The hot season has appeared in Mexico and the world of Forza Horizon 5, and that is quite appropriate, given that September has turned out to be a scorcher so far!
While I sit in my air conditioned office, just looking at the heat, it appears that Playground Games are ready to bring the virtual heat to the streets of Mexico, with a whole new bunch of events and things to try our hands at with the Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges for Series 24 Spring.
Shall we see what is in store this week, as Series 24 draws to a close? And for the last time, ciao!
Part 1: Weekly Car Challenge – Four Leaf Clover
As the name might lead you to realise, depending on how much of a car nerd you are, the subject this week is the Alfa Romeo Guilia Quadrifoglio, which literally means “four leaf clover” in Italian.
I have to admit, I do have a soft spot for this car, as I think they are one of the better looking saloons out there. That said, I still remember all the trouble my grandad (RIP, grandad) had with his Alfa 164, and I’ve never owned one.
If you don’t have one in your garage, it will cost you a mere 120,000 credits from the Autoshow.
Chapter 1 – Romeo and Guilia
Get in your new car, take it for a spin. Step one complete!
Chapter 2 -Gift Horse
The engine in this car is apparently derived from a Ferrari powerplant, so now we need to win a drag race. Simples!
Stock trim is fine if you take to the Mexico Festival strip.
Chapter 3 – Speed with Style
Now, as the car has apparently got carbon fibre bodywork, we need to gain three stars at the speed zones. Yep, not following the logic, but okay…
Choose whichever takes your fancy and zoom through.
Chapter 4 – Cuore Sportivo
Finally, as this car seems to have an insatiable desire for its own back tyres, we need to go to a drift zone and rack up 50,000 points.
I’ve kept the car stock through all these steps, and I’m not changing now!
And with that, the weekly car challenge is complete, and we are five points nearer to the final cars on offer in Series 24.
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…
Let’s jump straight in and see what tunes I can offer to help with The Trial, EventLabs, Championships and more.
The Trial – Rush Hour
The Trial this week restricts us to Italian Modern Supercars, and of the list available, I went with a Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 from 2014. The share code is : 101467248.
Not that I’m predictable, you understand!
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 Ferrari 365 GTB4 will be yours as a reward. Nice and old!
Eventlab 1 – PINHEAD LARRY06 Presents – Playa Azul Midtown Update
For this Eventlab, we need to use an Italian Hypercar, tuned to a maximum of S1 Class 900, and so I went with a stock Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster, just for a little bit of a change!
Apart from using it last week, of course – still, let’s save pennies where we can, hey?
There is clearly a lot of work gone into this track, and it all flows pretty well too. A good mix of high and low speed corners makes this a challenge.
Stay away from the edges though, as random walls stick out a bit.
The prize for completing this race is a Ferrari F355 Berlinetta.
Eventlab 2 – HSKMEETS Presents Hells Dock Circuit
For this Eventlab, we need to use an Italian RWD car, to a maximum of A Class 800. Since every car I ever tune has AWD, I guess it’s a stock car for me, and the choice is a Ferrari F40. Go big or go home, right?
This course quickly devolves into a mess of sharp corners and not much fun. Weirdly, when I managed to turn the car over, I was reset back outside the course with 97% complete, and couldn’t finish the race. Somewhat frustrating. Not one of my favourite tracks this one.
A Super Wheelspin will be yours for completing the course though. How lucky!
PR Stunt 1 – Speed Zone – Desierto Viviente
This week the tuning limit for these events is S2 Class 998, and the class of car is Italian. Just Italian!
This is an off road course, and the average we need to achieve is 100 mph, so I went with a Lamborghini Urus. The share name is S2Urus under my GT, Red620Ti. AWD should cope, right?
A Super Wheelspin? It’ll do.
PR Stunt 2 – Speed Zone – Cordillera
Off Road again, and so I stuck with the same Lamborghini from above. The target this time is an average of 120 mph, and so keep it pinned and hope!
