Hot on the heals of my review for the January Jalopniks the latest Forza car pack has dropped on to my Xbox. American Le Mans Series! This is a great title but a bit of a sad commentary on the state of American car design because only 3 of the 10 cars are genuinely American and only 1 of those is a racing car. The only 2 genuine Le Mans contenders come from Europe & Japan, although the Audi was developed by Sport North America and it is the current Le Mans 24hr Champion! As you would expect from the title there are a few more high spec vehicles in this pack than usual however they have still covered the full range of car levels and with a bit of a secondary focus on heavy FR V8's.

The first cab off the rank is the 2011 Holden HSV GTS. It seems an unnecessary inclusion as the HSV w/427 is a slightly superior vehicle and available in the main game however knowing New Zealanders there will always be a demand for the latest HSV. My first run out in the World Tour saw a respectable time in the top 13% of B racers on Indianapolis with the car only at a rating of B460. After shedding some weight and upgrading the tire compound the car came together nicely at B500. It still behaves like a high powered front-rear V8 but is just a little bit more nimble. Also the car performs wonderful power slides that are easily controllable and you can feel when they are about to slide out allowing you to either push it out or ease it back in.

The Dodge SRT8 Rampage and the 95 Ford Mustang Cobra R are the other 2 similar vehicles. The Dodge was a bit of a letdown, despite its aggressive looks (and it looks better in motion as you can't see the ugly red wheels) it's a very average drive. They have also set up a Rivals challenge where the goal is beat the time set by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (who is the "designer? of this car and the current UFC champion) but in a moment of blinding stupidity you use the standard SRT8... Sure I get not everyone will have the car pack but when you've stumped up the entry fee of 560msp why not reward those who do with this bit of extra fun? Although in the defence of Turn10 they have done exactly this with the Audi R18TDI.

The other vehicle I'm lumping into the V8 round up is the Ford Mustang Cobra R and this is my favourite of the V8's. The car is good to drive and in stock format punches well about its weight. At comparable ratings I enjoyed driving the Mustang more than the Dodge or Holden and it has a huge selection of body parts to upgrade so you can really style it to your tastes. Some may not like the older style of Mustang but I have a soft spot from my yoof for the mid 90's Mustang Mach 3 and so the styling similarities appealed to me... And at the end of the day a big part of the fun of Forza is the way cars look.

The odd one out in this car pack is the VW Polo GTI however if there is anything that VW does well its hot small hatches. With the Golf growing fat in middle age the Polo GTI has snuck in as the new contender and the Forza version of the Polo GTI is excellent! It ripped strips off the opposition and was easy to control and rewarding to drive into the bargain. Sure it looks like a VW (for good or bad depending on your view) but I wouldn't be surprised to see it climbing the leader boards for the low spec cars. One car I have seen climbing the leader boards already is the Mazda 787B. This was always going to be a contender for the top spots and there is a reason it regularly appears in Forza & Gran Turismo.  

The 787B is one of two top spec R1 racers in this pack and to my mind they represent 2 ends of the driving scale for R1 cars. If we accept the realism of Forza's driving physics (which we do after driving the Civic last month) it is easy to see why the 2011 #2 Audi Sport North America R18 TDI is the current Le Mans champion as it is easy to drive fast. It is almost comfortable to tear around the track and doesn't feel like it's constantly on the brink of ripping your face off.  I am a fairly poor R1 driver, they really push my skills to the limit and to be able to drive an R1 racer and feel comfortable was a novelty. I immediately resolved to save up my 2.5million credits and buy one for the career mode and then I drove the Mazda 787B... This is not easy to drive but boy is it fast! My best laptime around Hockenheim was 3 seconds quicker in the 787B then in the Audi and even then it wasn't a clean lap. It definitely isn't the prettiest machine but it makes an incredible noise and is frighteningly quick. I'm sure I could easily cut more time off that lap as I was underestimating its breaking ability. So now I have a dilemma about which R1 car to buy...

One car I had no hesitation to buy was the Alfa Romeo 155 QF. I have wonderful memories of watching the BTCC back in the mid 90's and whilst I loathed the Alfa the chance to take it for a spin in Forza was too good to pass up and of course there are plenty of nutters enthusiasts in the Forza community who have made replica paint jobs so before you know it I'm blasting around reliving the rough and ready nature of the BTCC (with rough and ready driving style to match). In its stock mode the 155 won comfortably around Infineon against higher spec cars but to be fair I only did one race before upping the stakes. At A600 it was brilliant, hugely fast particularly under acceleration and after an engine swap I took it all the way up to R800 and it still won! Although against purebred racers its poor handling ability started to become the dominate characteristic. ?As usual I didn't spend very much time playing with settings because there are always too many other cars to race but it was great fun.

So overall I liked this pack more than the January Jalopnik and I?d struggle to pick my favourite (probably the 155 QF for grin factor). It provides a more interesting range of vehicles and although the cars are high value and I won't be able to add many of them to my career garage The Audi R18 is worth it if you struggle with R1 race cars and the Mazda 787B is worth it if you are chasing a top 1% place on the leader boards.

