Forza Horizon 5: How To Build The Best Car For Drag Racing (2024)

Forza Horizon 5 plays host to numerous racing disciplines - road racing, rally, street racing, cross country, and stunts, to name a few. Another form of racing that receives greater attention in the series' newest entry is drag racing, with numerous drag strips all over the map.

Related: Forza Horizon 5: The Fastest Cars In The Game

Drag races are unique in that no real steering is required, so you can forget handling and off-road and just focus on putting as much power into your car as possible. There are two stages to this - building the car and tuning it. This guide will walk you through both so you can squeeze the best possible performance out of your car in a drag race.

How To Build A Drag Car In Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5: How To Build The Best Car For Drag Racing (1)

The actual choice of car doesn't really matter, since in single-player your opponents match your car type and ranking, and online matchmaking still accounts for class - just try to build your car in such a way that its PI ranking ends up at or near the top of the class. If you're just drag-racing friends in the open world with no restrictions, pick something fast and powerful to really get the upper hand.

As for upgrades, launch and acceleration are your biggest priorities, followed by speed. You can pretty much ignore handling, braking, and off-road, since they have little to no bearing on a drag race. The biggest upgrades to look out for are drag tyres, and widening whichever tyres your car uses to accelerate (rear for RWD, all for AWD; FWD isn't really great for drag racing so perhaps look at conversions if your car is FWD at stock).

Related: Forza Horizon 5: How Experience And Progression Work

Another good option is rally suspension. This may seem confusing at first, but it gives you a higher ride height, which reduces your downforce (downforce is vital for ordinary racing due to the handling power it gives, but again, you can ignore handling for drag racing). The higher you are off the ground the, greater boost you'll see to speed and acceleration. Another part you should grab is a transmission that'll unlock gear tuning, since that'll be a key part of this whole process' latter half. Similarly, if you're using an AWD car, a differential to unlock full diff tuning could also be a good idea.

Then, just go through each option and add anything that boosts acceleration and launch, and speed as well if it's possible. There's no one magic option that'll work for everything, since it varies greatly from car to car - the stock parts might even be the best option on some high-end cars - but just pay attention to what each part will do and you'll be fine.

How To Tune A Drag Car In Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5: How To Build The Best Car For Drag Racing (2)

For the basics of tuning, check out this guide - it's a good idea to have a notion of what tuning is all about before jumping into more specialised tunes. Some areas of tuning are largely irrelevant for drag, so we'll walk through the key ones here and anything else should require small tweaks at most, depending on your preferences.

For the tyres, on a RWD car, high pressures for maximum grip is best, though a lower pressure in the rear and higher in the front can get you harder launches. On an AWD car, just go for maximum grip across the board, though this can vary based on your diff tuning - you can use the central diff tuning slider to send more power to the rear than the front, making it "sort of" RWD, so the greater the power being sent to the rear, the closer your tyre tuning should be in line with that of RWD cars. This principle applies to all the tuning sections for AWD where front vs. rear is concerned - start off somewhere in the middle and get closer to the RWD recommendations the more your central diff favours the rear.

Another area worth adjusting is your ride height - don't be afraid to dial it up to minimise that pesky downforce. You won't be cornering at all, so the handling benefits of air resistance would be lost anyway. For the same reason you can ignore tuning the likes of ARB, alignment, braking and so on, though softening your suspension to keep your tyres on the road isn't a bad a idea; lower all suspension sliders except numb stiffness and front rebound, which you should dial-up. These rules of thumb are even more applicable to AWD cars, since their power is split four ways instead of two, so it's even more crucial to keep every tyre on the ground.

Forza Horizon 5: How To Build The Best Car For Drag Racing (3)

The trickiest thing to tune is the gearing. You need to strike the right balance between speed and acceleration - too much speed and you won't get out of the gate quickly enough, too much acceleration and you'll leave everyone else behind at first only to be overtaken as your car's speed tops out. A fast launch is important, as we saw in upgrades, but you still need a good enough top speed to stay competitive, so you can't forget it entirely.

