It is hard to believe that we have reached Series 25 Summer of the Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges in Forza Horizon 5, especially when we began this series of articles way back in Series 3.
But it’s true and here we are with some new cars and tunes to help you complete the latest events and challenges with ease. And with a new Series comes a new theme. This time it is my favourite bit of Forza Horizon 5, the Eventlabs, that take centre stage. Event Lab 2.0, no less!
However, much more to my interest are the new cars and new races that are bound to be added through this season.
Lets bound into the wet season of Series 25 – that’ll be summer – and see what we can find, shall we?
Part 1: Weekly Car Challenge – Elite Elise
As the name might lead you to realise, the subject of the weekly car challenge this week is the mighty Lotus Elise, the Series 1 to be exact.
Built around Colin Chapman’s mantra of “simplify, and add lightness”, the Elise quickly gained a reputation as one of the best handling cars in the world. Let’s go for a spin!
If you don’t have one in your garage, it will cost you a mere 81,000 credits from the Autoshow.
Chapter 1 – Bespoke Beauty
Get in your new car, take it for a spin. Step one complete!
Chapter 2 -Refining the Formula
Now we need to win three stars at speed traps, either in one go or over a few runs. Keeping things stock, I chose to do a few runs at a low speed.
Chapter 3 – Simplify, then add Lightness
See? Told you it was a motto!
Now we have to beat any rival ghost in the car. I think Drag Races will be easiest, and pick the worst ghost you can!
I had to tune it a tad to do this, so look for “Drag” as a name in conjunction with my name, Red620Ti. Crazy make up and wig optional!
Chapter 4 – It’s in the Name
Apparently, this car is often referred to as the Elise ‘99 (I’ve never heard it called that) and so we have to hold a speed of 99 mph or more for 25 seconds. Hit the highway!
And with that, the weekly car challenge is complete, and we are five points nearer to the new reward cars on offer in Series 25.
Part 2: Weekly Challenges, Championships and PR Stunts
With that out of the way, let’s have a look at what new delights await us on the playlist this week. Fancy a race or a PR Stunt? You’ve come to the right place! There may even be a Treasure Hunt to look forward to… There’s certainly a Photo Challenge – what would we do without those?
Let’s jump straight in and see what tunes I can offer to help with The Trial, 3 (!) EventLabs, Championships and more.
The Trial – It’s Super Effective
The Trial this week restricts us to Modern Supercars, and a tuning ceiling of S1 Class 900. This sounds like a job for the trusty Audi R8 V10, and the share code is : 646685057.
Mix it up a bit after all those Italian cars, eh?
Hopefully you will be lucky in finding some Trial friends intent on racing…
Should we manage to win two out of three races, a lovely Porsche 918 will be yours as a reward. Mmmm, German!
Eventlab 1 -UNWORTHYPLEB Presents – Dunas Rallycross Circuit
Lets see what this new Eventlab has brought out of the woodwork, shall we?
We need an A Class 800 Modern Rally or Rally Monster car, and of the choices on offer, I went with the #4 Ford Focus, in stock trim. As usual, no point tuning in a one horse race! Except, for once, it isn’t, as there are other racers…
I enjoyed this track, being a sucker for a rally style race, and the course flows with a dirt surface, largely. Many handbrakes, much powersliding!
The prize for completing this race is a Subaru WRX from 2004.
Eventlab 2 -JOH CEE Presents Scinaty Part 1 Oval
For this Eventlab, we need to use an Extreme Track Toy tuned to S2 Class 998, and again, I went with a stock Aerial Atom 500 V8. MMM, slidey!
An oval, in a tunnel, where you have to drive up the wall at one section to get around? I didn’t like this one at all.
A new emote, Kick-ups, will be yours for completing the course though. How lucky!
Eventlab 3 – ESGRUMPY Presents Horizon Mexico Rally (Short)
Another Eventlab this week, how fortunate we are?
This time we need to use a Classic or Retro Rally car, tuned to B Class 700, and I went with a stock Lancia Delta Integrale Evo. Save the pennies, right?
Apart from the ridiculously complicated corner near the beginning, this is another good course, with tricky hairpins to slide around. As Meatloaf famously sang, two out of three ain’t bad…
The prize for completion of this one is a Super Wheelspin.
PR Stunt 1 – Speed Trap – Autopista
This week the tuning limit for these events is C 600, and the car has to be a a Nissan 240Sx.
As such, hitting 160MPH is going to be interesting, which is the target for this one! Look for my tune name “240C” along with my GT, Red620Ti. A massive V8 on stock tyres?What could possibly go wrong…
A Super Wheelspin? It’ll do.
PR Stunt 2 – Speed Trap – Estadio
The target this time is 130 mph, and so is the choice of car – limited to the 240Sx from above.
Another Super Wheelspin awaits.
PR Stunt 3 -Speed Trap – Calle Principal
Again, a target of 150mph and the same car needs the same tune I recommended at the start. Built up area makes it trickier, however.
Yet another Super Wheelspin to add to the pile. How many of these are we having?
Seasonal Championship 1 – Y2K
We need to take a car, any car, from the 2000’s and tune it up to A Class 800.
