This pack's proof that T10 is not as evil or clueless as some people would paint them. And that you can add two offroaders per month to shore up the category before Horizon 4 comes out, without making people reach for their pitchforks. I was resigned to the fact that I was going to get my grubby mittens on this pack a day later than most people - as I'll be away on the 19th - but lo and behold, the guys at T10 decided to release it early. Thanks?
Speaking of "vehicles that can only be added on the condition that they come with a Bugatti Chiron"... The Ram 2500 immediately gains the dubious honor of being the most useless vehicle in Forza's roster. It drives pitifully on the track - its huge mass and dizzying ride height making cornering a daunting proposition, and the risk of wearing this 2.5 tons truck as a hat is always real - and doesn't even accelerate all that quick (although you may think so, because it makes an awful racket). But there's a bright side even to its addition: here in Italy, the Ram is associated with endless re-runs of Walker Texas Ranger... So I guess I can paint it silver and imagine I'm Chuck Norris? And jokes aside, I imagine that many people who'd rather have an all-American workhorse than an early-60s Italo-German fridge-on-wheels may disagree with my brutal assessment of the uselessness of this vehicle. All in all, while I don't really like its handling too much, and don't care for its styling or pedigree, I can appreciate the variety it adds to the car roster - being the first somewhat-reasonable pickup ever added to Forza. What's next, a diesel F-150? That'd be fun to drive around the Nordschleife!
Pros: a draft horse is something we lacked in Forza, and will make a fine addition to any Touristenfahrten lobby
Cons: as nimble as a sack of bricks, if not less
Nurburgring laptime: 09:46.379
Now, the Durango... This is the kind of tall-bodied vehicle you'd expect from Forza. Built on the same platform as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and several Mercedes models, the Durango's a remnant of the pre-FCA days of Dodge. But hey, don't worry! Because they brought it back to speed with an Hellcat-style front fascia, a 6.4 l HEMI engine and revised cycling. The result is the fastest car in its class, both on the quarter mile and on the track... Although it's not sure what's the competition in the "people-moving SUV with 500 horsepower" category. But nevertheless, this flying brick is surprisingly proficient and fun to drive - exhibiting an alarming propensity for throttle-off oversteer, that can however become a force for good if you don't mind drifting through all corners and ending up with shredded rear tyres after a couple of laps. It may as be just as useless as the Ram in game, and a hundred times more in real life, but hey - life is not all about useful things? We're playful animals, after all.
Pros: drifting fun for seven...
Cons: ...wheter you want to have that kind of fun, or not
Nurburgring laptime: 08:35.186
With the behemoths out of the way, it's now time to focus on the five "normal" cars in the pack... Starting with the HK Holden Monaro, a cherished Australian classic. I'm glad to see that T10's interest in exploring the world of "Supercars" from the Land Down Under hasn't dwindled after the days of Horizon 3 ended. Originally, the Monaro's range-topper was supposed to be the GTS V8, equipped with the first eight-cylinder engine developed by Holden; the belief was that the engine bay of the car was too small to fit a Chevrolet small-block. But development of the five-litre engine ran behind schedule, motivating the engineers to re-measure the space they had to work with: thus, this Frankenstein of a car - and a proud Australian tradition of marrying European-sized chassis and huge, torquey American engines - was born. The GTS 327 immediately made a splash in the Aussie racing scene: in 1968, Bruce McPhree famously drove one from the showroom floor to Mount Panorama, where he set the pole position, drove for the entirety of the race - with the exception of a lap-long lunch break, during which he left the wheel to his co-driver, Barry Mulholland - and won the Bathurst 500; and the year after, Norm Beechey would place third in the inaugural edition of the Australian Touring Car Championship, despite missing two races altogether. Driving dynamics don't disappoint - the HK Monaro is a relatively agile car, very easy to slide through corners thanks to a relatively low weight and the very wide power- and torque-band of the engine. It may not be the fastest car ever built, but it is undoubtedly up to the challenge presented by its division peers, and a hoot to drive, too.
