Forza Motorsport 6 - Game/Features FAQ

[ManteoMax]

FM6 FAQ: Cars

Car lists

• Gone Gold official list with “460” Forzavista cars at launch plus DLC (retailer, Anniversary, and VIP cars).
• Alphabetical forum list showing all cars including DLC
• ManteoMax.com online spreadsheet
• Kudosprime.com online spreadsheet
• Forum discussion thread
• FM6 Car Wishlists
  Manufacturers
  At launch: Formula E, Abarth, Acura, Alfa Romeo, AMC, Ariel, Aston Martin, Audi, Auto Union, BAC, Bentley, BMW, Bowler, Brabham, Bugatti, Buick, Cadillac, Caterham, Chaparral, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Datsun, Dodge, Donkervoort, Eagle (U.S.), Eagle-Westlake, Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, GMC, Hennessey, Holden, HSV, Honda, Hummer, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Jeep, Koenigsegg, KTM, Lamborghini, Lancia, Land Rover, Lexus, Local Motors, Lola, Lotus, Maserati, Mazda, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Benz, Mercury, MG, MINI, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Noble, Oldsmobile, Pagani, Plymouth, Pontiac, Radical, Ram, Renault, Rolls-Royce, Saleen, Scion, Shelby, SRT, Subaru,Tesla, Toyota, TVR, Ultima, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Volvo.
  DLC: Caparo (October Logitech G Car Pack), Terradyne (Fast & Furious Pack), Opel and W Motors (January Polo Red Car Pack), Sunbeam (February Alpinestars Car Pack) Porsche has been announced for 2016. (s)

Car types

• Production cars: classics from the last seven decades plus pre-production 2016/2017 cars like the Ford GT
• Race cars: See this grouping of the race cars at launch.
• Classic racers: 1950s-60s Le Mans and Can-Am
• Grand Prix: Pre-war, 1950s-1970s, 2015 Lotus E23
• IndyCars: 10 cars across Chevy and Honda from the 2015 shedule. (d)
• V8 Supercars: 10 cars across all 5 manufacturers in the 2015 schedule. (s)
• Touring Cars: 10 cars from 6 manufacturers in STCC, WTCC, and BTCC. (s) | (d)
• GT and LMP: 1990s-2014 LMP, 2006 GT1, 2009 GT2, 2013-2015 GTLM, 2011-2014 GT3 and Super Trofeo
• Super GT: 2015 Nissan NISMO GT-R (DLC: January Polo Red Car Pack)
• Group B rally: Metro 6R4 and others
• Track cars: BAC Mono and others
• Trucks and SUVs: Ford F-100, F-150 Raptor, GMC Syclone, Vandura, Transit SuperSportVan, VW bus etc
  Are there unicorn cars?
• There were no unicorn cars in FM6 until the 1971 Ferrari 312 P was added exclusively as a reward for multiplayer League performance in January. (s) (d) (d)
• “Tier Level Reward cars are not exclusive to the Tiers. In other words, you can still earn that 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 (Tier 6 reward) in the game, even if you aren’t a Tier 6 who will get the car for free. Our Loyalty Rewards system is designed to give our most active players access to awesome cars early – but these cars won’t be walled off from the rest of the community.” (s) (d)
• Team Forza Anniversary and Pre-Order bonus DLC cars are duplicate models to the standard roster. (s)
• VIP DLC cars are exclusive to that pack. (s)
  Toggles (lights, doors, windows, etc)
• “Most cars have either full lights or DRLs on all the time. Popups down in day. Photomode, you can switch.” (s) “You can not turn on/off lights. headlights are on in the rain and at night. even in day, the Zonda’s dash is illuminated.” (s)
• The only area in the game where doors and other panels can be toggled is in Forzavista; convertibles and other features cannot be activated in races.

Divisions
Most car models (but not all) in the game are assigned to one of 30 different Divisions which are used to group cars in the career Stories of Motorsport races. Divisions may also be used in restrictions for Rivals and multiplayer League events. There is also a a leaderboard filter for showing the fastest times for cars matching your lap time car’s division. See this list of cars grouped by Division and the Events List thread for details about Career races with Divisions and PI limits. Car Divisions are not shown in the garage or Rent/Buy Cars menus within the game.

