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Operation Sports:
Forza Motorsport: You Are What You Drive
By Shawn Drotar, Managing Editor, OperationSports.com
With the sheer number of world-class cars found in Forza Motorsport™, you're sure to find a car that fits your taste in aesthetics as well as one that fits your driving style to a tee. But thanks to the game's extraordinary capacity for customization, you can do even more than that—you can create a car that's perfect for you in nearly every way. Today, we take a glimpse at what makes Forza Motorsport an auto enthusiast's dream.
When you visit The Garage, you have the opportunity to get into any of the cars, and then you can head to the other customization options: Customize Paint, Apply Decals, Tune Car Setup, or Buy Upgrades. While certain cars have more or fewer options for customization, on the whole, most cars can be upgraded, tweaked, and painted to your heart's content.
Customize Paint does exactly what you'd expect it to do. You can apply coats of paint to the car's body, hood, rear wing, and side mirrors. Make them all jet black, or mix and match different colors for a unique look.
The Apply Decals menu contains the most detailed car livery creator on the block. You can place vinyl decals on your car to create a unique design. There are five pages of official brand logos and six pages of shapes and numbers to choose from, and each of them can be any color and can be sized, spun, or tilted to fit any possible design. Five different sides can have decals, and each side can have 100 different layers. So, technically, a 500-piecedesign can be created on your car, ensuring that your ride is the wonder of any Xbox Live® race. You're limited only by your creativity.
Entering the Tune Car Setup should be seventh heaven for you gearheads. Virtually anything that can be tweaked on a real car can be tweaked in Forza Motorsport. Change the tire pressure of your front and rear tires separately, or adjust each gear ratio for the perfect balance of acceleration and speed. Don't like how the car feels on the road? Then adjust the alignment's camber, toe, and caster for the front and rear wheels, or adjust the front and rear anti-roll bars to reduce body movement in the car. Not enough? Then try adjusting the springs and ride height for both the front and rear of the car, or change the bump and rebound damping of the car's suspension. Changing the downforce of the front and rear spoilers can keep you all but glued to the road, and you can adjust the brake balance and pressure if you need more stopping power. Even the differential can be adjusted for both acceleration and deceleration. In short, if you can do it in the shop, you can do it in Forza Motorsport.
Once you're done with your car setup, you simulate the results and track the changes using the Benchmark menu. Then enter the Test Drive menu and put your new settings to work on any track. Once you're satisfied, you can save the setup and load it again at any time, before any race. By using these features judiciously, it's possible to devise multiple setups, so that you have one at the ready for any type of track.
If you've earned the credits, you can enter the Buy Upgrades menu and turn your car from a grocery hauler into a supercharged racing machine in no time. There are three categories of upgrades: Engine and Power, Appearance and Aero, and Chassis and Drivetrain. Within Engine and Power, you can purchase new intake and exhaust systems, fuel systems, turbochargers, superchargers, and intercoolers, and even swap engines from another vehicle from the same manufacturer while upgrading those horses for thoroughbreds. In Appearance and Aero, you can increase your performance with style. With a boatload of wheel styles, window tints, front and rear bumpers, side skirts, and spoilers to choose from, you can make your ride into a sleek, stylish, and even faster blur on the track. The Chassis and Drivetrain section lets you purchase new suspensions, brakes, transmissions, clutch and flywheel assemblies, and tires.
These modifications cost you both credits and a little bit of time, but they increase your car's Rarity, which increases what you earn on the track. But more than that, these many options let you create your perfect car, in both performance and appearance. In Forza Motorsport, you truly are what you drive.
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