is the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, and as a bonus we can also examine the "Welcome Pack" edition.

We'll be running at the Fuera Del Camino Dirt Trail this week.

 

[Obelisk]

LanEvo is a solid car, but there are better options out there. Likewise with the WP edition.

Second to last week, and we're getting dirty with a Cross Country event.
We're running the Jeep Trailcat at the Tropico Cross Country.

 

[Vic Reign93]

So the Jeep Trailcat, a one-off concept built to celebrate 50 years of Jeeps Easter Safari Festival held in Utah.

The recipe was simple, take a regular Jeep Wrangler, stretch its wheelbase by 12 inches, lift it by 2 inches, stick some huge off-road tyres on it, drop a 6.2 Hellcat V8 into it and hook it up to a 6 speed manual gearbox that drives all 4 wheels.

And serve it all up with a shade of green.

That Hellcat V8 is untouched, but it’s still kicking out 707hp and 650ft-lbs of torque that’s powering along in a 4600lbs rock smasher.

It’s very softly sprung in the suspension and it almost glides over rough terrain with ease, such ease in fact that it was just a one shot run for that time.

It retails for 75k at the Autoshow, but I got the one for that run for only 8K with buyouts averaging at 13k. 🤑

It’s got a few swaps incase the Hellcat V8 isn’t cutting it for you, one of which is the Funco’s 1750hp TT V8.

Overall, it’s a capable out of the box off-roader which’ll serve most newcomers well that’ll not break the bank either.

Verdict: Sleeper 😉👍

 

[Obelisk]

All things, good and bad, come to an end. It's a sad fact of life.

This thread is no exception. Two years of my life invested into this, and we're at the end of the road. It makes you think...

But sometimes, a new beginning awaits something that was once thought to be gone. And that is what makes the final car of the week so unique.

We're looking at one of the most high-profile barn finds in the game, the 1989 Ferrari F40 Competizione.

And to see what this restored monster can do, we're going to send it to Bosque Del Sur.

 

[Edax 76]

All things, good and bad, come to an end. It's a sad fact of life.

This thread is no exception. Two years of my life invested into this, and we're at the end of the road. It makes you think...

But sometimes, a new beginning awaits something that was once thought to be gone. And that is what makes the final car of the week so unique.

We're looking at one of the most high-profile barn finds in the game, the 1989 Ferrari F40 Competizione.

View attachment 1298844

And to see what this restored monster can do, we're going to send it to Bosque Del Sur.

Ever since I discovered GT Planet and joined the FH threads I've read COTW. I've always enjoyed it too, thank you. It'll be sad to see it go but as you said all things must end. Once again, thanks.

 

[Obelisk]

Ever since I discovered GT Planet and joined the FH threads I've read COTW. I've always enjoyed it too, thank you. It'll be sad to see it go but as you said all things must end. Once again, thanks.

Appreciate the kind words. It's been great seeing the engagement over the years.

 

[Vic Reign93]

Ever since I discovered GT Planet and joined the FH threads I've read COTW. I've always enjoyed it too, thank you. It'll be sad to see it go but as you said all things must end. Once again, thanks.

Glad you’ve enjoyed what we’ve done over the last few years, but while this chapter of Forza’s COTW is coming to an end, the main branch of COTW over on GT7 is still going strong and you’re always welcome over there.

That being said, time for the Ferrari F40 Competizione to be showcased.

Building off the already hardcore F40, the F40 C(also known as the F40 LM) was built at the request of several influential customers asking Ferrari to build a race version for the IMSA GTO class.

So they asked Ferrari specialists Michelotto to prepare a small number of F40’s to go racing and got to work.

The 2.9 twin turbo V8 still remains, but is now built up to accept more boost(38.2 PSI according to the in game telemetry.) which takes it from 478hp of the road car to 691hp in the F40C.

They also added a rear diffuser, a raised rear wing, front splitter and removed the pop up headlights for regular headlights to simplify it and also cut some weight out too.

Couple that with the rest of the race prepping, it weighs in at just over 2300lbs.

That 691hp goes to the rear via a race version of the road cars 5 speed manual gearbox, the gearing of which has also being lengthened with 80mph being reached in 1st, 150mph in 3rd, 186mph in 4th and a top speed of 228mph.

That high boost level means you need to keep the revs up and your foot down to keep the turbos at full power and being careful in 1st gear turns so as not to get caught out by the sudden power increase.

Handling is solid for a retro racer, but you do have to bear in mind about its limits when you’re really going for it.

