The latest set of Forza Horizon 5 Playlist events is now available, bringing fresh challenges and rewards over the next seven days.
It’s the third week of Series 9 which, like all of the game’s Series, has a special theme. This month that theme is “Hot Wheels”, as Playground Games looks forward to the launch of the new Hot Wheels Expansion.
That means the events are largely themed around the 1:64 scale cars, involving challenges named for special Hot Wheels collections, and reward cars that either feature as model castings or from the real-world Hot Wheels Garage.
Naturally this also includes the Playlist rewards each week and the overall Series rewards, which also come with a new Accolade for collecting them all.
Whether you plan to pick up the Expansion or not, S9 should put you in the mood for some Hot Wheels shenanigans!
Series 9
Neither of the S9 Playlist cars are exclusives, but then you’re also not able to just buy them from the Autoshow. That means winning them here will save you time waiting for them to appear as rewards, Wheelspins, or Forzathon Shop items, or money in the Auction House.
With Hot Wheels as the theme this Series, it’s no surprise that the 80pt car is from the HW Garage stable — and it’s one of the more outlandish creations.
Going by the name of Twin Mill, this car combines Chevrolet Corvette styling with Chevrolet Corvette power… and then more Chevrolet Corvette power. It sports two supercharged 502ci Chevrolet V8s, thus the name “Twin Mill”.
Combined they’re worth 1,400hp from 16.5 liters, although the enormous ram scoops make it quite awkward to driver in cockpit view — in addition to being quite a squirrely thing.
For 160 points, which you’ll just be able to achieve this season, you can pick up the Dino 246 GT.
Often erroneously labeled as a Ferrari — including in Forza Horizon 5 — the Dino was one of the first cars from the short-lived Dino brand, offering a lower-cost entry to the Ferrari family.
The brand was named for the Dino V6 engine powering the cars, which itself was named for Enzo Ferrari’s deceased eldest son Alfredo “Dino” Ferrari who played a key role in designing it.
With the 246 GT you get a larger, 2.4-liter version of the V6, providing a useful power bump to deal with the steel body which replaced the expensive aluminum shell of the 206 GT.
Winter will run through to 1430UTC on Thursday July 14, while Series 9 has another week to go after that and ends at the same time on Thursday July 21.
Winter
There’s a Playlist Exclusive car available for this week’s activities, coming in at the lower threshold of 20 points as we’ve seen for a number of Series now.
The Dodge Super Bee is a sporty variant of the Coronet two-door coupe, drawing its name from the fact that it uses the B-body platform. Oddly Mexico actually got its own version of the Super Bee, based on the A-body Valiant Duster — although this isn’t the version in FH5.
In addition to the rather unsubtle bee-branding throughout the car, the Super Bee gains a big-block Hemi V8, good for 425hp from 426ci (7.0 litres).
While a staple of the Forza Motorsport series, this is the first time the car has appeared in Horizon, so it’s well worth picking up.
You’ll need access to online multiplayer — PC play or a Xbox Live Gold subscription — to rack up the 40 points for this week’s other car, the Zenvo ST1.
It’s the first car from Danish supercar brand Zenvo and like the Super Bee it sports a V8. That’s where the similarities end, as the ST1’s unit is a Chevrolet LS7, sits behind the driver rather than ahead of them, and is twincharged.
Thanks to super- and turbo-charging, the engine is good for nearly 1,100hp — although despite the extensive carbonfiber construction the car comes in at around 1.7 tons, blunting acceleration a little. Still, 230mph+ is possible.
Zenvo would later evolve the car into the TS1 GT, then the TSR, and finally its crazy-winged TSR-S model. If you miss out on the car this week, you can just buy it in the Autoshow for 1.2m credits.
Forzathon Events
For this week’s Weekly Challenge you’ll be tooling about in one of the game’s biggest and heaviest vehicles, the Unimog. Pick one up and drive it to get Real Rider started.