Full car listing:
2011 #2 Audi Sport North America R18 TDI
2011 Panoz #050 Panoz Racing Abruzzi
2010 Dodge Quinton ?Rampage? Jackson Challenger SRT8
1991 Mazda #55 Team Mazdaspeed 787B
2011 Bentley Platinum Motorsports Continental GT
1986 #2 Audi Sport quattro S1
1992 Alfa Romeo 155 Q4
1995 Ford Mustang Cobra R
2011 Holden HSV GTS
2011 Volkswagen Polo GTI

Last month saw the release of the January Jalopnik car pack for Forza Motorsport 4.  Its a fairly random collection of vehicles with the draw card for most people being the Pagani Huayra. I took each of the cars through its paces with some fairly surprising results.  I am a competent driver usually posting Leader board times in the top 30% with all driving aids turned off.  Where possible I took each of the cars around a track or two with no modifications and then played around with them upgrading & changing settings but sadly I didn't have sufficient in game credits to buy the Huayra or the Lola.  I was pleasantly surprised to be offered the #08 Gallardo as a level increase prize which is a higher than expected level of integration between the car pack & the main game.  If not specifically mentioned here you can assume each of the vehicles was average/appropriate for its style and rating.

One of the stand out vehicles is the 2012 Honda Civic Si.  It shows just how good the attention to detail, car dynamics and physics are in this game.  The second it pulled sensibly away from the line I realised what I was in for and each corner was met with grudgingly slow understeer.  I felt just like I do in real life driving my Toyota Corolla in rush hour traffic.  This raises my biggest concern about car packs; why?!  Why do I want to spend money to drive a 2012 Honda Civic when I could be driving any number of exciting classic or exotic cars that are available free in the game? It’s not like there is a shortage of cars or even a shortage of Honda Civics so what is it doing here?  I have 2 (equally cynical) suspicions; 1 it is part of the usage agreement requiring Turn 10 to include the latest real world vehicle releases (which also explains the Inclusion of the Audi RS5 in an already incredibly cramped market place of A-spec 4wd Audi) or it was one of the easiest ways to fill up the numbers.

So if that is the bad what is the good?

Well naturally it must be the Pagani!  But sadly no.  The Pagani Huayra is as hard to drive as it is to pronounce!  It’s slippery under braking and cornering and able to power slide whilst doing 250kph in a straight line... Trying to get this thing off the line with any kind of purpose was incredibly tough and the drive around one of my favourite tracks (Road America) was fraught with tension as I wrestled it to stay straight under brakes and not power slide out of every corner.  Given the long straights on this track the Huayra should have performed quite well with a top speed rating of 10 but in fact by comparison the #08 Gallardo went around 7 seconds faster with exactly the same settings.  The Gallardo was (unlike the Pagani) a joy to drive around Road America as you can brake incredibly late into the corners and jam it in to the apex for some hugely satisfying cornering.  Sadly after upgrading it to an R2800 the Gallardo didn't perform quite as well on the larger sweeping corners of Sedona Raceway Park as it became much more slippery too.  Possibly I would have found them both comfortable to drive with the assists on but then all cars drive the same with the assists on so what is the point?

The 2 absolute gems in this game pack are the Audi RS5 and the 1973 Ford Pinto.  It isn't really surprising that the RS5 is a good drive what surprised me is how good.  My first race out with the stock Audi I knocked out a lap time in the top 3% of the Leader board.  That is my highest result ever (previous personal best was 5%).  I was mentally scathing of the inclusion of the Audi as it simply isn't required in the game due to the high number of very similar Audi already available however I must confess it has won me over.  It handles brilliantly and is also a great looking euro-coupe. 

But I've saved the best to last the absolute stand-out performer in this car pack is the '73 Ford Pinto.  It seems strange that a small size American runabout introduced to compete with Jap imports of the 70's would be the stand-out performer of a thoroughbred racing game but I guess that is the wonder of Forza.  I took the little F100 out to compete in an F-level race at Sebring and won.  Easily. On Hard. Against cars that hugely outclassed me.  Not to mention I did it in style!  As soon as I looked at the car it appeared to have a touch higher quality about the car model, I don’t know if it was the particular metallic green paint I chose but the car seemed to be smoother than the others in the car pack.  Also it is the only one that has model specific manufacturer body kit and even the Forza body kit which usually just comes as a huge front and rear wing is modified specifically to this model.  The whole look of the car is something special and the sound?!  It's not a huge V8 rumble but it sounds wicked, it is unique enough that it caught my attention through the usual in game sounds.  I cranked the Pinto up to its max (R2750 ish) with all racing modifications, 4 wheel drive, 6L V8 etc and although I won the race quite comfortably the car lost some of its magic.  I could probably play with the vehicle settings to get it back but to be fair the Pinto does start to become outclassed when matched with Ferrari F430GT racing cars and the like.  I can’t help but wonder if the '73 Ford Pinto represents a special memory for someone in the development team as it just seems to have a bit more polish about it.

So overall the January Jalopnik pack is a bit of a bust, the Huayra is a lemon (or at least didn't match with my driving style), the Audi RS5 is an excellent drive and the '73 Ford Pinto is just superb in all respects.  Overall rating for the car pack is hurt because the concept of spending money for 10 additional cars to do the same thing you can do anyway is pointless and I personally believe these DLC should be free and used as a way to keep interest in the game ticking over rather than generating revenue.

Here’s a full rundown of the cars included in the Forza 4 January Jalopnik Pack:

2012 Pagani Huayra

2012 Honda Civic Si Coupe

2011 Lambourghini #08 West Yokohama Gallardo LP560-4

2011 Honda #33 Level 5 Motorsport Lola

2011 Audi RS5

2000 Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo

1996 Chevrolet Impala SS

1986 Dodge Shelby Omni GLHS

1973 Ford Pinto

1970 Alfa Romeo Montreal