So, you have watched all the videos about drifting on YouTube and purchased in Forza Horizon 4 the drift car of your dreams. But when you got behind the wheel to start your career as a racer, things were very different from what you imagined. Sound familiar?
The default settings for a new car will likely match those in real life, which means they’re great for normal driving. And when a car isn’t designed specifically for a race track, manufacturers have to consider a ton of parameters to make sure it will behave well on the road.
While you may think a standard car is great for your driving style, you’ll soon realize that you can get around the lap much faster or show a more impressive drift, and it’s the standard setup that limits your potential.
In a video game, you can level up your car with the push of a few buttons, and Forza Horizon 4 is one of the most advanced platforms for tuning. No matter how well you play Horizon 4 using the standard car settings, there’s always someone online who can get ahead of you because they’ve perfected their car.
It’s not just about increasing engine power, which can be achieved with upgrades. Tuning allows you to refine the car so that it perfectly meets any of your requirements.
Perhaps you plan to create a car that will drift flawlessly at every turn, while maintaining perfect grip, or do you want to set a new record for skid time?
Or maybe you need a rally car to rush through the mountains and move around the map as quickly as possible? Or do you want to set a new highest speed record on the highway?
Tuning allows you to change every conceivable parameter, so once you understand how it works, you can perfectly tune your car for any tests. In the new Forza Horizon 5, this guide will also help – the settings between games change slightly, and you do not have to learn everything again.
Preparatory phase
When it comes to tuning a car, there are a number of factors to consider. There are no universal settings for everyone. What is good for drifting is unlikely to be suitable for rallying, and vice versa. Here’s what you need to know before you get down to your car.
Define your goals and intentions
There is no point in tuning, wanting to get just a “cool car”. You need to immediately have a clear idea of what you want from your car.
And now is the right time to decide if it’s going to be a drift supercar, a cool racing car, a highway high-speed projectile, a quarter-mile racing legend, or a hill-breaking rally car.
Troubleshoot problems
Once you’ve already decided which machine you want to build, the next step is to figure out what’s wrong with it at the moment. Maybe your drift machine doesn’t have enough power to maintain a skid?
Or, for example, it lacks a steering angle, which is why you turn around when trying to make several difficult turns? Immediately decide what needs to be improved to fix the main problems in the first place.
If you can’t articulate the problem yourself, don’t be afraid to Google to figure out what exactly is wrong with the car at any stage of tuning. For example, queries like “the machine doesn’t skid” or “there’s not enough power in third gear” will almost certainly allow you to find a forum or thread on Reddit that explains what to do.
Explore ready-made tuning options
An in-game store can sometimes please you with several great options right out of the box, but as you improve your skills, you’ll likely strive for tuning according to your personal preferences.
By this point, you will realize that the preset options for tuning cars, unfortunately, are often useless. And since the contents of the settings file are locked, it is impossible to make even minimal edits.
On various forums and Reddit there are many ready-made tuning options, therefore, you can find there, for example, “drift for 350Z” and just implement them in your game, and then finalize it yourself.
If you can’t find such an option online, there are some great apps for Apple and Android smartphones to help you with this, like ForzaTune and QuickTune. There you can find great options to start with, but to reach your full potential, we still recommend refining them.
Turn off help
Before proceeding to the settings of the car, you need to configure the game itself. If the settings of the game are incorrect, then even with an ideal car for drifting, it will be difficult for you to turn the car sideways.
Braking – ABS off.
For maximum control over the car, it is better to turn off the ABS. If you want, you can still use it, but in real cars, ABS is rarely used for drifting, so it’s a great way to improve your braking skills.
Turning off the ABS will also allow you to brake better with your left foot, which will be extremely useful when you start playing with friends and other players later.
Control – Normal
There’s no right or wrong option here, it all comes down to personal preference, and more often than not, it’s the usual management. You can, of course, try to speed up the rotation of the steering wheel, but in most cases it will be more difficult to cope with drifting. It is worth trying both options to understand what suits you personally.
Traction control system – off.
You definitely don’t need that. Some may use it in races, but in drifting it will only interfere. A driving assistance system that won’t let you enter a skid is the last thing you need.
Stability control – off.
Like the traction control system, it is strictly forbidden for drifting. For beginners, we do not recommend either of these, as it will greatly interfere.
Gear shifting – manual or manual with clutch
For beginners, it is recommended to always use only a manual box from the very beginning of the game. Those with experience driving or drifting can try the manual clutch and see how comfortable it is.
You may think it’s pointless, but grip plays an important role in improving your drifting skills, and using it will make you a true professional over time.
If you’re completely new to driving, you can try starting with an automatic transmission, but it’s definitely not the best solution. Manual mode is recommended to be used always, because automation sometimes works strangely and can leave you in the wrong gear.
Trajectory – optional
Decide for yourself whether it will be useful at first. The trajectory of movement will not affect the course of the race. It just shows you exactly how the game advises you to pass the race track.
Remember that this is not necessarily the line you have to move along during a skid, but for beginners it can give an idea of how to calculate the speed in order to prepare in advance for entering the turn.
Damage and wear of tires – optional
It all depends on personal preference and plays a role in long races rather than drifting.
Although the tire wear feature adds realism to the game, but with it they overheat very quickly, and you will often have to change them, which will lead to an unnecessary waste of time.
Rewind – optional
When rewinding is enabled, it will be possible to turn back the clock after an error when entering a turn. If only real life everything was so easy!
Learn the basics of drifting
Look for drifting guides to make sure you know the basics. Most likely, at first you will not succeed even with a perfect car. However, our guide will tell you step by step how to drift properly in Forza Horizon 4!
Tuning in Forza Horizon 4
Finally, let’s deal with the car. Now that you have decided what exactly you plan to do with your car, we will tell you how each element of tuning will affect it.
At first, the process may seem too complicated, but once you understand the basics, you will come to an understanding of what exactly and how to do for a comfortable ride. Here, we’ll mainly focus on drift tuning, but discuss how the settings affect the behavior of the car as a whole.
Choosing a car
We hope that by this time you have already decided on the car that you plan to tune. It is worth choosing a car with a front-engine and rear-wheel drive, especially if you are a beginner. Of course, if you want, you can try to choose a car with a mid-/rear-engine layout, but note that they are often too fast and much more difficult to master.
Although in the long run, this is worth a try, as some of the best cars for drifting use a rear-engine layout. But it takes a lot of time and knowledge to refine them.
Initial improvements to the car
Engine. For simplicity, choose all the “racing” improvements, but do not give in to the temptation to chase the maximum possible power – 400-600 hp will be more than enough.
Undercarriage and control. It is recommended to put all racing suspension improvements.
Transmission. Here, too, all racing upgrades are needed.
Tires and wheels. Choose sports for more powerful cars and outdoor for cars with a weaker engine, but do not buy racing kits. Install the widest possible tires on the rear wheels for optimal grip, but do not change the front tires, or increase by one level if you want.
You may want to install large-diameter discs, but this is not necessary, you can leave the usual ones if you are satisfied with their appearance.
Supercharging. Turbocharging depends on your personal preference, but for beginners, it is recommended to use a powerful naturally aspirated/basic option.
Aerodynamics and appearance. Use what you think looks better, as drifting cars are barely affected.
Tuning
Now that the necessary power and handling improvements have been made to make it convenient to put the car into a skid and maintain drifting, it’s time to conduct a quick test drive of the car, testing it in action.
At this point, it’s worth taking some notes on what you think can be improved to know exactly what you want to focus on in further tuning.
Tires – the less pressure they have, the more grip they provide. This is true in real life as well. When the tires are flat, they have more contact with the ground. And while some may advise that high tire pressure is needed to reduce the grip of the rear of the car, this is not the case unless you are using a low-power car.
Usually, standard settings are guided by the grip necessary for optimal control. However, too much grip on the road surface makes drifting difficult. The optimal tire pressure for grip is usually considered to be 2.2 bar in warm weather. For drifting, we usually set 1.7 bar on the rear wheels and 1.9 bar on the front wheels. With a powerful engine, these figures should rise to an optimal level, about 2.2 bar after warming up.
As soon as you start burning the rubber on your drift car, the pressure rises, so we recommend that you monitor the telemetry while driving and make sure that it does not rise too high. If this happens, then you will most likely lose traction. So go back to the menu and adjust the settings.
Transmissions are often one of the most difficult elements of configuration. To get it right, you’ll probably have to go through trial and error. In drifting, the ideal technique is to constantly keep the engine speeds high without triggering the cut-off of the limiter, which will force you to slow down. On the cramped and narrow streets of Horizon 4, the 3rd and 4th gears will usually be optimal.
If during the test drive the arrow approaches the red sector too quickly, you need to adjust the acceleration setting. Now head back to the test drive and see how the changed gear shift works. Ideally, you need to achieve a constant rpm of about 1000 rpm by controlling the gas and not getting into the red sector.
If you are lucky, the problem will be solved by setting up the last transfer. If not, each gear will have to be customized to suit your needs. But do not make drastic changes, fine tuning is important here. Otherwise, after a while, you will have to start all over again.
If it turns out that some gear is stuck in the middle of the skid and there is not enough power, pull the acceleration slider slightly to the right to strengthen it. And if you get to the cutoff too quickly, then move it a little to the left. Setting up a transmission is a long journey of trial and error that will take patience and take some time. Once that’s over, you’ll learn the perfect drift pretty quickly.
