My FH5 Log: The real Horizon Race-Off

With the seventh-generation Mustang and the Ford F-150 Raptor R already in every Forza Horizon 5 player's garage, the time has come for the real Horizon Race-Off to begin.

Throughout the Horizon Race-Off series update on FH5, players worldwide raced through different road and dirt tracks to gain access to these modern-day Blue Oval heroes. The pro-asphalt aimed for the all-new Mustang while the pro-offroad worked hard to get the F-150 Raptor R. As the goals were met, they've got the chance to try them both but the real question is, which one is the best?

Being an idiot savant myself, I've sent the Mustang and the F-150 on a best-of-three match to determine the winner. The first match will be...

The Airport Cross Country Circuit. This abandoned airfield is the Raptor's advantage because being Built Ford Tough, it will be smooth sailing for it. Let's roll the tape.

F-150 Raptor R - 1m08.585s

Ford Mustang '24 - 1m11.672s

So, the F-150 Raptor R wins Game 1 but there's still time for the Mustang to shine because Game 2 will be this.

The Lookout Circuit located outside the Horizon Rush site. This bone-shaped asphalt course will showcase the all-new Mustang's improved dynamics. Let's roll the tape.

F-150 Raptor R - 1m12.439s

Ford Mustang '24 - 1m05.566

The Mustang wins Game 2, making this match a stalemate. With both Blue Ovals won, it's time for the winner-take-all finale to determine which Ford is the best. Although it's hard to determine which venue will be, there's only one choice...

Race to the Horizon Mexico Festival site. Whichever the fastest Ford to arrive at the main festival gate is the winner. Think of it like the final duel on the game show Physical 100 but this is Forza Horizon 5. No rope-pulling, no pole-dropping, no limits. It's just two modern-day Fords the community worked hard to obtain throughout the Horizon Race-Off series update. Let the battle commence.

GO!

F-150 Raptor R - 3m11.408s

Ford Mustang '24 - 2m57.528s

The all-new 2024 Ford Mustang is the winner!

The Horizon Race-Off is finished, but having proved that cars like the Mustang and the F-150 are extremely debatable, rivalries will go on. Win or lose, they're all in this together.

Being pro-asphalt or pro-offroad, it makes no difference because in a game like Forza Horizon 5, ANYTHING GOES. That is the bottom line.

MY FH5 Log: THE S7AMPEDE

Having completed the Asphalt Racers' mission, all Forza Horizon 5 players who took part in the Horizon Race-Off series update earned themselves the keys to the all-new seventh-generation Ford Mustang.

Before getting excited to drive the 7th-gen 'stang, let's get to know more about what's known to be the last true muscle car of the new normal.

The seventh-generation Ford Mustang continues the muscle car's legendary story while being peppered with modern touches to adapt to the "new normal". 

Although similarly styled compared to its predecessor, the seventh-generation Mustang features two engine choices such as the 2.3L EcoBoost engine with Modular Power Cylinder, producing 315hp of power and 350lb-ft torque, and the fourth-generation 5.0L Coyote V8 engine that produces 486HP of horsepower and 418lb-ft of torque, not to mention the secret Remote Rev feature that allows you to rev the engine with your remote car key. All engines are mated to either a 10-speed automatic or a 6-speed manual gearbox.

While retaining the independent rear suspension and line lock from its predecessor, the seventh-generation Mustang features an updated MagneRide Damping System as well as selectable Electric Power-Assisted Steering with three settings. It even comes with the signature Drift Brake shaped like a conventional handbrake.

With its legendary performance, the seventh-generation Mustang is the last word in American performance. With its competitors gone extinct, this Mustang means forever even until the end of time itself.

The Mustang community has been demanding to have the seventh-generation Mustang featured in the game since it went on sale last year and now that it's here, just in time for the Mustang's 60th anniversary celebration, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate the seventh generation Mustang's arrival in the world of Forza. 

Although not the first, it's starting to feel at home in the game. It showed potential in Supercars, NASCAR, IMSA, and Formula Drift. Now, it plays a key role in FH5's Horizon Race-Off series update alongside the Ford F-150 Raptor R.

As I'm enjoying the all-new Mustang in the game, two uninvited guests are crashing the Mustang's party.

These uninvited guests are the 1967 Shelby GT500 from the game's Acceleration Car Pack, the classic muscle car popularized from the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds", while the other one is the prize car from the Horizon Race-Off Dry Season playlist, the 2003 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra, the one with the supercharged 4.6L Terminator V8 engine with 390hp of power. Both of these snake beaters have been highly demanded by Forza fanatics since the beginning of time.

The all-new Mustang is primed and ready to teach these "snake beaters" a lesson they will never forget in a one-lap time attack around festival grounds. Roll the tape.

And now, the results...

Shelby GT500 '67 - 1m30.073s

Mustang SVT '03 - 1m27.187s

Ford Mustang '24 - 1m19.730s

Looks like Kikay Matsing ate the twin snakes for tea. Snake Eater.

Built for norm-breakers breaking dullness, boredom, and cliche, the all-new seventh-generation Mustang is the wake-up call for those ready to get up and feel the freedom, full send. 

With its aggressive, sleek, and chiseled design worthy to be called beautiful, as well as its sound that gets your heart racing, if you have the urge to drive before driving the car itself, it's easy to prove that you have Mustang in your blood. Just cause.

Now that the all-new seventh-generation Ford Mustang and the Ford F-150 Raptor R finally gathered, the real Horizon Race-Off begins. Which one stands tall? Find out soon.

My FH5 Log: SCARY FAST

Having proved that being Pro-Offroad is better than being Pro-Asphalt, all Forza Horizon 5 players who took part in the Horizon Race-Off series update earned themselves the keys to the scary fast off-roader, the brand-new Ford F-150 Raptor R.

Before riding shotgun with this scary fast off-roader, let's get to know more about the ultimate F-150.

The Ford F-150 Raptor R is the most powerful production off-road vehicle that Ford has ever manufactured. It has a supercharged 5.2L V8 engine that generates 700 horsepower and 640 foot-pounds of torque. The engine is coupled with a 10-speed automatic transmission.

The F-150 Raptor R has a monstrous performance, but that is not all. It comes with 37-inch BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires that were optional in the standard V6-powered Raptor. It also has Fox Live Valve shocks and recalibrated coil springs to handle the vehicle's monstrous performance.

The Ford F-150 Raptor R is the offroad equivalent of the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing from several moments ago. You take something cool but dreary from the start and make it extreme enough to prove its worth. By jamming the cool but dreary F-150 Raptor with the V8 engine from the Mustang GT500, the R transformed the Raptor into an off-road muscle car, making every day like that bad guy from Mad Max said "a lovely day". WHAT A LOVELY DAY!

To prove the F-150 Raptor R's offroad dominance, it's time to take on its pasts in the middle of the Baja Circuit. The ideal scenario to demonstrate its scary-fast offroad capability that boldly goes where no off-roader has gone before.

With three generations of F-150 Raptor lined up and my dietary intake full of sweet and tangy desserts, my own Operation Desert Storm is underway. Let's see how much the F-150 Raptor has evolved from the SVT original to the scary-fast R. Roll the tape.

And now the results...

F-150 SVT Raptor - 1m38.482s

F-150 Raptor - 1m34.561s

F-150 Raptor R - 1m28.655s

Based on my experiment, it will take about ten seconds for the F-150 Raptor to evolve from the original SVT one based on the 12th generation model to the scary fast R based on the 14th generation model.

700 horsepower, 640ft-lb of torque, 37-inch tires, and Fox Live Valve shocks. This is the Ford F-150 Raptor R and it is SCARY FAST.

You're glad to experience something scary fast from the moment you got one for supporting the Offroad Racers' mission in the Horizon Race-Off. 

Let's wait for the Asphalt Racers' choice, the all-new seventh-generation Mustang, to make its entrance in a few moments. When the time comes, the real Horizon Race-Off begins.

In the meantime, let's all enjoy Ford's SCARY FAST off-roader like we're in the middle of a Rated R movie.

The Ford F-150 Raptor R. SCARY FAST.

My FH5 Log: Junkyard Dogs

The Forza Horizon 5 American Automotive series update is littered with old-school American cars out from the junkyard and into the Horizon Mexico playground, a swarm of flies attracting a cesspool of vintage American cars.

As the American Automotive series update is wrapping up, let's check out the cesspool of old-school American cars that littered through the Horizon Mexico playpen.

The Wet Season playlist brought us the fifth-generation Plymouth Belvedere, the only model to come with the 426 Chrysler Hemi Engine and the one that scored Plymouth's podium sweep at the 1964 NASCAR race in Daytona, with one of them driven by the legendary Richard Petty.

The Storm Season playlist brought us the first-generation Pontiac Firebird, the first chapter of Pontiac's equivalent of the Chevrolet Camaro, as well as the second-generation Chevrolet Nova, in Super Sport trim with the Turbo-Fire 327 cu in V8 engine producing a power output of 350hp while mated exclusively with a 4-speed MT.

