It’s been years. Yet, somehow, I keep finding myself back in Britain. Even with Mexico’s massive map sitting right there on my hard drive, Forza Horizon 4 cars have this weird, magnetic pull that Playground Games hasn't quite replicated since. Maybe it’s the way the seasons change the entire physics of the road, or maybe it’s just the sheer soul in the car list.
Honestly, the car culture in FH4 felt different. It was less about the "everything, all at once" vibe of newer titles and more about the specific joy of a 1990s hatchback screaming through a stone-walled village in the Cotswolds.
There are over 750 vehicles in this game. That is a staggering number. But it isn't just about the volume; it's about the specific, quirky additions that made the UK setting feel alive. From the iconic Austin-Healey to the absurdly fun Peel P50, the roster was curated with a specific sense of place that often gets overlooked when people talk about racing sims.
The Barn Find Obsession and Rare Finds
Remember the first time you found the 1962 Triumph TR3B? Or the 1931 Bentley 4-1/2 Liter Supercharged?
Barn finds in this game weren't just "go to the purple circle." They were a history lesson. In FH4, the cars often felt like they belonged to the landscape. Finding a dusty, rusted-out Jag in a rainy forest felt earned. People often complain that modern racers just hand you supercars for breathing, but in the early hours of FH4, you actually had to spend time with your C-class commuters.
There’s a nuance to the "Hard to Find" list too. The Apollo IE or the Ferrari 599XX Evolution aren't just fast; they became legendary within the community because of how they broke the game’s speed traps. If you weren't hitting 320 mph on the M6 Highway, were you even playing?
The Winter Physics Problem
People hated winter. Let's be real. But if you actually understood the Forza Horizon 4 cars and their drivetrain swaps, winter was the best season for tuning.
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Putting a rally suspension and snow tires on a Lamborghini Aventador sounds like sacrilege. It is. But in FH4, it was the only way to get across the map during a blizzard. The game forced you to actually think about tire compounds. You couldn’t just use a "set and forget" tune for every race because when that lake froze over, the entire meta shifted.
The Cars You Actually Need in Your Garage
Forget the Bugattis for a second. If you want to actually enjoy the game, you need the weird stuff.
The Hoonigan Ford RS200 Evolution is arguably the best all-rounder the series has ever seen. It’s a cheat code. It grips on dirt, it flies on asphalt, and it handles jumps without bottoming out. Then you have the Volkswagen I.D. R, which basically ignores the laws of physics with its downforce.
But then there's the Shelby Monaco King Cobra. It’s tiny. It’s terrifying. It weighs nothing and has too much power. That’s the peak of the FH4 experience—driving something that feels like it’s trying to kill you every time you touch the trigger.
- The Mosler MT900S: The budget king. Before everyone had 10 million credits, this was the car that won every Speed Zone.
- Rimac Concept Two: Early electric dominance. The acceleration is violent.
- Toyota AE86 Trueno: It took forever to get added, but once it did, the drifting community basically took over the Fortune Island needle climb.
Why the Licensing in FH4 Was Special
Licensing is a nightmare. We know this. But FH4 managed to snag the James Bond 007 Car Pack, which included the submersible Lotus Esprit and the classic DB5. It wasn't just a skin; they had the actual gadgets.
We also saw the return of Mitsubishi and Toyota after some rocky corporate negotiations. Having the Lancer Evolution and the Supra back in a game set in the UK felt right. It completed the "car enthusiast" fantasy in a way that felt more authentic than just having a bunch of generic SUVs.
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Performance Classes and the "Meta"
The PI (Performance Index) system in FH4 was a bit broken, but in a fun way.
A-Class was where the real racing happened. In S2, things move too fast for the engine to even render the trees half the time. But in A-Class, a well-tuned 1997 BMW M3 could actually compete with modern metal. The game allowed for "sleeper" builds that actually worked in online adventures. You’d pull up to a line in a Volvo 242 Turbo and actually stand a chance against a Porsche.
Handling the "Rare" Market
The Auction House in FH4 is a chaotic stock market. Honestly, it’s stressful.
If you want a Ferrari 812 Superfast, you better be prepared to "snipe" the listing in milliseconds or pay 20 million credits. This artificial scarcity actually gave the cars value. When you saw someone driving a Ford Capri RS3100 Forza Edition, you knew they either put in the work or got incredibly lucky with a Wheelspin.
It created a hierarchy. It wasn't just about who could drive the best, but who had the most interesting collection.
Tuning for the British Countryside
The roads in FH4 are narrow. They’re bumpy. They’re often wet.
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Because of this, the "stiff" track tunes that work in games like Motorsport will fail you here. You need "soft" damping. You need cars that can breathe with the road. I’ve found that many players struggle because they try to make their cars too rigid. In the UK, you need clearance. You need a car that can take a curb at 100 mph without flipping into a sheep pasture.
The Sound Design Debate
Some people say the engine sounds in FH4 were a step down. I get it. Some of the V12s sounded a bit like vacuum cleaners. However, the environmental audio—the way the sound echoes off the stone buildings in Edinburgh or muffles when you’re in a dense forest—is still top-tier.
If you take a TVR Sagaris through a tunnel and don’t get goosebumps, you might be playing with the volume too low.
Getting the Most Out of Your Collection Right Now
With the game reaching its "end of life" in terms of new content updates, the current state of Forza Horizon 4 cars is basically a complete museum. Everything is available if you look hard enough.
The best way to experience the car list now isn't just racing. It's the "Stories." The British Racing Green story or the Isha’s Taxis missions force you to drive cars you’d usually ignore. They give context. They explain why a certain car matters to UK history.
Practical Steps for New or Returning Players
If you’re booting up the game today, don't just buy the fastest thing.
- Focus on the Seasonal Playlist: Even now, this is the easiest way to snag the "Hard to Find" vehicles without spending 20 million credits.
- Swap your Drivetrains: If you’re struggling with the rain, AWD-swapping a RWD car is "cheating" to some purists, but it makes the game much more playable.
- Download Tunes from the Community: Look for creators like Don Joewon Song. Their tunes are basically the gold standard for making a car feel "right" in this specific engine.
- Master the E-Brake: The narrow streets of Edinburgh require a different style of driving. Learn to flick the tail out early.
The reality is that FH4 is a finished product. It’s polished. It’s massive. While newer games have more pixels, the character of the car list here remains unbeaten. Go find a weird 1960s microcar, shove a motorcycle engine in it, and try to drive it up a mountain in the snow. That is the soul of this game.
Go to the Auction House and search for "Forza Edition" cars specifically. These versions come with built-in multipliers for things like drift skills or speed skills. They are the best way to farm Skill Points, which you can then use to unlock even more "Hidden" cars tucked away in the mastery trees of other vehicles. For instance, the Lamborghini Reventón Forza Edition is actually hidden inside the skill tree of the "regular" Lamborghini Miura. These hidden "car-within-a-car" unlocks are some of the coolest secrets left in the game.