There is no perfect setting for the tuning here - just pick somewhere relatively in the middle for the final drive slider and test it out, then tweak if you feel like your car could use more of one or the other. You can also mess with the individual gear sliders a bit - longer gears means less time spent shifting early on, though may impact the efficiency of your overall acceleration. A long enough first gear to make sure your tyres have found grip before your first shift and minimise burnout is certainly worth considering. Again, trial and error is what'll lead you to the answers here. Playing on manual with clutch is the best for drag since it allows for quickest gear shifts, so if you feel you're up to the challenge and want your times to be the best of the best, give it a try.

Once you've got a base tune for each of these sliders, give your car a try and just tweak as needed. Tuning is an iterative process, so don't be afraid to revisit or rework if you feel your car would benefit from changes. Once you have something you're happy with, you're all done! Your specialised build should let you dominate races with your friends easily, and you'll be a force to be reckoned with on the drag strip.

Next: Forza Horizon 5: The Coolest Places To Visit In Mexico

  • Guides
  • Triple-A Games
  • Forza Horizon 5

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Manage Your List

Follow

Followed

Follow with Notifications

Follow

Unfollow

Forza Horizon 5: How To Build The Best Car For Drag Racing (2024)

FAQs

How to build a good drag car in Forza Horizon 5? ›

Swapping in an entirely different engine to various cars in-game unlocks their potential to be some of the fastest drag cars in Forza Horizon 5. To get maximum performance from any car in-game, swap out the stock engine and drop in the next best engine the tuning shop offers for your chosen drag car.

What is the best car for drag racing in Forza Horizon 5? ›

The 2011 BMW X5 M Forza Edition is the best drag racing car available in the game. It has 8 speed, 10 acceleration, and 10 launch. Players should customize the speed if they can, but this isn't the highest priority as the acceleration and launch should be enough to get them over the line in shorter drag races.

What is the fastest drag muscle car in Forza Horizon 5? ›

The Fastest Drag Car of Forza Horizon 5: Chevrolet COPO Camaro.

How to make a drag car faster? ›

Whether it's upgrading the engine, improving the suspension, or adding aerodynamic features, every modification can make a significant difference in the performance of a car on the track. Tuning involves adjusting the engine's fuel and air mixture to maximize power and speed.

What is the fastest wheelie drag car in Forza Horizon 5? ›

The 1970 GMC Jimmy is one of the best cars for performing wheelies in Forza Horizon 5. The key is to keep the rear part of these cars heavier than the front part. The engine upgrade should be maxed out to achieve the 1,750 HP mark, and drag racing tires should be equipped.

What car is best for drag racing? ›

  • 1 Porsche 918 Spyder 2015. Top Speed: 214 mph. ...
  • 2 Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 2021. Top Speed: 221 mph. ...
  • 3 Ford GT 2017. Top Speed: 216 mph. ...
  • 4 SRT Viper 2014. Top Speed: 206 mph. ...
  • 5 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2020. Top Speed: 184 mph. ...
  • 6 Ford Mustang GT 2015. Top Speed: 175 mph. ...
  • 7 Ford Mustang Boss 302 1969. Top Speed: 131 mph.
Jun 29, 2024

What is a 10 second car? ›

This is a reference to how fast a vehicle can, from a complete standstill, accelerate and complete a quarter-mile. A 10-second car is a vehicle that is able to complete this in under 11 seconds.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Reed Wilderman

Last Updated:

Views: 5393

Rating: 4.1 / 5 (52 voted)

Reviews: 83% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Reed Wilderman

Birthday: 1992-06-14

Address: 998 Estell Village, Lake Oscarberg, SD 48713-6877

Phone: +21813267449721

Job: Technology Engineer

Hobby: Swimming, Do it yourself, Beekeeping, Lapidary, Cosplaying, Hiking, Graffiti

Introduction: My name is Reed Wilderman, I am a faithful, bright, lucky, adventurous, lively, rich, vast person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.