Camber/Convergence – To begin with, it is very important to make sure that the suspension settings for drifting are chosen. It doesn’t hurt to double-check it again.
Camber – Both front and rear, you should always install a negative camber, and never use a positive one. Negative camber pulls the top of the wheel into the arch, which is what the wheels of the car should look like. With a positive camber, the top of the wheel will be pointed away from the car, and it looks terrible. Please never do that.
Negative camber is useful for keeping your car in a given direction, as well as for traction when skidding, because it allows you to increase traction with the road surface with fixed front wheels.
Camber is also a fine tuning. Try setting the front wheels to -5 degrees and the rear wheels to -2, and practice the test drive again. In snooze mode, turn on telemetry and check the camber while drifting your car. It is necessary to ensure that the angle is about 0 degrees, and the collapse does not go into positive zones.
Convergence – the greater the convergence in the front, the better for drifting, because it provides a more efficient steering angle. But it’s worth considering that it also makes it harder to drive when you’re not moving sideways, and can slow down drifting due to a change in the car’s turning angle.
It is recommended to set the convergence on the front wheels at 2 or 3 degrees and further adjust it only if you feel that the car turns to too large an angle.
The rear wheels don’t turn, so it’s different with them. The greater the convergence at the rear, the stronger the understeer and the longer the slide of the rear, and this will help to achieve high results in drifting. Try starting with an angle of about 1.5 degrees. For paired races, it is better to use 0-0.5 degrees, since accuracy is more important here.
Front castor – the front castor adjusts the position of the suspension shock absorber strut. The more the slider is shifted to the right, the more stable the car is, but if you twist the setting downwards, the car will become sharper in control.
To begin with, you can set it at 7 degrees – this is the most stable and predictable position. In the future, you can customize it according to your preferences.
Transverse stabilizers – It is usually recommended to install a soft stabilizer at the front and then gradually increase the stiffness until there is an ideal result.
The softer the rear stabilizer, the higher the grip, so it’s also a good idea to start with maximum softness and increase the stiffness if you find that the grip is too strong.
Springs – they are very important when the speed or direction of movement changes during skidding. If your springs are too soft, the car can completely saggle, so the meaning of their work is lost. When the springs are fully compressed, it is bad for both speed and stability.
On the other hand, if the springs are too stiff, they will not provide optimal weight transfer when entering a corner, which will reduce the car’s skid. If the front wheels slide too hard, try to soften the front suspension – often this simple solution helps.
Clearance – it is believed that drift cars should always be pressed to the ground, so it is recommended to underestimate it as much as possible. However, this is not always optimal for traction, so if necessary, you can raise the suspension and make the springs a little softer.
Many prefer to use a higher ground clearance in the front to compensate for the weight of the engine when braking. You could see this on real cars and in other games.
Depreciation – Rebound is responsible for how your car overcomes sudden bumps on the road, which is certainly not uncommon on British streets in Forza Horizon 4. By unscrewing the sliders of these settings, you will go through the irregularities more manageably. To begin with, you can take the rebound indicators from the ready-made setting.
Compression – for basic adjustment, initially set the stiffness to 50-70% and adjust more accurately after test runs.
Aerodynamics – when drifting, you are unlikely to develop a speed that requires modification of the aerodynamics of the car. But in theory, if you want to increase traction, then you need to strengthen the pressing of the rear of the car, and for controllability in the turn – the front. Of course, if these features are available.
Brake – the balance of braking force depends on personal preference in the optimal distribution of force between the front and rear wheels. Most drifters prefer the front balance, as it allows you to throw the car into a corner.
It is recommended to try different balance settings. Start with 100% front and bring it to about 40% until you find what works best for you.
Pressure – With abs turned off, the higher brake pressure allows you to enter and exit the skid more aggressively, so we recommend trying values in the range of 100 to 120% and choosing the most suitable one for your driving style.
Differential – for acceleration, a value of 90-100% is recommended, which provides skidding due to convenient and reliable locking of the wheels. Values below 80% should not be set.
Too low a value when braking can lead to excessive weight displacement and make the car unpredictable, as the wheels will lock too slowly. This can cause the machine to spin or fly away.
Start with 100% and gradually reduce the value to about 80-90% – you should feel that the car turns around and throws out of the skid due to too much engine power.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this guide will find everything you wanted to know about tuning gaming cars. A lot of work has been done to compile it. This includes the knowledge gained over many hours of playing, watching guides on YouTube and checking their results.
Moreover, we have considered the general principles, so the manual, in fact, is suitable for the new Forza Horizon 5, built on almost the same game mechanics. And if we missed something you’d like to know, write about it in the comments and we’ll be happy to update this guide.
Source: drifted.com
