Turn 10’s second piece of automotive downloadable content (after the Hot Holidays one that is) is a 10 car affair and allows us to get our hands on some of the more delectable and souped-up sports cars to thrash around this already vast game.
The vehicles are mostly from this year, fresh off the manufacturing line, but there a couple that have been ripping the tarmac for a few months now. The Audi contingent is strong again and makes up for a fifth of the selection with a special edition of the already sleek R8, in its LMS showcar state, as well as the sporty RS6. Ford bless us with another muscle car, in the form of the 2010 Shelby GT 500 (I do love my muscle cars, so I’m slightly biased, obviously). I’ve listed them all below, with the exception of one, as I decided to take my favourite from the list and actually purchase it to see just what it was capable of.
OK, the list is:
2009 Audi RS8 LMS Showcar
2009 Audi RS6
2010 BMW Motorsport M6 Coupe
2010 Corvette Grand Sport
2010 Ford Shelby GT 500
2009 Lotus 2 Eleven
2010 Pagani Zonda R
2010 Porsche Boxster S
2010 Saleen S55 Raptor
Now, the motor that I went for is the Aston Martin One-77, which a lot of the Top Gear viewers will remember as the one Jeremy Clarkson drove at the end of the Summer 2009 series, commenting on how great a car it was before he went on about how it was pointless because of taxing and global warming and all that stuff.
It’s fair to say that most people love the Astons, so it was a no-brainer to buy one and add it to my collection, but it’s not cheap at 1,800,000 CR. After selling a lot of crap (not to mention a few I shed tears at when they were driven out of the garage) I took delivery of my shiny red One-77 and took it onto the Iberia test track for a quick blast in stock form.
As it was it had just the kind of characteristics I like when driving round the circuits, with the back end just twitchy enough to keep you on your toes without you spinning yourself out of control and wondering why you’re facing in the wrong direction. The speed on it was pretty damned fast too. Obviously not up there with the R classes, but very suitable for a man of my taste (not to mention reaction speeds (yeah, you ARE getting on a bit – Ed)).
Now, one of the best things to do when you’re a keen follower of Forza, but don’t have the know-how to get a good set up together is fall in favour with some friends that DO know what they’re doing under the hood. After giving my new pride and joy to one of my online mechanics for a week, I got it back with some fresh ingredients under the hood and boy did it shift afterwards.
If this is what can be done with one of these high-end bad boys then it makes the others that little bit more tempting to experiment with. At 400 points it certainly isn’t the most expensive add-on that I’ve come across and when you combine it with the recently released Nurburgring Grand Prix track pack it comes as a nicely weighted collection. There is a nice mix of heavy, grunting brutes sitting alongside the light and nimble, seeing as how Lotus don’t really know how to do an overweight car anyway.
The Autoweek pack is a decent little collection of vehicles to play with, all things considered. At the price tag it seems reasonable and is a good addition for the serious racers who want to have a tinker with some fresh meat. I reckon these cars, when properly tuned, could attack some of those high end lap times, especially in the right hands, so there’s even more of a reason to have a look.
VideogameUK verdict: 8/10
