Forza Horizon 5 Tuning Guide
Part 1 - Horizon Tuning Basics
Understanding Car Types and Body Types
When it comes to tuning in Horizon the most important aspect you need to understand is the concept of car types and body types.
Car types provide a general classification of all cars in Forza and group several body types. Each car type needs a distinctive way to be setup in terms of tuning.
Generally Horizon distinguishes between road, race, rally and off-road cars.
The following road car types exist in Forza Horizon:
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Utility Cars (vans, SUVs)
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Street Cars (sedans, wagons, muscle cars, compact cars)
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Sports Cars (sports cars, rally cars, GT sports cars)
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High Performance Cars (super cars, hyper cars)
The following race car types exist in Forza Horizon:
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Race Cars (GT race cars)
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Race Trucks
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Prototype Race Cars (LMP cars)
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GP Race Cars (classic GP race cars)
The following rally car types exist in Forza Horizon:
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Rally Sports Cars
The following off-road car types exist in Forza Horizon:
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Off-road Buggies
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Off-road Cars (jeeps)
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Off-road Sports Cars
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Off-road Trucks (pickups)
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Off-road Race Trucks (trophy trucks)
Now what is a body type? A body type defines the basic characteristics of a car such as suspension geometry and chassis and suspension stiffness. Forza does not simulate cars on an individual car level but on body type level. That means all cars that share the same body type are running on the same virtual representation of the car.
An example would be a classic American muscle car that features a very conservative suspension geometry combined with a soft chassis and suspension setup that gives you that unique "boat like" handling on roads.
In contrast modern F1 race cars features a unique open-wheel suspension geometry along with a much stiffer chassis and suspension characteristics that is suitable for high-speed racing on ultra-flat race tracks.
Body types are similar to the concept of divisions that group similar cars to achieve more close racing but they are not identical. Sometimes divisions contain cars of different body types or cars of a certain body type are spread across several divisions. Think of divisions more of an organizational grouping of cars whereas body types define the physical (or simulated) taxonomy of all cars in Forza.
To further diversify body types with regard to the period of time a car has been built Forza uses an era system:
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Modern: cars built 1995/96 or later
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Early Modern: cars built 1981-1994/95
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Vintage: cars built 1960-1980
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Early Vintage: cars built 1940-1959
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Pre-War: cars built before 1940
That means the correct body type of a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro is a "Vintage Muscle Car" whereas a 1987 Pontiac Firebird TransAm is an "Early Modern Muscle Car".
Now how do car types and body types affect tuning? Generally speaking older cars require a stiffer chassis and suspension tuning and a more conservative alignment and differential tuning than modern cars and race cars require softer chassis and suspension tuning and a more aggressive (more locked) differential tuning than production cars.
GP race cars and Prototype race cars however don't follow this pattern because they are exposed to extreme forces while cornering so they need very stiff chassis and damping setup to handle those forces. They also require unique differential tuning for best performance.
Prototype race cars are built for high speed racing and require almost fully locked (high) accel diff and a fully open decel diff tuning for maximum corner entry and corner exit performance. GP race cars are built for high speed cornering and require a more open diff tuning for best cornering performance.
The following table gives an overview how car type and era affect the different tuning areas:
Car Type ARBs / Springs1 Dampers Brake Distr. Differential
Race Car Lower Higher More Rear More Locked
Road Car ^ ^ | |
Rally Car | | v v
Off-road Car Higher Lower More Front More Open
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Prototype Race Car High High Rear Locked / Open
GP Race Car High High Rear Open
Era Camber ARBs / Springs1 Rebound / Bump Diff Accel / Decel
Modern Higher Lower Higher / Lower Higher / Lower
Early Modern ^ | ^ | ^ |
Vintage | | | | | |
Early Vintage | V | V | V
Pre-War Lower Higher Lower / Higher Lower / Higher
1 In relation to car weight
Mind you these principles only give general guidance and cannot directly be translated to specific values.
For a complete list of cars along with their respective car and body types please refer to Appendix A - Car List.
Understanding Chassis Types New in Horizon 5
Chassis types are a new tuning mechanic that has been introduced in Horizon 5.
A cars chassis type is determined by the installed tire compound. There are five basic chassis types supported in Horizon 5:
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Road Chassis (stock, street, sport, semi race slicks, race slicks, snow and vintage race tires)
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Off-road Chassis (off-road, rally, off-road race and vintage rally tires)
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Rally Chassis (AWD swap + rally tires)
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Drift Chassis (drift tires)
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Drag Chassis (drag tires)
Now why are chassis types important when it comes to tuning? Because when you change a cars chassis type by upgrading the tire compound you fundamentally change how the car chassis reacts on the road since the tires connect the chassis with the road.