The F40 C is valued at 2 million credits, but given its a Barn Find car, the only ever money you’ll spend on it is on upgrades(unless you decided to pay to skip the restoration job.) and speaking of upgrades..

There’s only one engine swap in the form of the Racing V12 from the F50 GT, sadly you can’t get to the top of S2 with the factory engine.

Nevertheless, it’s still the fastest of all the Barn Finds and a very fitting final drive for COTW in Mexico.

Verdict: Sleeper 😉👍

Oh and one last thing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this little chestnut of an F40 LM being put through its paces.

 

[Edax 76]

Glad you’ve enjoyed what we’ve done over the last few years, but while this chapter of Forza’s COTW is coming to an end, the main branch of COTW over on GT7 is still going strong and you’re always welcome over there.

That being said, time for the Ferrari F40 Competizione to be showcased.

View attachment 1299253
Building off the already hardcore F40, the F40 C(also known as the F40 LM) was built at the request of several influential customers asking Ferrari to build a race version for the IMSA GTO class.

So they asked Ferrari specialists Michelotto to prepare a small number of F40’s to go racing and got to work.

The 2.9 twin turbo V8 still remains, but is now built up to accept more boost(38.2 PSI according to the in game telemetry.) which takes it from 478hp of the road car to 691hp in the F40C.

They also added a rear diffuser, a raised rear wing, front splitter and removed the pop up headlights for regular headlights to simplify it and also cut some weight out too.

Couple that with the rest of the race prepping, it weighs in at just over 2300lbs.

That 691hp goes to the rear via a race version of the road cars 5 speed manual gearbox, the gearing of which has also being lengthened with 80mph being reached in 1st, 150mph in 3rd, 186mph in 4th and a top speed of 228mph.

That high boost level means you need to keep the revs up and your foot down to keep the turbos at full power and being careful in 1st gear turns so as not to get caught out by the sudden power increase.

Handling is solid for a retro racer, but you do have to bear in mind about its limits when you’re really going for it.

The F40 C is valued at 2 million credits, but given its a Barn Find car, the only ever money you’ll spend on it is on upgrades(unless you decided to pay to skip the restoration job.) and speaking of upgrades..

There’s only one engine swap in the form of the Racing V12 from the F50 GT, sadly you can’t get to the top of S2 with the factory engine.

Nevertheless, it’s still the fastest of all the Barn Finds and a very fitting final drive for COTW in Mexico.

Verdict: Sleeper 😉👍

Oh and one last thing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this little chestnut of an F40 LM being put through its paces.

I'll read the GT7 ones bud even though I don't have a PS5. The advice for how others find cars handle or suggestions for tweaks when making tuning updates to vehicles should still come in useful.

As they say, see you on the other side 👍.

 

[XSquareStickIt]

Seeing as this is the last week of FH5 COTW, I decided to reinstall FH5 on my potato PC and take this photo to commemorate the journey.

But seriously though, I'll miss this thread once it ends. It's not everyday I get to read about how a car drives in a game I don't know at all. Some really good pieces of writing here I really enjoyed. And of course, we had Week 34 here

 

[Nacho Libre]

Hello all, I'm sorry I just strayed from this fine forum thread some time ago to do and play other stuff, but I might as well come back one last time to say thank you @Obelisk and all of you and post my final time of 2:36.538

The F40C is perfect in almost every way: light, balanced, with brutal acceleration, grip and aero, the only thing lacking may be top speed. A sleeper!

Now, I have to tell you that some three months ago I decided to jump into PC gaming and built a rig that just plays FH5 wonderfully at high visual quality and framerates, and it is now my preferred way to play.

Anyhow, thank you very much, and one last thought, don't you think the new FM needs a COTW?

 

[Obelisk]

Anyhow, thank you very much, and one last thought, don't you think the new FM needs a COTW?

The new FM is deserving of a COTW, I do agree with that. Sadly, though, this thread is where I part ways with my role as the FH/FM showrunner. I've been slowly drifting away from Forza in general, and I would love to see this concept continue under the guidance of someone new.

Some quick words about the final car:
I quite enjoyed the F40C when I did have a chance to use it. It can be built out to have a ridiculous amount of straight line speed and still retain 10 handling. Mine got up to about 250 mph.

And it's free. Immediate Sleeper.

And my last message for you folks...

Thank you to my friends at the GTS/GT7 COTW thread for supporting me here.

Thank you to MCD for starting COTW a decade ago with GT6.

And thank you to our wonderful guests on this thread, who helped explore what these 100+ cars can and can't do. Our time under the COTW banner may be over, but...

Horizon is the festival that never ends. Keep tearing up those roads out there and never give up on your love for cars.