Forza Motorsport Update 8 adds improved vinyl editor, better AI, updated safety ratings, and heaps more

While the majority of Forza Motorsport‘s post-launch content updates have included flashy new tracks and such, Update 8 foregoes anything of the sort. Instead, it’s quality-of-life o’clock, and Turn 10 aims to deliver. Included are an improved racing AI, vinyl editing boons, a revision of safety ratings, and heaps more.

As usual, Forza Motorsport‘s Update 8 comes alongside a new seasonal content revision, this time focusing on vehicles that walk the knife’s edge between being a full-blooded track monster and a production-tier road car. One of the most exciting new cars on the roster is the legendary Ginetta G40 Junior, to illustrate what you ought to be expecting. Oh, and lest we forget: Mobil 1 is celebrating its 50th anniversary by partnering up with Forza Motorsport for a series of themed Rivals events and more.

Forza Motorsport Update 8 is loaded with quality-of-life goodies

As promised early in 2024, Turn 10 has slowly but certainly been iterating upon the core gameplay loop of Forza Motorsport with each new update. While Update 8, specifically, isn’t as transformative of an upgrade as Update 6, which totally reworked the game’s caRPG systems, it is quite massive when it comes to quality-of-life improvements and the general quality of gameplay.

Notably, here’s just a short list of some key improvements that have made their way into Forza Motorsport with Update 8:

• Vinyl Material Tool has been added to the livery editor, allowing you to define how matte or glossy your vinyl design will be.
• Tire Wear Scale option for private multiplayer and free-play modes.
• Featured Multiplayer modes’ Safety Ratings have been revised, increasing the number of races taken into account from 10 to 20; also improved the matchmaking algorithm to search for a narrower range of Safety Ratings in the player pool
• Several vehicle racing category revisions, with plenty more to come (such as a recategorization of Forza GT vehicles into dedicated spec divisions, slated for Summer)
• Improved the Drivatar AI’s propensity for unnecessary braking in situations of attempted passovers, wide turns, corner apex encounters, and straight racing scenarios.
• Introduced the Mobil 1 partnership with an appropriate Maple Valley race track update.

For a more comprehensive list, be sure to check out Turn 10’s Steam blog post, but that should give you an idea of what to expect. The Mobil 1 partnership is interesting, too, though the value of this partnership will hinge mainly on the upcoming Rival events, which Turn 10 is yet to explain in greater detail.

As for the new vehicles and events, here’s the full list of Featured Tour events running through late June:

• May 15 – June 26: Ginetta Juniors (Spotlight: Ginetta G40 Junior)
• May 22 – June 26: Weekend Warriors (Spotlight: 2015 Porsche Cayman GTS)
• May 29 – June 26: Kit Caterhams (Spotlight: Caterham Superlight R500)
• June 5 – June 26: Track Toys (Spotlight: Elemental RP1)

Completing all four of these series will not only allow you to nab their respective Spotlight cars at a low price, but also the delightful 2019 Porsche Motorsport 935 #70. As for the latest Open Class Tour refresh, the final reward there is the BMW M1 Coupe from 2011. Not a bad offering, but a fair bit less exciting than the 935.

While all of the fixes, tweaks, and improvements outlined above are already available in Forza Motorsport as of May 13, the seasonal batch of Update 8 content won’t be going live until May 15. From that point onwards, you’ve got about a month’s worth of time to unlock all of the FOMO-bound rewards until Update 9 comes out, such as the aforementioned Motorsport 935.