FH4 Subaru BRZ, Toyota GT86; FH5 Toyota GR86

And some observations about Forza aero.

In the interests of research, I did some builds of these cars (RWD) in B and A class.

The B-class versions are drivable, but in spite of the BRZ and the GT86 being same-actress-different-hair, the former had worse handling through corners, being prone to wheel spin and sliding. The curious thing here is that the weight distribution of the BRZ was 54% to the GT86’s 53%, but that 1% seemed to make all the difference. Overall, the cars are too chunky and too slow in B class to do more than struggle, but I was going for handling builds as I want to be able to tune these things.

The GR86 has even less scope for upgrading to the top of B class, but in performance, is much like the GT86 in this class.

The A-class build of the BRZ was much like the B-class one, being terrible through corners as it was still prone to wheel spin and sliding. The A-class GT86 continued to have superior handling, which got me curious as to why there was such a difference. I rebuilt the BRZ with race weight reduction, and there was the answer – better weight distribution. As I said above, I was surprised that a 1% shift in the distribution could make such a difference, but it did, and the BRZ was suddenly much like the GT86.

With this in mind, the A-class build of the GR86 started with race weight reduction, which took the weight distribution down to 52%. The handling was much like the GT86’s in FH4, with good handling through corners. The car isn’t bulletproof, but on a keyboard, you can drive it was a fair amount of confidence without resorting to AWD. It gets off the line without spinning its wheels or waggling its arse. Aero, yes, and a longish first gear.

The Toyotas are all right in B class, and all three cars are decent to drive in A class, but definitely need race weight reduction. I might try the BRZ in B class again to see whether I can iron out the kinks there, and try the Toyotas in A class without aero to see whether they’re still as grounded.

Forza aero.

I assume YouTubers are programmed to say “Ugly Forza aero”. Where is the nuance, children? Actually, Forza aero isn’t ugly, but it’s often inappropriate. Case in point, the 911s. Some of them have tunable aero, but others don’t. The Porsche wing is set on quite tall struts and works stylistically with the cars. The Forza aero struts are too short, making the wing look wrong on a 911. And just to add insult to injury, the 2021 911 GT3 has tunable aero, but Forza aero improves the stats. Seriously, game?!

Although the wings in Most Wanted (2005) were purely cosmetic, the game had a larger range of them than Horizon 4 or 5. GT7 has – I see from the videos – interchangeable wings and end plates (and struts?) The problem with Horizon 4 and 5 is that they do have a range of wings (just look at the GJSCs), but most of them can’t be tuned, which is fine for posers, but not for racers who like to tweak and tune their cars.

Is FH6 likely to rectify the lack of variety and limited tunability of aero parts? I won’t be surprised if PGG will again claim there will be more aero, but it still won’t make all stock wings tunable, or third-party aero.

In short, Forza aero isn’t ugly, but it is inappropriate where it doesn’t fit with the style of the car.