Another Super Wheelspin awaits.
PR Stunt 3 -Trailblazer – Granjas
Same class of car, but now really off road, so I stuck with the Urus to do it. We need to still have 30 seconds on the clock when we reach the end, so mind those trees!
Yet another Super Wheelspin to add to the pile.
Seasonal Championship 1 – Retro Style
We need to take an Abarth 595 from 1968, tune it to the heady heights of D Class 500, and then go racing. Or possibly ambling.
My tune is called 595D, and should be located under my GT, Red620Ti. This has a heady 60 bhp, so go steady!
For winning outright solo, or best two out of three in a convoy, we can take home a Maserati Levante.
Seasonal Championship 2 – Hyper Italia
Now we need an Italian Hypercar to go racing in. The tuning class is S1 900 and so I went with a Huracan LP610-4, with share code : 101467248.
We can walk away with another prize for winning, a Lamborghini Huracan. 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 some jolly cooperation to have a crack at! We’re being spoiled…
Photo Challenge – #Trackday
We need a Pagani this week, and we need to take it to the Horizon Mexico Festival site. 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 reward? A new emote, the Running Man Challenge. Can’t wait.
Treasure Hunt – A Lucky Find
This week, the clue reads “Discover the four leaf clover on the highway, with a car sporting a badge of the same design”, so I’m guessing we need the Guilia from the weekly car challenge.
I randomly get this while driving down the highway doing the speed zone, so knock yourselves out!
The location of the chest is shown below.
The chest contains 100 FP.
Horizon Tour – Co-op Championships
This week, we are invited to play with some randoms off of the internet in a series of five races – three against driverdots, and two point to point against the rest of our team. Simply complete a championship to win big!
As it can be any class or type of racing, just pick your best car.
The big prize? Three whole points to the weekly total.
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, right?
However you choose to play, should you survive long enough, the new Forzalink phrase will be yours “Game Over Yeahhhhhh”.
That won’t be annoying at all.
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 – Speed Trap – Nexus View
S2 Class again, but this time we need to use an Extreme Track Toy to hit over 210mph, which is a big ask. I used a Bugatti Divo, share code: 169915677 to do it, and pinned the throttle and hoped! Same as last week, are they getting lazy?
Approaching from the left and using the loop saw me do this easily.
A Super Wheelspin is your reward.
Seasonal Championship -Cliff Racers
Just an S2 Class 998 car is required this week, no restrictions. Step forward the Koenigsegg Agera RS, with share code : 109282883.
Winning all the races, or two out of three in a convoy, will get us a new emote, Spin.
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 – Speed Zone – Crateres Secos
We need to use yet another Italian car here, but this time tuned to A Class 800. The target is more than 72mph on average.
I went with the same Lancia Delta I used for the weekly challenge last week, and this time the share code is : 524240586.
The prize is another Super Wheelspin.
Seasonal Championship – Peak Performance
For this series of races, we need an A Class 800 Italian car Now, as I tune most of my cars to be AWD, they seem to qualify, and so I went with a Maserati GT-S, with share code : 312990331.
For winning out, we can take away a new and shiny white snake helmet. I assume not Whitesnake the band?
With Series 24 pretty much complete you should have picked up enough points for the reward cars – the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ and Ferrari 512 Testa Rossa.
If you need a few extra points to get you over the line, the monthly Rivals challenges are here too. Grab some clean laps around the Horizon Mexico circuit, or complete a clean run of the Volcan Sprint route to earn 4 points apiece. Last chance people if you haven’t done them already.
Grab enough points and Series 24 Spring will also see you gifted with the exclusive Abarth 124 from 2017 for 20 points, and for 40 points we can get an Lancia 037, and again an exclusive car double header.
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.
So what do you think of our tunes and cars? Have they helped you out a little? Do you have something better?
Let us know in the comments. It is Series 25 next week, and this is all to do with the Eventlab, which as I’m sure you know by now is by far my favourite part of the whole game…
