Previews Forza Horizon Car Reveal Round-Up Pt 10

So, here we are ladies and gentlemen: with the title now officially on sale at your nearest game retailer, we've now reached the final entry in our 'Forza Horizon Car Reveal Round-Up' mini-series.

Thankfully, it seems that Turn 10 and Playground Games decided to go out with a bang – not only are there a trio of Ferraris (how many Fezzas are there in this game!?), but two of the most advanced and exclusive supercars ever made have made their way into Forza Horizon.

Oh, and there's a Mini as well!

But enough spoilers for now – sit back and take a quick read through our last ever Horizon Round-Up piece.

Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8

The 'SRT' badging has been used on quite a few Chrysler Group cars in recent times – over the years, there's been a 300C SRT8, a Dodge Charger and Challenger SRT8 and, with the rise of the new Viper, the company's in-house performance division has now gone about making its own cars from scratch.

Few, though, would've expected that three-letter acronym to appear on an SUV. But, with the Jeep Grand Cherokee, that's exactly what's happened!

Though it does seem a bit weird at first, it does have plenty going for it: car nuts will adore the fact there's an off-roader with a HEMI V8 under the bonnet, but – as this is a Jeep with the same amount of power as a muscle car – it does mean the flagship Cherokee could very well be just as fast on the dirt as it is on the tarmac.

Put simply, think twice before you consider taking this beast on over an autocross-style route – unless you've mastered the route or you've brought a gun to a sword fight, it's possible that you'll find beating the Jeep to the checkered flag will be much harder than you thought it would be!

Mini Cooper S

In Forza Horizon, there are both old and new variants of the Abarth-tuned Fiat 500, so it is rather fitting that a week after we found out the latest Mini Cooper S will be making its way into the latest Forza, the iconic original will also be joining in the party.

Okay, so it's a bit of a fib, saying we've just found out the Mini Cooper S from the Sixties will be in Horizon – those who regularly watch our YouTube videos will most likely know Alan's already added one to his in-game garage – but, hey, it's a Mini; the pocket rocket that took the rallying and touring car world by storm and, to this day, is a much loved classic.

And, of course, it handles like a dream – the 'handles like it's on rails/like a go-kart' phrases have been over-used so many times, but they really are fitting words to describe the way the Mini drives. It's just so much fun!

However, whilst it is nimble, we wouldn't recommend fully tuning one up – you can't adjust the gear ratios in this game so, whilst it'll be ballistic through the bends, the top speed of 108mph or so isn't exactly what you'd call 'enough' in our books…

Lexus LFA

The birth of the Lexus LFA was by all means pretty long – the whole project took, from start to finish, nine years. Thankfully, though, the end result was definitely worth the wait.

This is especially the case if you're mesmerised by what some would call 'sexy engineering': the Lexus engineers used extensive use of carbon fibre (part of the structure was even woven together by one of only two specially-made looms in the world!), the pedals were all machined out of one single block of aluminium and the 4.8 V10 was engineered to be as compact as a V8 and as light as a V6.

But, for most people, it's not the construction of the engine that they're interested in – instead, it's more the power and sound. Which, when you consider the motor develops 552bhp and revs to 9,000rpm, means it excels on both front rather admirably, to say the least!

Sure, it'll be quite expensive to buy in the game (on first impressions at least, it doesn't seem like it's that easy to snap up quick cash from early on in the game), but when the Credits go towards something that sounds like one of the old V10-powered F1 cars, we'd certainly buy it for the noise it makes alone!

Just make sure you've got an extended warranty on the sound system you've got hooked up to the TV…

Ferrari F355 Challenge

In quite a few ways, the Ferrari F355 is the starting point for the Ferrari company that we know today. It brought about a huge turn of form for the company (the profits allegedly helped Ferrari finance the development of its multi-season winning F1 cars), the reviews of later Ferraris suggest there hasn't been a bad Ferrari since and it spawned the F355 Challenge race car you see here.

Though based heavily on the road car, there are a few subtle tweaks that make this one a noticeably faster machine (not that you'll be able to measure the difference, given that – unless it emerges as DLC – the standard car hasn't made its way into Forza Horizon) – racing slicks are fitted, along with a new aero pack and, weighing in at 1.3 tons or so, the 375hp V8 had about 100kg less mass to lug around.

Not that most people will be that interested in the technical differences between the two – it's highly likely that most people will use the in-game paint shop to slap a few Pirelli logos on the car and install some songs from the 'Ferrari F355 Challenge' arcade game soundtrack onto their Xbox hard drives, and crank the volume up as they're hooning about in their track-ready Ferrari.

Ferrari 288 GTO

Believe it or not, but Ferrari very nearly went rallying in the 1980s! The Italian supercar company had plans to enter a homologated 288 GTO into the ferocious world of Group B competition, but the project was scrapped once the legislation was banned, and the 288 GTO never went racing (though, with the tuning upgrades and livery editor in the game, there's nothing stopping you from making a "what if" replica, eh?).

At least they had the decency to make the road-going versions (when you spend all that work on preparing 200 or so road cars, you might as well sell them and claw some money back!) and, as a result, gave rise to one of the supercar greats of the decade. Not only did it look ace, courtesy of the Pininfarina styling and those little details that were pinched from the 250 GTO, but the twin-turbo, 400hp V8 ensured it was blisteringly fast for the era.

That is, until the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 smashed it into the middle of next week.

Still, that doesn't stop the 288 GTO from being quite a magnificent car and, given only 272 were ever made and real-life examples are regularly swapping hands for half a million quid nowadays, its inclusion in Forza Horizon means it's the closest most players will ever get to 'experience' on the open road.

Ferrari FXX

Meanwhile, whether or not you could afford the £1,000,000+ asking price, this is one Ferrari that no real-life owner will ever get to experience on the public highway – unless they're handed to their owners once the FXX program ends in a few years time and someone decides to make an example road legal, that's never going to happen.

But, when you take a closer look at the spec sheets, it does seem like a good idea that, if you were going to crash one, it's best to do it in the Forza Horizon video game and not on real roads. After all, if you apply those 800 horsepowers this car has without due car, there's always the rewind or restart feature.

Which, as I'm sure you know, isn't something that has a part in the real world.

But, treat this car with care and respect, and we're certain that the FXX will comfortably be one of the fastest point-to-point cars in the game. But, if the next car is anything to go by, it might not be the fastest…

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

The last car to be announced for Forza Horizon, and by golly does it end our Round-Up series with a bang! It's one of the fastest, most powerful and most expensive cars in the entire game, and it is the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport!

By some margin one of the most sophisticated and advanced cars to currently grace the world's many miles of roads, the Veyron SS's inclusion in Forza Horizon is easily justifiable. Whether or not you're a fan of the Bugatti, it will almost certainly go down in history as one of the automotive icons of the 21st Century, and Martin Roach (an author who recently wrote a book on the car) went so far as to describe the Veyron as being a 'modern day celebrity'.

We'll leave you to make your mind up about that claim, but there's no denying that, at a festival devoted to car culture, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is certainly be one of the highlights of the show.

Without a shadow of a doubt.

And that's that, folks! Our Forza Horizon Car Reveal Round-Up has now officially been brought to a close. We hope you've enjoyed reading our mini-series over the last ten weeks, and – as we've got some more Horizon content in the coming days and weeks – be sure to check back on our website and Facebook page to stay updated.

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