Review: Forza Motorsport 5 “Smoking Tire Car Pack” DLC

I remember the first time I heard about Matt Farah on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Rogan and Farah were talking about the various cars they had driven, some of their experiences, and overall it was a really interesting episode. I bet you’re reading this thinking, “Nicholas, we don’t want to listen to you plug the Joe Rogan podcast here, you’ve done it enough times on Twitter already”, but hold on for a second. The reason I mention Matt Farah is because he’s the host and editor of The Smoking Tire, the very website that the latest car pack for Forza Motorsport 5 based on. But enough stalling, let’s get into it!

I won’t lie, as much as I eagerly await each new DLC pack for this game, there’s always a slight sense of disappointment when I check which cars are being added to the Forza Motorsport roster. It was the case with the “May Top Gear Car Pack” pack that I reviewed for Forza Motorsport 4, and it was the case with the last two packs for Forza Motorsport 5. Granted the “IGN Car Pack” turned out to be pretty decent, you always get this idea that Turn 10 follow the same formula – one lacklustre hatchback, one or two muscle cars, a few ‘classical’ cars, one or two ‘decent’ cars, and then one super/hyper car that tries to fool you into thinking you didn’t just spend $10 on 9 crappy cars. With “The Smoking Tire Car Pack” though, things seemed a little different. Yes, you’ve got your hatchback, you’ve got your muscle car, a few older vehicles, a handful of modern cars, and your supercar too, but for the greater part they all seem like something you’d like to drive. I’m glad to therefore announce that not only do the ten cars featured in this pack seem pretty appealing to drive, they also perform pretty well too!

Starting with the 2004 Maserati MC12, it is undoubtedly the best vehicle of the pack, but it manages to successfully combine speed and performance in a manner that I really haven’t seen in past packs. Taking the MC12 for a spin around the LeMans circuit, it’s incredible speed is obvious, it even feels planted to the ground, but what surprises you is how well it manages to handle breaking and corners. Unlike the 2011 Ferrari FF which is noticeably quick but which seems to fall apart when you attempt to brake heavy for corners, the Maserati doesn’t lose its composure under heavy breaking, and instils you with this sense of confidence, just like that anteater meme with its arms spread out saying, “chill out, I’ve got this”. While it suffers from some slight understeer, you can know that you can brake a little late, turn in, and come out the other end alright. There’s never that risk of spinning out or your arse flying out like you get with the Ferrari.

Moving on, as with any bunch of cars, some are neither horrible, nor amazing, and this DLC pack is no different. Taking each of the cars around the various (although not large number) of tracks, the Audi, Chevrolet, Pontiac and Toyota, neither disappointed, nor impressed. The 1995 Audi RS 2 Avant felt firm on track but suffered from horrible understeer, while the 1996 Chevrolet Nova SS felt like your typical American muscle car – not slow but not fast, nothing special in terms of handling, and if I’m frank, felt a little like every other muscle car I’ve reviewed for this game so far. I had no real complaints for the 2002 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Ram Air, and the 1992 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST185 handled well but lacked that sense of speed – even at those moments when I was hitting 190KM/H.

The one thing that should be noted about this pack is that it’s full of surprises, really! I mentioned before about the Maserati and the way it handles corners, but it doesn’t stop there. The 1994 Nissan Fairlady Z Version S Turbo really conveyed a great sense of speed as I drove around Mount Panorama, but it was the steering which really got me. Unlike any car I’ve driven, the Nissan would seem somewhat stiff when you started to turn for a corner, but then instantly would switch this around and loosen up considerably – going from what seems to be slight understeer to massive oversteer! While the 2000 BMW Z8 certainly wins no awards for design (honestly, there’s nothing I’ve seen that comes close to how hideous it is), it was one of my favourite cars to drive in the pack. Turning into corners, full throttle, you’d feel the rear wheels lose a bit of traction, but you never quite felt out of control, so on tracks like Catalunya you’d have an absolute blast. The one thing which was slightly irritating was the dashboard reflection onto the windshield. I understand that Turn 10 are going for realism, but it just seemed to really disrupt the view when driving from inside the car.

All this said though, nothing left me with quite a smile like the 2013 Abarth Punto Supersport. Now I’ve typically dismissed hatchbacks in previous packs (the Mercedes Benz A-Class AMG from the “IGN Car Pack” was particularly pathetic), but I’d be lying if I said that the Punto might actually be the most enjoyable car of the pack! Upgraded to B-class, the Abarth felt quick around the track, but it’s the way the steering snapped back out of corners that I loved the most. There’s a feeling that it’s just a little bit crazy, a little bit too powerful, and that makes it great. Last but not least, the 1968 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, while being drop-dead gorgeous, does suffer from some understeer.

It should be noted that Turn 10 seemed to have learned their lessonwith the “IGN Car Pack”, with most of the cars in The Smoking Tire pack being relatively affordable. The Alfa Romeo stands as the most expensive of the ten, costing approximately 1.5 million credits, but Turn 10 make it available for free within your garage. The only car which comes close is the 600,000 credit Maserati. All cars are also available to rent in Free Mode too, which is a massive plus too!

While they are separate packs, I thought it would be appropriate to also bring up the second DLC pack which was released last week – the “Honda Legends Car Pack”. Featuring what Turn 10 describe as ‘three influential Honda models’, you are able to purchase in-game the 2014 Honda Civic S1, the 1984 Honda Civic CRX Mugen, and the 1994 Honda Prelude Si, for no cost for the DLC itself. While any free content should be appreciated, I can’t help but find the title of this pack a little … misleading. A ‘legends’ pack should include something like a NSX or perhaps a Honda F1 car – but two Civics and a Mugen… come on. Even with V-Tec, neither of these three cars will excite or give you ‘the fizz’. What baffles me further is that Turn10 wasted their time with these rubbish set of cars when more tracks would have much more appreciated.

Much like I said with the “IGN Car Pack”, the “Smoking Tire Car Pack” isn’t too bad. There are some mediocre cars, but there are some really great ones too, and what makes it even greater is that they’re all pretty affordable. All this said though, it is still disappointing to see DLC coming out which doesn’t focus on, or at least include new tracks, but perhaps the worst thing about this DLC, and which has been disappointing about each of the three packs I’ve reviewed so far, is that 9 out of the 10 cars were included in Forza Motorsport 4. This just isn’t good enough Turn 10.

In usual style, below is a list of the lap times using each of the ten cars on the Top Gear track. All cars were unmodified for their lap times below:

2004 Maserati MC12 – 1:18:449
2011 Ferrari FF – 1:23:991
1968 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale – 1:26:404
2000 BMW Z8  -1:27:174
2002 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Ram Air – 1:29:334
1995 Audi RS 2 Avant – 1:29:987
2013 Abarth Punto Supersport – 1:32:663
1994 Nissan Fairlady Z Version S Twin Turbo – 1:33:801
1992 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST185 – 1:34:471
1966 Chevrolet Nova SS – 1:36:182