I chose a BMW M3-GTR from 2002, and the share code is : 198385025. Remember to paint it like the hero car from Need For Speed Most Wanted!
For winning outright solo, or best two out of three in a convoy, we can take home a Mercedes SLS AMG.
Seasonal Championship 2 – Retro Active
The class and car this time is Retro Rally, and B Class 700. I chose a Toyota Celica ST185 for my steed, and the share code is 993344317.
We can walk away with another prize for winning, a Nissan GT-R R32 from 1993. Godzilla itself. Great.
Part 3: Other Challenges
There’s always more to get involved in than just the racing, and that is the case again this week.
There’s the Photo Challenge and Treasure hunt, alongside the good old Eliminator.
Photo Challenge – #SPACEPROJECT
We need the AMG One this week, and we need to take it to the Gran Telescopio on top of the mountain. Get snap happy and Bob will be your mother’s brother.
I’ll post the location and my artistic effort below. Can you do better? I’d really like to see some of the photos you guys are taking, if you can organise that? Hit us up on the socials by hunting for TheXboxHub. The response last week was extremely underwhelming. You can do better surely?
The reward? A new Forza Link phrase, “To the Moon”.
Treasure Hunt – Horizon Rush Treasure Stunt
This week, the clue reads “Head east from the Horizon Rush Festival site along Copper Canyon to find the hidden Treasure Stunt course!”
Of course, following instructions is pretty easy, and the course that we have to complete is exactly where the instructions say it is. And just to make things better, we have to complete the course to get the treasure chest, as it is on the last ramp.
The location of the chest is shown below. (And by extension the location of the stunt course)
The chest contains 100,000 credits.
Horizon Arcade Mini Games
As is usual at this time in the season, we have to complete all three rounds in a Horizon Arcade series. Be it Drift, Speed, Wreckage, Chaos or Air, pick your fave and have a good time.
Drift is clearly the best, though. Yes? YES?
The Eliminator – Battle Royale
Now we have to take part in the Eliminator, and we have to survive into the top 30 of the playerbase. My favoured tactic is to drive to where no one else is, and wait it out – if no one is nearby, you can’t be knocked out, right?
However you choose to play, should you survive long enough, the new Forzalink phrase will be yours “Welcome to The Eliminator”.
Part 4: Hot Wheels Events
If you have the Hot Wheels expansion and are an Elite Level player, then you get to enjoy a couple of extra events.
Seasonal PR Stunt – Drift Zone – Waterfall
This time we are sliding about, and we are restricted to a BMW M3 from 1997, and a tuning limit of A Class 800.
As a rule, the Beemers are quite slidey, so a bit of tweaking made a share code called M397 under my GT, Red620Ti. We need to score 125,000 drift points which should be easy enough.
A Super Wheelspin is your reward.
Seasonal Championship – Intensity.Driven
Just an Aston Martin is needed this week, and we can only tune to A Class 800, which narrows the field somewhat. I went with a DB11 and the share code is 723867622. One of the prettiest cars I have tuned.
Winning all the races, or two out of three in a convoy, will get us a new car, an Aston Martin DBS SL ‘19.
Part 5: Rally Adventure Events
The Rally Adventure expansion brings even more events to the roster and provided you are already a Horizon Badlands champion, you’ll get access to…
Seasonal PR Stunt – Drift Zone – Tierres Verdes
Same car, same limit, same score – copy and paste is alive and well. Use the same Beemer from above and keep sliding!
The prize is another Super Wheelspin.
Seasonal Championship -Turn Up the Heat
For this series of races, we need a C Class 600 Retro Hot hatch, and given that this is an offroad race, I went with a stock Honda Civic Type R from 2004, which is at the tuning limit without any messing about. Look after the pennies…
For winning out, we can take away a Mitsubishi Lancer GSR from 2008.
With Series 25 just getting started, you can start saving up for the monthly cars – this Series they are a BMW 850CSi for 80 points, a new car to the game. For 160 pts it is a Porsche 911C2 GW, a hard to find set of wheels.
If you need a few extra points to get you over the line, the monthly Rivals challenges are here too. And they seem to be multiplying, with two featuring EVs and two featuring good old internal combustion. These are, for EV’s – Baja California Trail and Herencia Cross Country Circuit. For those cars with proper engines, they are – Lookout Circuit and Ruta Norte. 4 points are on offer if you return clean laps for each one, so worth having a go at!
Grab enough points and Series 25 Summer will also see you gifted with the exclusive BMW M3 ‘21 for 20 points. Additionally, for 40 points we can get an M_B AMG GT, a hard to find car, but sadly not exclusive.
To enjoy these events in the Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges, you’ll need a copy of Forza Horizon 5. It’s available on Game Pass, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and on the cloud via mobile. The Xbox Store will sort you out with a download.
Let us know in the comments if I have helped, hindered or missed the mark with these tunes, and good luck in Series 25! It’s going to be a long one with those Eventlabs…
I Love this segment and look forward to it every week. The light-hearted humor mixed in with real-helpful suggestions are a perfect read. This makes FH5 so much more enjoyable. Please keep up the excellent work!