Car specs

• In a custom multiplayer lobby users can filter eligible cars by Performance Index, power, weight, drivetrain, engine layout and configuration, cylinders, aspiration, Region (North America, Europe, Asia), Country, Type (Production, Pre-Tuned, or Race), Manufacturer, Make, Model Family (Silvia etc), Division, or Year. Only power, weight, drivetrain, an engine position are indicated in the garage and Rent/Buy Cars menus.
• Cars are given a Performance Index which ranges from 100 to 999 and changes when upgrade parts are installed. PI ranges are grouped into ten classes (E, D, C, B, A, S, R, P, X) which group cars of similar performance levels together. However, the PI number is a single assessment of the car’s lap time around a virtual test track (see description below) and do not indicate guaranteed performance on every track.
• Performance attributes for Speed, Handling, Acceleration, and Braking are shown in numbers from 3.0 (slowest/weakest) to 10.0 (fastest, strongest). These numbers too indicate potential performance and not an exact comparison between cars.
• Benchmark data for acceleration time, top speed, braking distances, and lateral g’s can be seen in the Tuning menu and change based on upgrade parts and tuning settings.
• “We display standard manufacturer curb weights in the UI - i.e. wet with no driver. the backend sim uses more detailed numbers.” (s)

Collecting, Buying, and Selling

• All cars can be driven for free in Free Play
• Cars can be received as free gifts from T10 via Forza Rewards, Prize Spins, VIP membership, or contest prizes
• Players cannot gift cars to other players
• “You can sell your cars back to the game for half of what you paid for it originally…” (s)

How is a car’s Performance Index (PI) calculated? How realistic are the driving characteristics?

@JONK1969

Forza uses a classification and “Performance Index” scoring system to fairly balance cars across the game. This PI system refers to a ranking number based on a car’s best lap time around a simulated test track. The slower the lap time, the lower the PI number; the faster the lap time the higher the PI. This test track is mathematically generated to be representative of the all race tracks in a specific game. We call this a “PI test track.”

PI ranking, however, is different for each game. It is relative to each game’s car list and race routes. Each new Forza title gets another revision of this test track to be a good representational average of all tracks in the game. This, in addition to the changing and growing car list with each title, is why class boundaries and PI #s are not the same with each new version of the game, or between Motorsport and Horizon.

Forza Motorsport titles use an entirely different PI test track than Forza Horizon titles, because race tracks (like Silverstone, for example) are not representative of the types of race routes found in Forza Horizon’s open roads. Horizon’s roads tend to have longer straights, faster turns, and less hard braking and cornering in general. For this reason, the actual class letters and PI values for a given car are not the same between Horizon and Motorsport games. Additionally, Forza Motorsport has Formula 1, Indy, and modern prototype race cars at the top of its PI system, while Horizon 2’s top-end cars are “hypercars” like the McLaren P1 and LaFerrari. This means a PI of 998 in Forza Motorsport is a much higher level of performance than a PI of 998 in Forza Horizon. It also means less granularity is needed in Horizon’s car classes than we have in Motorsport. Again, it’s relative to each game’s cars and race routes.

Once we have PI test track lap time data for every car in the game, we analyze it to determine class boundaries. Most of these land exactly where we would expect, based on the fact that all the performance data for each car is based on extensive real world research, including data provided to us directly by car, tire, and aftermarket parts manufacturers as well as race teams.

We rarely hand tune PI, and if so it is to maintain fair game balance across career, multiplayer, and leaderboards, or to keep cars of similar type and performance in the real world in similar PI ranges or classes, and never to a degree that a car’s performance characteristics are significantly compromised compared to its real world counterpart.

Lastly, of course we allow players to upgrade and tune their cars to be competitive with cars that have a much higher PI in stock form, within the bounds of real-world limits. In multiplayer or rivals competition, it’s not uncommon to see cars which, in stock form, would have no chance of winning, but with a great tune (and driver!) can smoke the competition.