More Classic JDM Goodness Is Heading To Forza Horizon 5

The 38th monthly update for Forza Horizon 5 is set to arrive later this week, bringing with it a quartet of cars never before seen in the Horizon franchise – and building on the most recent paid car pack, there’s more retro JDM excellence set to land in Mexico.

The first of these is the 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III GSR. The oldest Evo yet to appear in the Horizon franchise, the third iteration of the homologation special saloon made 270bhp from the evergreen 2.0-litre turbocharged 4G63T motor and featured easily the most aggressive bodywork seen on an Evo at that point. It joins the sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth iterations of the Evo in Horizon 5.

Sticking with turbocharged Japanese saloons but going further back in time, the 1991 Toyota Chaser GT Twin Turbo brings the ever-popular rear-drive saloon to Forza for the first time. In this guise, it shared its 2.5-litre twin-turbo 1JZ-GTE straight-six with the boxy A70 Supra, and it should be an immediate hit with Horizon’s drift community.

On the more modern side of things is the latest version of the Subaru WRX. With the STI’s future very much in limbo, this is the most rapid Impreza-based car on sale nowadays (albeit not in Europe). It very much follows its forebears’ recipe with a 2.4-litre turbocharged boxer four sending 271bhp to all four wheels.

Moving away from Japan, we’re also getting something of a Nordic obscurity: the 2013 Volvo C30 Polestar. This was a version of the already potent five-cylinder C30 T5 tweaked by Polestar back when it was Volvo’s in-house tuning company and race team. With power bumped from 227bhp to 250bhp, just 250 of these rarities were made, all in eye-catching Rebel Blue.

Those four cars can be picked up by earning 20 points from each of the next four weekly in-game ‘seasons’, but there is a fifth car on the way that’ll be a free gift to all players: the Chevrolet Camaro Jordan Luka 3 Motorsport Edition. This is a customised version of the 1969 Camaro, essentially a promo for Nike’s Jordan Luka 3 trainers.

Elsewhere, the update will see the arrival of the previously-teased Hide and Seek mode, which recreates the beloved childhood game in automotive form across Horizon 5’s virtual rendition of Mexico. To coincide with that, the Horizon Stadium will be getting a seasonal makeover as a maze, and fitting in with the theme of ‘Hidden Horizons’, there’s some suitably espionage-themed collectables and character outfits.

The update itself will be released on 10 September, making the Hide and Seek mode available, while the new Festival Playlist goes live on 12 September.