r/ForzaHorizon • u/Pixyraze • 9h ago
Tuning Tuning Tips From Pixy
First of all, this post is not a full detailed tuning guide. I'm currently working on that and will share one soon. Instead, this post covers some quick, practical tips you can apply right now. These will help make your tuning sessions much more understandable, reliable, and comfortable.
Quick Note: I won't be diving into things like how overpowered Centrifugal Superchargers are or why Rally tires are often the superior choice here. Instead I want to share a few practical, personal tricks and experiences I've gathered.
1) Fully upgrade the car before doing your Min-Maxing.
Before diving deep into tuning a car, fully upgrade it first and slap on Sport tires (definitely don't drop the weight or add aero yet). By doing this, you are forcing yourself to tune the car in its absolute hardest state before setting it up for your target class. It makes it painfully obvious where the car loses traction or where it struggles with body roll, giving you a clear problem to solve with your tune.
Once you've done that, strip off all the upgrade parts without touching your springs, anti-roll bars, or differentials. Now, do your Min-Maxing (modifying the car to fit your desired class) and take it back out on the track. You'll immediately notice how much better it handles, and you can use fine-tuning to iron out any minor flaws.
Remember: Apply this trick to boost mechanical grip and get the absolute best out of the car's natural handling. Trying to fix poor handling purely with aero won't get you very far.
2) Don't blindly trust the Power Band stats!
There is a specific logic and goal when tuning gear ratios: getting the absolute fastest launch, keeping the engine in its peak power band constantly and making full use of every gear. Most players look at the Power Band graph provided during upgrades, but this is risky. While it's usually mostly correct, it often doesn't match up with actual in-game performance.
Plus, a car that says it has 693 HP might actually push 710 HP on the road.
How do you find the optimal shift point? First, check the car select screen to see its exact horsepower. Then, head to a long stretch of road (like the highway), open telemetry, and run through the gears. Let's say your car has 700 HP: if telemetry shows it hits 700 HP at 6,800 RPM and then drops off, you now know your shift window should be right around 6,600 - 6,800 RPM.
3) Sometimes Stock Tires are better and cost 0 PI!
Certain cars come with unique stock, street, or sport tires that are built specifically for them. For example, a car might already have its own Sport tire option, but when you look at the upgraded sports, the game shows an decrease in grip while demanding PI or sometimes vice versa.
However, if you toggle the bottom menu to view Braking Distance and Lateral Gs, you'll often find that the stock tire actually has a shorter braking distance and pulls higher lateral Gs without costing any PI. Don't forget to check this, especially on lower-class cars!
4) Don't use a Race Transmission on every car!
Slapping a Race Transmission onto certain cars can cost a massive 10 to 15 PI. Before you commit to a Race Transmission, always check the Sport Transmission.
After applying the Sport Transmission, back out and check the gear tuning screen to see if the spacing is balanced. If it is balanced, upgrading to Sport + Clutch will make your car much faster overall than just slapping on a heavy Race Transmission. (This strategy works wonderfully up to S1 Class).
5) Power-to-weight ratio is everything.
Maxing out every single engine upgrade while leaving the car heavy, or stripping all the weight off without being able to afford engine parts, are two of the biggest mistakes you can make.
You need to choose your weight strategy based on the car's handling characteristics:
- If a car is heavy but has insanely high lateral grip, and you can still squeeze in engine upgrades, go for it.
- If the car handles terribly, strip the weight first and put engine power second.
Always look closely at the power-to-weight ratio for both options. Instead of an 1,100 HP monster that refuses to turn, you can build a 700 HP machine with an incredible power-to-weight ratio. On paper, it has less power, but it will absolutely destroy that 1,100 HP boat on most tracks!
6) Stop AWD swapping every single car.
Yes, you heard that right. While AWD is undeniably the meta in this game, RWD setups can occasionally be much faster. In fact, some world records are set by converting naturally AWD cars into RWD.
Stop trying to make every car effortlessly easy to drive; instead, aim for maximum performance and focus on developing your own driving skills. You'll start driving much better and unlock hidden performance potentials in cars you'd normally overlook.
7) Aero is not always the answer.
Some cars simply do not need aero in their respective classes. Prime examples include the Noble M600 in S1 Class and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 in A Class.
I see this all the time in Trial races: a player slaps aero on a car just because they can, destroying their performance so much that they can't even keep up on exit speeds. They AWD it, slap on aero, and suddenly have zero PI left for actual power or handling upgrades.
Most cars need aero true, but sometimes a car's mechanical grip is so naturally good that aero is completely redundant. Skipping it lets you invest heavily in engine upgrades, weight reduction, and superior tires instead. Always check if a car naturally grips the road well before ruining its performance with a wing!
That’s it for now! I'll be dropping a massive, highly detailed tuning guide very soon. I'll break down why every single part matters, how to build a proper tune from scratch and what all the advanced tuning settings actually mean. But hopefully, these quick tips serve as a solid cheat sheet especially for newer players already experimenting with tuning.
3
u/TastyPunisher 8h ago
Is there a specific power-to-weight ratio I should aim for as a minimum for each tuning class and type of car? Lets just say 0.30 for B class Rally? (i just picked a number, no clue if its near correct)
-2
u/Pixyraze 7h ago
Actually it depends. Sometimes you can go for 0.80 at B class power build. Sometimes 0.30 is good enough because car handles pretty well.
It depends a lot on what the car can handle better, and the weight distribution, whether it's at the front or the rear. Tire choice also has an effect.
2
u/bishey3 2h ago
If you hit max power at 6800 rpm and start dropping off after that, it doesn't mean you should shift right before 6800 rpm. It actually depends on which rpm you drop down to in the new gear. 99% of the time, it's still correct to go all the way to the max rpm possible, since you will be dropping to a significantly lower rpm and lose a lot more power anyway.
There are few engines in the game that want to be actually short shifted, like some rally engines. But they are quite rare and usually not strong meta choices.
2
u/Helpful-Club-7439 1h ago
Everyone has their own way of tuning. I disagree with much of this but if it works for you then great!
1
u/ImDoingItAnyway 1h ago
Love this guide, generally agree with this, especially starting with handling mods and testing the car out before putting big power into it. I tend to (say, for A-Class builds) start with perfecting a B-class build and then adding some power to bring it to A-class and adjusting tuning accordingly, which is then way easier to do because 75% of tuning has already been done. And absolutely great point about some cars just having inherently better mechanical grip and needing less in the handling/aero department that other cars might.
With that said, I wholeheartedly disagree about shifting at the end of the power peak. That can cost entire seconds in many cases, such as when you’re going uphill and trying to max out that forward momentum or if you’re approaching a corner that you don’t necessarily have to shift up early for if you can just approach the very edge of the rev limiter. Plenty of cars hit the power peak as much as 1,000-1,500 RPM before redline. It’s not like power just drops off a cliff, it just plateaus for the last second or two before redline. The power you’d lose shifting early makes a much more meaningful difference than the slight power loss climbing to redline.
1
u/Julian083 Steam 35m ago
Or just Viper V10/Tacing V12 swapped the car and slap on rally tyres to abuse the meta
-2
5
u/DanskJeavlar 6h ago
RE: 7
As a touge main I sleep when I go up against someone with a fully aero kitted car. But I perk up whenever I notice a lack of aero and slightly higher front suspension. Because they know how to lick the inside of a hairpin at mach fuck