The Dry Season playlist brought us the Pontiac GTO "The Judge". Known for its funky logo and stripe decals, The Judge is powered by a 6.6L V8 Ram Air 3 engine that produces over 361HP of power output while mated to a Hurst shifter, heavy-duty suspension, wide tires, and a rear spoiler. It is the ultimate sports spec car made before the GTO was laid to rest.

Lastly, the Hot Season playlist brought us the fourth-generation Lincoln Continental luxury sedan, the first in the Continental lineage to feature suicide doors.

I've sent these junkyard dogs on a short trip through four new sprint races introduced in the American Automotive series update; the Línea Costera Sprint, the Aeródromo Sprint, the Marigold Sprint, and the Vista Del Mar Sprint. These four new sprint races will serve as the litmus test for these American vintage cars to flex their muscles as they scat through the competition in style. Want to see these dogs in action? Let's roll the tapes...

What do you think? Do these scavengers make you fall in love with old cars? I bet you are because your gut tells you to have fun with these junkyard dogs fresh from being junkyard scrap and into the Horizon Mexico sandbox but wait, there's more.

As it turns out, the vintage prize cars from the American Automotive update weren't the only stray dogs littering around the Mexican landscape. In fact, there's one junkyard dog to end them all...

What you're looking up here is the DeBerti Shop Rod, which is included in the game's American Automotive DLC Pack. Based on the 1961 Ford Econoline, it's been stripped off, lowered, made it right-hand-drive, and jammed with a Coyote engine paired to a Reid racing 4L80-E transmission with an ATD reverse manual valve body, producing 850hp of power output.

I got to sample it on an oval track to see if the Shop Rod from DeBerti is the hot rod in a van body. Let's roll the tape.

It's a hot rod, alright. A hot rod in a van's body.

This latest cesspool of old-school American cars proves that a game like Forza never stops jamming old cars to younger players who never heard of them. There are Gen Z players out there and showing them old cars is like slapping dog poo on their faces. In the end, this is how they roll.

When sleeping dogs lie, they'll come back to cause havoc another day and these junkyard dogs proved their point. We can expect more junkyard dogs littering around Horizon Mexico even before 2023 ends and 2024 begins and what a living nightmare our Gen Z players will experience.

The fun's just getting started...

My FH5 Log: Bronto Pronto

When Forza Horizon 5 was launched two years ago, the sixth-generation Ford Bronco became one of the stars of the show, making it the ideal offroader to traverse through Mexico's toughest places.

Now though, things have changed since the beginning of the Horizon Mexico adventure, and with the success of the sixth-generation Ford Bronco, the Blue Oval pushed the revived Bronco beyond the limit with this...

What you're looking up here...

...is the badder version of the Ford Bronco. Say hello to the Ford Bronco Raptor, the offroader that I've obtained from the Forza Horizon 5 Dia De Muertos Dry Season Playlist for 20 points.

First and foremost, what is the Ford Bronco Raptor?

The Ford Bronco is an off-road-inspired vehicle that has been a hit with both enthusiasts and regular motorists alike. In 2022, the Bronco received a significant update with the Raptor variant, which brings a range of powerful and advanced features that set it apart from its predecessors.

The first-ever Ford Bronco Raptor is powered by a 3.0L EcoBoost V6 engine that produces 418HP of power and 440lb-ft of torque. This is paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission that allows for impressive acceleration and high-performance driving. The Bronco Raptor is armed with HOSS 4.0 with FOX Live Valve 3.1 internal bypass semi-active dampers and specially developed 37-inch BFGoodrich all-terrain tires.

Although some would say "This isn't its final form", the Bronco Raptor pushes the reborn Bronco past its limits, and when taken to its natural habitat, the Raptor's power comes alive as its off-road-ready performance and dynamics will claw through uncharted paths like bread and butter. Are you digging this, players?

Anyway, to see if the Bronco Raptor is the superior version of the sixth-generation Ford Bronco, let's pit these two horses at the Horizon Baja area for a quick lap comparison. Let's roll the tape.

And now the results...

New Bronco - 1m35.112s

Bronco Raptor - 1m33.594s

What a close call. A near-two-second gap between the two Broncos! Yep, this isn't even its final form but the Bronco Raptor sure is potent compared to the normal Bronco.

The Bronco and the Bronco Raptor are both amazing, offering a lot of grip and stability on any terrain but overall, the Bronco Raptor is an impressive vehicle that offers a unique blend of style, substance, and power. Whether you're looking to tackle rugged terrain or simply crave the thrill of driving a true off-road-inspired vehicle, the Ford Bronco Raptor is the perfect choice for you.

I was going to conclude my word on the Bronco Raptor but...I have other ideas with this potent offroader so...watch this space.