From there, take the Unimog to victory in any Cross Country Racing Series event — and you might want to tune it to the top of D Class (500PI) to make the time drag a little less. That’ll also help with the next stage, where you’ll need to score one star at the Barranco Trailblazer — the run down the east side of the volcano.
Finally you’ll need to score 10 Ultimate Wreckage Skills to complete the Challenge. You will get a Wreckage Skill each time you smash something breakable, and doing that four times in quick succession will rank that up to Ultimate.
Completing everything will earn you five points and 80FP (doubled to 160FP if you own the La Casa Solariega player house).
Weekly Challenge: Real Rider
- Car: Mercedes-Benz Unimog
- Chapter 1: Own and Drive the Unimog
- Chapter 2: Win any Cross Country Racing Series event
- Chapter 3: Score One Star at Barranco Trailblazer
- Chapter 4: Earn 10 Ultimate Wreckage Skills
- Reward: 5 points, 80FP
The Daily Challenges this week are a bit of a mix, and you can chain many of them with other events and reward cars. Each is worth one point and 20FP (doubled to 40FP with the LCS player house), with a new Challenge available each day.
It all starts with Flying Colours, which requires you to score the equivalents of six stars at any Danger Signs in any car from the 1970s. Just hit up the Signs and leap far enough to reach the target distances for one, two, or three stars until you reach six in total.
City Speedway will then get you to take a photograph at the Calle Principal Speed Trap in Guanajuato. This is the one to the east side of the city, with the huge 215mph target — although you only need to take a photo of the trap.
Saturday is Race Day. Take the 2017 Acura NSX — which you can win in this week’s EventLab challenge — to victory in any Road Racing Series event.
You’ll then need to be a Legend of Speed, by earning nine star-equivalents at any Speed Traps in the 1971 Nissan Skyline GT-R. This is a prize from the Horizon Open challenge this week if you don’t already have one; once you have the car, hit the target speeds at any speed traps for one, two, or three stars until you reach nine in total.
Cruise Boulevard is not a relaxing way to start the next working week. You’ll need a tweaked 1998 Toyota Supra and run it at 200mph or more for ten seconds. The main highway is the best bet for this.
The Tour Guide challenge doubles up with this week’s Season Events. Complete a Horizon Tour to earn the point — and if you leave the seasonal until Tuesday you’ll score four points at once.
Finally things get Spiky! Batter ten cactuses to earn ten Smactus Skills and the final point of the week.
Season Events
Your single-player Season Events this week consist of three PR Stunts, a pair of Seasonal Championships, and an EventLab challenge — with a Horizon Open also available as a solo or multiplayer event.
Once again, EventLab returns to the Gran Caldera, but there’s a good dose more creativity in Sky Castle Circuit than the recent tracks-in-the-sky events.
You’ll be racing around the grounds and parapets of a castle built near the Gran Telescopio in A Class (701-800PI) Super Hot Hatch cars on a short, solo, two-lap run of the course. Watch out for that first braking zone, and make sure you can hit the final jump at 85mph or more…
Oddly we have an identical line-up of PR Stunt types this week, with a Drift Zone, a Speed Zone, and a Trailblazer. Each will give you a Super Wheelspin and two points for completion, sticking to recent form.
This week’s Drift Zone, Los Campos, is just south of the Horizon Stadium. You’ll need any Ford so long as it’s in the B Class (601-700PI) performance bracket, and that might make the 150,000pt target a bit tricky — it’s well above the three-star threshold.
The Speed Zone, La Silica, is the most westerly event on the map, running past the La Cabana player house in Bahia de Plano. It’s exclusively for S2 Class (901-998 PI) Hypercars — which you can also use for the Photo Challenge this week — and while the 135mph target is above three stars it shouldn’t be too tricky.
That leaves the Malpais Trailblazer, the shortest Trailblazer of all. This runs from just off the north edge of the south-western corner of the main highway to a little oasis to the west. While you’re limited to A Class (701-800PI) Unlimited Offroad cars, the 21s time is pretty generous and should be a breeze.
