In Forza Horizon 5, you can upgrade almost any vehicle you’ve acquired in your collection. Once you acquire a car, you can tune it to suit your purposes. There are many reasons why you’d want to do this as upgrading your car can give you the edge you need to win races. On this guide we’ll be teaching you how to upgrade your car and increase its performance.
Forza Horizon 5 How to Upgrade Cars
Keep in mind that you can only modify, upgrade, and customize cars inside your garage. If you’re roaming outdoors you will be asked to be transported to a nearby house you own or one of the Festival sites.
This fast travel will cost money unless you’re already there. So keep this in mind to save up on costs. You can also do this on the Main Menu.
There are two aspects we’ll be looking at when it comes to upgrading your vehicle in Forza Horizon 5. The first type of upgrade is car performance; you’ll improve your cars speed, handling, power and etc. The other type is the visual upgrade which will customize your cars looks. In order to do either, you need to be in the Garage.
Performance Upgrade
Once you’re in the Garage, select the Upgrades and Tuning. In Upgrades and Tuning you’ll be able to select the option to upgrade any vehicle you own. There are two type of ways to handle your upgrades; you can choose Auto Upgrade which is best for beginners if you don’t know much of what you’re doing.
The automatic upgrades do a decent job as the game calculates what best to upgrade your specific car’s handling, acceleration, speed, and overall performance.
But if you want to get hands-on with upgrading your vehicle, then you can go ahead and pick Custom Upgrade:
Custom Engine Upgrades can improve your car’s acceleration and speed. You can add a more aggressive cam, stiffer valve springs, improved intake, and exhaust systems as well as turbo or supercharger tp get more power out.
Custom Platform and Handling Upgrades include better brakes and suspension. Combine several platform and handling upgrade types to get the most out of your chassis. These upgrades add up to better braking and handling.
Custom Conversion Upgrades include changing major components of your car, altering its very nature. Conversions affect the upgrades that are available in other categories.
Custom Aero and Appearance Upgrades include weight and aerodynamic upgrades that can improve your cars’ acceleration, speed, downforce, and cornering, but to get ahead on the race track you have to balance your upgrades.
Custom Tires and Rims Upgrade are necessary as you cannot transmit your car’s power and handling potential to the road without the right tires and rims. The stock tires on your car limit your track performance, no matter how you tweak your engine or suspension.
Just keep an eye out when choosing which upgrades to get and how it will impact your Performance Index (PI) Ranking.
Visual Upgrade
Simply go Design and Paints tab at any opportunity and you’ll be able to customize and upgrade the visual aspects of your car.
We also created a guide on how to customize your car. Like the above, you need to be in the Garage on any of your owned houses or festival sites. Alternatively you can also do it on the Main Menu.
Forza Horizon 5 Class System, Peformance Index and Ratings
As you upgrade your car to perform better, its Performance Index (PI) Ranking will be bumped up.
In order to provide a level playing field for all vehicles, Forza makes use of a classification and “Performance Index” score system. Based on a car’s best lap time on a dummy test track, the PI system calculates its rating.
Faster lap times have a higher PI number, whereas slower lap times have a lower PI number. All racetracks in a certain game are represented by this test track, which is constructed using a mathematical formula. “PI test track” is what we call it.
The PI ranking, on the other hand, varies from game to game. It depends on the car roster and racetracks in each game. Each new Forza game receives a fresh version of this test track, which serves as an accurate depiction of the game’s tracks.
Once your PI Ranking reaches a certain threshold, it goes up a class. Here’s a list of all the classes in Forza Horizon 5 and their corresponding PI rank.
Class | PI Ranking |
X | 999 |
S2 | 901-998 |
S1 | 801-900 |
A | 701-800 |
B | 601-700 |
C | 501-600 |
D | 100-500 |
On story mode, it doesn’t really matter what your PI rank is. The PI ranking really starts to make a difference when you enter online competitions.
For example, if you’re racing in a class A race then you’d be at a disadvantage when you don’t take the opportunity to maximize your ranking within the threshold of that class. Your vehicle will perform poorly compared to others and you might have a hard time winning races.
Most cars can be upgraded two tiers past their stock class. Though they will start to struggle after going past a certain class as you reach its peak.
Car Mastery in Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 mastery bonuses can be unlocked by spending Skill Points on your vehicles.
There are Car Mastery benefits for each car that you own, but you may use the Skill Points you earn to unlock Car Mastery benefits for any car, not just the one you’re driving right now.
By leveling up Forza Horizon 5 Car Mastery, you may gain experience, Credits (CR), skill chain enhancements, and more just by driving about in your car.
This perk system in Forza Horizon 5 allows you to earn improvements for each car that improves their ability to generate Skill Chains points, deliver one-off quick prizes – XP or Forzathon Points or Wheel Spins – or temporary XP increases for a limited number of races.
Forza Horizon 5 cars list has a fixed number of benefits, although they are generally tailored to your stunts. It’s also possible to unlock a whole different automobile with the Car Mastery Car perk on some vehicles. With Car Mastery, for example, you can unlock a 1999 Lamborghini Diablo GTR.
You can gain as many Skill Points as you want for a car, and there is no cap on how many you can acquire. In Forza Horizon 5, you may see all of the available car benefits by pausing the game, going to the ‘Cars’ tab, and picking the “Car Mastery” page.
Unlocking one perk unlocks other perk options on the Car Mastery page in a similar way to how standard skill trees work, except they are arranged in grid form.
To unlock these perks for your vehicles, you’ll need to spend Skill Points, which are earned by completing Skill Chains. Car Mastery benefits, such as quick XP or CR drops, Wheelspins, score increases for specific Skill Chain maneuvers, limited-time performance enhancements for specific races, or even new cars, can be unlocked by using any earned Skill Points.
To begin with, all of the bonuses cost one Skill Point, but they gradually grow in price as you move up the mastery grid.
Also read our other guides for Forza Horizon 5:
- Forza Horizon 5 All Convertible Cars – How They Work
- Forza Horizon 5 Koenigsegg Jesko – How to Get Free Legendary Car Guide
- Forza Horizon 5 Gas Can – What’s Inside and How to Get One
- Forza Horizon 5 Drift Zones: How To Unlock Drift Challenges
- Forza Horizon 5: All Supported Wheels For PC and Xbox
- Forza Horizon 5 Barn Finds: Map All Locations and How to Unlock
Also check out this awesome video by GrubMagnet Gaming on how to upgrade cars on an Xbox Series X: