During the November 2023 edition of the Forza Monthly livestream, Playground Games has formally announced all that’s arriving in the forthcoming Update 27 for Forza Horizon 5.
The new update includes a variety of American-made rides, new bits of gameplay and customisation content, changes to the open-world, and, unceremoniously, a new way to spend your real world “dolla dolla bills” in-game.
Expanding the garage
The list of arriving vehicles spans 12 cars in all, though four of those rides are considered a premium DLC that come as part of the American Automotive Car Pack.
Available November 7 for $4.99 USD, you’ll get the 1961 Deberti Ford Econoline ‘Shop Rod,’ 2017 Saleen S7 LM, 2020 Chevrolet Silverado LT Trail Boss, and the very-new 2024 Czinger 21C. It’s quite the collection of toys for the garage, ranging from a tuned retro van, to an AI-designed hypercar.
For those of us who’d much rather keep our lunch money, the remaining eight new vehicles will be available by simply earnings points throughout the season as Reward Cars.
These cars are the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, 1965 Plymouth Belvedere, 1966 Chevrolet Nova Super Sport, 1968 Pontiac Firebird, 2023 Lucid Air Sapphire, 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge, and finally, the 1962 Lincoln Continental and 2020 Rossion Q1.
As you can tell from the names, this lineup includes a solid variety of modern supercars and classic hot rods, all coming from American manufacturers.
Fun fact about the Lucid Air in particular; one may remember that the last time a Tesla car was seen in a Forza Horizon title was the Tesla Model S in Forza Horizon 3 back in 2016. What does this have to do with the Lucid Air, however? Well, Lucid was founded in 2007 by former Tesla VP Bernard Tse. It has served as a key rival to Tesla since then.
Tesla has yet to come back to the Forza franchise in any capacity since that last entry. Now, Lucid joins Rivian as being two direct competitors to have representation in the game world, while Tesla remains absent for whatever reason. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but interesting to think about.
Switching up the scenery
On a separate note, Playground is also adding new bodykits for certain vehicles and a collection of 20 new rims from manufacturer HRE.
Also, you will be able to take your new rides around the returning Oval Track which is coming back to host more laps throughout the new season. It can be found in the Stadium at the centre of the map.
More permanent changes come in the form of four new race routes in the Road Race mode. They’re all sprint races that dash through each of Horizon Mexico’s biomes.
Syphoning gas and cash
The last major point from this update is that of the introduction of Autoshow Car Vouchers. With these, players will be able to “enjoy Forza Horizon 5 at their own speed,” as Playground words it.
What this really means is that players now have the ability to use their real-world money to buy vehicles from the Autoshow (Car Pack vehicles and Festival Playlist Reward Cards are not eligible.)
There are three options for buying the vouchers: 4 for $3.99, 10 for $9.99, and 24 for $19.99. One voucher equals the purchase of one car.
Admittedly, this is an odd choice considering that the game dishes out in-game currency left and right, making almost everything but the most expensive cars listed in the Autoshow attainable in a relatively short period of gameplay time. This is without even mentioning the fact that Forza Horizon 5 has been out for two years already. Time will tell if a similar system will be adopted in the recently launched Forza Motorsport.
Update 27 for Forza Horizon 5 goes live on November 7 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC (including Steam.)
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