The basic premise is that when you change a car chassis type by upgrading to certain tire compounds you have to take into account the changed chassis behavior on the road when tuning.
Similarly when you bring a car with a road chassis to an off-road track or a car with an off-road chassis to a road track you need to take changed chassis behavior due to changed track surface into account when tuning.
Now how do chassis types affect tuning? Generally changing a road car to an off-road chassis requires more understeer tuning. Likewise changing an off-road car to a road chassis requires more oversteer tuning. The same applies when you bring a road car with road tires to an off-road track which will require more understeer tuning and bringing an off-road car to a road track requires more oversteer tuning.
While road and off-road chassis are the most common chassis types there are also drift and drag chassis possible by using drift or drag tires. Drag chassis require most understeer tuning while drift chassis require most oversteer tuning.
Rally chassis are a special kind of off-road chassis that occur when a car is AWD swapped and fitted with rally tires. For off-road racing (dirt and cross country) rally chassis can be treated like off-road chassis. But for road tuning rally chassis require different chassis tuning than off-road chassis. They require understeer alignment tuning to stabilize the car on corner entry and oversteer tuning for ARBs, springs and dampers for improved cornering.
The following table gives an overview how chassis types affect the different tuning areas:
Chassis Type Tire Pressure Camber / Caster ARBs Ride Height Dampers Brake Pressure Downforce
Front / Rear Front / Rear Front / Rear Front / Rear Front / Rear
Drag Chassis Lower / Higher Lower Higher / Lower Max - Higher / Lower Lower Higher / Lower
Off-road Chassis | ^ | ^ | Max - ^ | | ^ |
Road Chassis v | v | v - - | v v | v
Drift Chassis Higher / Lower Higher Lower / Higher - Max Lower / Higher Higher Lower / Higher
Remember chassis tuning is only required if you change the cars stock chassis type through a tire compound upgrade or when bringing road cars to off-road tracks or off-road cars to road tracks.
Rally chassis are a special kind of off-road chassis that occur when a car is AWD swapped and fitted with rally tires. For off-road racing (dirt and cross country) rally chassis can be treated like off-road chassis. But for road tuning rally chassis require different chassis tuning than off-road chassis. They require understeer alignment tuning to stabilize the car on corner entry and oversteer tuning for ARBs, springs and dampers for improved cornering.
Chassis Type Tire Pressure Camber / Caster ARBs Rebound Bump
Front / Rear Front / Rear Rear Front
Rally Chassis Lower / Higher Lower Lower / Higher Higher Higher
Road Chassis v ^ v v ^ ^ ^
When it comes to road tuning chassis tuning is actually a little bit more complex because now also the different road chassis types need to be considered:
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Street Chassis (stock and street tires)
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Sport Chassis (sport tires)
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Semi Race Chassis (semi race slicks)
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Race Chassis (race slicks)
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Snow Chassis (snow tires)
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Vintage Race Chassis (vintage race tires)
Chassis tuning for road tracks is required for cars with 400hp or more power that have a different road chassis than their stock chassis by upgrading to a different road tire compound.
Upgrading to road tire compounds with more grip than the cars stock compound requires a more aggressive tuning with higher tire pressures, higher camber and caster, lower ride hight and higher rear damping. Similarly using a road tire compound with lower grip than the cars stock compound require more conservative tuning with lower tire pressures, lower camber and caster, higher ride height and higher front damping.
Vintage Race and Snow compound are considered special road tires that offer lower grip than basic Stock or Street tires. Therefore Vintage Race and Snow chassis require additionally increased front downforce and lower brake pressure tuning than regular Stock, Street, Sport, Semi Race or Race Slicks.
Road Chassis Tire Pressure Camber / Caster ARBs Ride Height Dampers Brake Pressure Downforce
Front / Rear Front / Rear Front
Vintage Race Lower Lower Higher / Lower Higher Higher / Lower Lower Higher
Snow | | ^ | | ^ | v ^
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Street | | | | | | | - -
Sport | | | | | | | - -
Semi Race v v | v v | v - -
Race Higher Higher Lower / Higher Lower Lower / Higher - -
So these are the basic Horizon tuning principles. With the basics being laid out we are now ready to dive into general tuning.