The McLaren 650S among other cars, (just that I was driving this one when this thought occurred) has active aero. Now this appears to be working when the car is in “stock” format. There are some things that occur in “stock” format, such as race suspension (by “stock” format I mean, that’s the way the car comes when you buy it or otherwise receive it)
So when you get a car with “Active Aero” you should be able to adjust the areo settings of the car without having to install the the forza “superwing” or the upgrade front bumper. It only makes sense. It would be part of the car’s initial operational capabilities. Just the same as a car which initially has adjustable suspension. Or a car that initially comes with racing tires as standard equipment.
Not being a McLaren owner (or even likely ever a McLaren driver) IRL, I’m not exactly sure of the car’s actual features or capabilites.
But i believe, at least in Forza terms, active aero ≠ adjustable aero. “Active” is computer-controlled by the car itself and is constantly changing depending on speed and driving conditions. “Adjustable” is user-controlled but does not react to changes in driving conditions - it can only be changed when not driving.
There’s a bunch of inconsistencies in Forza (across all games) when it comes to the adjustability/tier of stock aero. For example,
The C7 Corvette Z06 has an adjustable lip spoiler that produces downforce much like Forza aero would, while the C7 ZR1’s wing is not adjustable and requires the installation of a Forza wing to have more downforce
The Schuppan 962CR (in FH5) requires front and rear aero upgrades to have adjustable downforce. The Porsche 962 racing car in Forza Motorsport, on the other hand, produces adjustable downforce even though they’re virtually the same car. At the very least, the bodywork up front is mostly the same.
The fact that the McLaren Senna needs Forza aero at all… Same thing could be said about many other cars in Forza. Some cars have aerodynamic devices that were specifically designed for that particular car, yet Forza decides it’ll need Forza aero anyways because… Reasons.
Another example would be the Aston Martin Valhalla. At least in FH5 it didn’t need Forza aero to produce adjustable downforce, but in FM23 it does. In order to adjust downforce, you’ll need to slap on the same aero that you would install on a Honda Prelude… Even if the stock aero technically isn’t “adjustable” from factory, having to use Forza aero isn’t much better.
The Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 can get a Pikes Peak aero kit on it. It’s only street tier though, so it doesn’t produce any downforce at all as far as I’m aware
And the list goes on, and on, and on, and on…
Now with the 650S I’d still expect that it would probably need an upgraded wing to produce a significant amount of downforce. The factory active aero probably doesn’t produce much downforce on its own. Not that it matters in Forza, I’m not sure they simulate the functionality of active aero (as in changing the downforce as the aero changes positions). I’ve yet to do a proper test, but air brakes (like on the Bugatti Veyron, GTA Spano, etc.) likely don’t work either.
The Schuppan 962CR is a road-car tribute based off the 962 race car drivetrain and chassis, the bodywork is all different and the presence of adjustable aero on the race car should not be treated as prototypical for it being on the road car.
We should be able to adjust the active aero curve kinda like fan speed on a GPU. Instead of fanspeed/temperature make it downforce/speed. That way we can keep the cool aero and still make it adjustable.
One of them needs Forza aero on the front to have adjustable downforce, the other can produce between 320 and 540 pounds (in Forza) of downforce without needing Forza aero…
Now sure, there are differences between the two “under the hood”. The 962CR may not have as aggressive underbody tunnels as the 962 race car, or have precisely the same bodywork… But just look at it. One of them needs canards and a little tow hook to adjust downforce (and produce a lot more of it), while the other can just… Adjust. I don’t think the “one’s a race car and the other isn’t” argument is a very strong one, at least for me tbh. The Schuppan is one of those cars that blurs the lines between race and road car
TBH I was picturing in my head more the version that you see on the Wiki page for the 962CR (there seem to be several versions/iterations despite only 4/6 ever being made), I hadn’t looked at the front end of the in-game model. You are correct though in that the FH5 version has a more than superficial resemblance to the race-car, but considering neither of them appear to outwardly have any kind of adjustable spoilers/splitters etc it could be assumed that the “adjustable” downforce on the race-car comes either from underbody diffuser trays or via swapping out ducts/vents etc (things that might not be present on a road car that has to pass crash safety tests etc). The Forza Aero canards/wings etc in my mind are simply the manifestation of adding adjustable aero to a car which doesn’t otherwise have it (in the same way that the race car rear wings don’t look like the Forza Aero wings yet both are adjustable), it doesn’t mean that the canards themselves are the only thing creating the downforce.
It would be interesting to see if the achievable downforce numbers are the same between the two different methods too, but since most race cars in-game don’t have a completely identical but “fixed” road car version the comparison might not be that relevant (other potential examples could be the 911 GT1 or Merc CLK-GTR Straßenversions)
Interestingly, according to THIS site the FH5 962CR is actually the last one built, a hybrid between the normal CR road-car and the LM race-car, and the only one not actually built by Vern Schuppan Ltd. The different versions have different specs (engine size etc) so it will be interesting to see if the in-game specs match whichever version they scanned.
Another thing I wish we had definite numbers on is the “body downforce” for each car, or the downforce a car in Forza has outside of the front + rear. Lateral Gs can give an idea, but I wish there was a definite number somewhere.
Going off of this, part of me wishes that there was a “flat underbody” upgrade for more average road-going cars to increase downforce/decrease lift. There could be a bunch of stuff done with aero upgrades, really. Before that, though, I just want some more consistency… And some better looking Forza aero of course lol. FM1/2 era diffusers were cool but also came with some unsightly exhausts