Pros: as fun as any other classic Australian muscle - which is to say, a lot
Cons: short gears mean a low top speed
Nurburgring laptime: 09:13.582
The Stinger's Kia entry in the mid-sized luxury sedan market, where it faces well-established competitors like the BMW 5-series and cars of a much more renown pedigree like the Maserati Ghibli. The top-of-the-line GT fully embraces the sporty ambitions the model's styling and name (Stinger? What is this, GTA?) betray, offering a 3.3 litre turbocharged V6 powerplant and performance-oriented handling fine-tuning. Kia didn't really pull any punches developing its first super-sedan: BMW's M division engineering guru Albert Biermann was hired away from Ze Germans to develop the car, which was tested very extensively on the Nordschleife. But alas, the Stinger GT falls short of its ambitions, both in looks and in performance: with styling that's a pastiche of German and Japanese design tropes of the last five years and a somewhat-sloppy demeanor on track, it's not good enough to take on BMW's, Mercedes and recently-reanimated Alfa Romeo's offerings just yet. Still, this is not to say it's a bad car - the V6 sends all the right noises through the performance exhaust, and overall this Kia is a blast to drive.
Pros: a competent sports sedan from the manufacturer previously famous for the Cee'd
Cons: it's still not on the same planet as its German and Italian rivals
Nurburgring laptime: 08:17.142
T10's decision to add in the record-breaking TT RS entered by Rotek Racing in the 2017 Pikes Peak hillclimb is, in many ways, surprising: this is, after all, a car that has two strong links to Forza's main competitor, Gran Turismo, which is an important sponsor both to the Race to the Clouds, and the VLN Endurance Series that takes place on the Nordschleife and for which this spec racer was created. But it is, without a doubt, a very welcome surprise: the extreme aerodynamics and 380 horsepower of the inline-5 engine are enough to make it very enticing even if you've never watched a VLN race, and thus have no idea how fast it can be around everyone's favorite German track. If you know what to expect, it doesn't disappoint: sure, at times the TT will remind you of its nature as a high-powered FWD car by exhibiting the charateristic front-end pull, and generally speaking it'd be wise to clear the apex of a corner before firing the engine up, but it's otherwise a remarkably precise track weapon that could definitely shine in the Forza Touring Cars division, and deserves its own racing division... Which makes T10's decision to drop it in the Forza GT class instead, more than a bit disappointing. Oh, well - guess that just like with the Formula Mazda back in the FM6 days, we'll have to take matters into our own hands and set up our spec leagues?
Pros: incredibly fast and well-behaved for a wrong-wheel drive car
Cons: T10's asinine decision to place it in the wrong division means it won't get its chance to truly shine until FM8...
Nurburgring laptime: 07:22.823
With what I like to imagine is a raised middle finger, T10 decided to include the Chiron in the (basically unannounced) February car pack - thus not only disproving people who were incredibly sure it was only going to be added after the end of the validity of the Car Pass, but also maximizing its added "wow" factor. The car needs no introduction: designed to replace the venerable Veyron, this Bugatti's "more of the same": the gargantuan 8-litre W16 engine - which sounds like Armageddon - has been upgraded and now pushes 1500 horsepower, a power figure that's so absurd for a production car you may have been excused if you had a spit-take the first time you've come across it. But another important area of improvement was handling: thanks to a stiffer chassis and an improved suspension design, the Chiron's more of a track car than its predecessor. Granted, even that can't make miracles and turn a 2-ton sportscar into a nimble corner carver, and the copious amounts of power and torque contribute to make it a handful it when going at full chatter, but it's still a definite step forward over its predecessor.
Pros: the exhaust sound is so mean, it's actually a bit scary
Cons: it doesn't matter how good is your car's handling, 1500 horses are enough to push it past its limits at almost every corner
Nurburgring laptime: 07:09.536
Finally, we take a peek to the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 - a car that would've been the true star of the pack any other month, but has to fend off competition from the TT RS and is in any case completely eclipsed by the Chiron this February. Like January's M6 GT3, the Vantage comes just as the works team is about to abandon it in favor of a new GTE machine, but it'd be reasonable to expect it will remain quite popular amongst customer teams for quite a while still. The difference here is that the M6 was quite short-lived, while the Vantage's not: it first debuted all the way back in 2012, before the launch of the Xbox One and at a time when DLC was still coming out for Forza Motorsport 4. Regardless, late as it may be this Aston's a welcome addition to the ever-growing list of GT racers featured in Forza - and the scream of the front-mounted V12 is enough to make it an instant favorite of mine.
Pros: a long-awaited racecar finally joins the Forza car roster...
Cons: ...just as it turns obsolete
Nurburgring laptime: 07:06.860