Seasonal Championships run a three-race championship against Highly Skilled AI, and both offer five points for completion. You’ll need to top the final points table in each, which usually means at least two race wins.
All Stars is a Road Racing Series event for D Class (≤500PI) Classic Muscle cars and offers a Hummer H1 Alpha for the win, while Baja Blazers puts you into Cross Country Racing Series races for C Class (501-600PI) Pickups & 4x4s, with a Ford F-150 Trophy Truck as the prize.
Finally Horizon Open will have you taking part in a three-round themed challenge of either Air, Chaos, Drift, Speed, or Wreckage events. You can run solo or in a team — the points thresholds adjust according to the number of players — but complete three rounds of any event type to take three points with no additional prize.
EventLab: Sky Castle Circuit
- Car: A Class, Super Hot Hatch
- Location: La Gran Caldera, Las Dunas Cross Country
- Challenge: Win the Race
- Reward: 3 points, Acura NSX ’17
Drift Zone, Los Campos
- Car: B Class, Ford
- Location: El Estadio Horizon, Los Campos Drift Zone
- Challenge: 150,000pt
- Reward: 2 points, Super Wheelspin
Speed Zone: La Silica
- Car: S2 Class, Hypercars
- Location: Bahia de Plano, La Silica Speed Zone
- Challenge: 145mph
- Reward: 2 points, Super Wheelspin
Trailblazer: Malpais
- Car: A Class, Unlimited Offroad
- Location: Baja California, Malpais Trailblazer
- Challenge: 21s
- Reward: 2 points, Super Wheelspin
Seasonal Championship: All Stars
- Car: D Class, Classic Muscle
- Location: Tierra Prospera, Tierra Prospera Circuit
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Hummer H1
Seasonal Championship: Baja Blazers
- Car: C Class, Pickups & 4x4s
- Location: De Otro Mundo, Ribera Rocosa Cross Country
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Ford F-150 Trophy Truck #11
Horizon Arcade: Mini Games
- Car: Any
- Location: Horizon Arcade (any)
- Challenge: Complete the Event
- Reward: 3 points
The two mulitplayer events require an Xbox Live Gold subscription on console to access, although you can play them with no additional charge on PC. This week the events consist of The Trial and Horizon Tour.
Horizon Tour is like a regular three-race championship against the AI, but with two differences. Firstly you’ll be on a team of up to six players against six bots, and secondly you’ll need to drive between the races too.
There’s no goal or reward for this additional step — except bragging rights of who has the best overland car — but it adds a twist.
For the championship itself, each member of each team gets 100 points for each member of the opposing team they beat, plus 50pt for the overall victory. That means if one team takes the first six places, they’ll win the race by 3650pt to zero.
You’ll need to help your team-mates pass the AI at times then, as each overtake of an opponent results in a 200pt swing — as well as not getting in each other’s way. Come out on top over the three-race event and you’ll take three points for your season total — and if you leave it until at least Tuesday July 12 you’ll complete a Daily Challenge too for an extra point.
The Trial is similar, but this time the AI are turned up to “Unbeatable” and there’s no driving between events. However you’ll still need to work as a team, and in Mustang Mania that’ll be more important.
That’s because you’ll be driving Ford Mustangs, not known for their pliant handling especially outside of car shows and meets. Nonetheless, the A Class (701-800PI) bracket should allow for reasonable control, even in the tunnels of Guanajuato, as you run the Road Racing Series event.
Win the best-of-three series and you’ll earn ten points and a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach One.
Horizon Tour: Co-Op Championships
- Car: Any
- Location: Horizon Tour (any)
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 3 points
The Trial: Mustang Mania
- Car: A Class, Ford Mustang
- Location: Cordillera, Llanuras Sprint
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 10 points, Ford Mustang Mach One ’71
Challenges
There’s only two Challenges this week, and one of those is the multiplayer-only Horizon Open, requiring Xbox Live Gold or to play on PC to access.
Drifting is the aim this week, with Drift Racer requiring you to enter and complete any Horizon Open Drift event. Whether you win or not, completing the event will earn you two points and a 1971 Nissan Skyline GT-R — which is required for a Daily Challenge this week.
That leaves the Photo Challenge, #SpeedTeam. Simply take any Hypercar category vehicle to the Copper Canyon and photograph it for two points and Horizon Race Gloves for your avatar.
Finally there’s the two Monthly Rivals events running across the four weeks of S9. Both are available throughout the Series, awarding a point each to each season in the Series whenever you choose to complete them.
For each event you’ll need to complete a clean lap at a Rivals time trial event indicated, using the vehicle provided to you. Pace isn’t relevant, as you only need to record a clean lap, so keep it off the walls and away from trees, or anything else solid.
The regular Monthly Rivals event gives a bit of a glimpse into the upcoming Hot Wheels Expansion, requiring a clean lap of the Chihuahua Circuit in the provided Hot Wheels 2JetZ.
While new for this Series we expect Forza EV — a new event named for its focus on electric vehicles — to continue in future Series. You’ll be provided a Lotus Evija and tasked with running a clean lap of the Horizon Mexico Circuit.
Photo Challenge: #SpeedTeam
- Cars: Hypercar (any)
- Location: Copper Canyon
- Challenge: Photograph any Hypercar at Copper Canyon
- Reward: 2 points, Horizon Race Gloves
Horizon Open: Drift Racer
- Cars: Any
- Location: Horizon Open Drift
- Challenge: Complete a Horizon Open Drift Event
- Reward: Nissan GT-R ’71
Forza EV: Horizon Mexico Circuit
- Cars: Lotus Evija (Provided)
- Location: Horizon Festival, Horizon Mexico Circuit
- Challenge: Post a Clean Lap
- Reward: 4 points (1 added to each season)
Monthly Rivals: Chihuahua Circuit
- Cars: Hot Wheels 2JetZ (Provided)
- Location: Hotel Mirador Balderrama, Chihuahua Circuit
- Challenge: Post a Clean Lap
- Reward: 4 points (1 added to each season)
Forzathon Shop
This week’s Forzathon Shop stocks what might be the ideal two-car garage for FH5’s Mexico. That starts with the Toyota AT37, a heavily modified off-roader from Arctic Trucks based on the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Arctic Trucks is a car manufacturer based in — of all places — Iceland, and specializes in building unique off-roaders for the country’s rather extreme terrain. It’s a highly volatile landscape, and you need pretty special vehicles to venture anywhere outside of main roads and towns
That’s what Arctic Trucks builds. The cars are commonly based on Toyota and Isuzu body-on-frame trucks and SUVs, and named for their tire size. You can probably guess then that the Land Cruiser-based AT37 boasts 37-inch rubber.
It’s not incredibly fast, coming in as a D Class vehicle, but it is difficult to beat over chaotic ground. You also cannot buy it — it’s previously been a Playlist reward — so the 700FP is probably a fair price.
Occupying the other vehicle slot is the Hennessey Venom GT. You’d be forgiven for thinking the Venom is a 1,200hp Lotus Elise, because it pretty much is; the road cars are in fact registered as such, and all bear VINs beginning SCCL for Lotus.
However the chassis and body are heavily modified to cope with the 270mph speeds possible through that 1,200hp, twin-turbocharged LS7. While it’s available for 300FP, you’re probably better off spending the 1.2 million credits it usually costs unless you’re strapped for cash.
Store items this week are the Hot Wheels Suit and the Hot Wheels Ice Horn at 75FP each. The Wheelspin (60FP) and Super Wheelspin (150FP) are in their usual spots too.
See more articles on Forza Horizon 5 Season Change.
