News Forza Motorsport 4’s July DLC is the fastest car pack yet

It’s very rare to see a DLC pack for Forza Motorsport 4 that doesn’t come with a name associated with car mags or a motoring product of some sorts – in stark contrast, the guys at Turn 10 have labelled the 12th consecutive downloadable goody bag for Forza Motorsport 4 as simply the ‘July Car Pack’.

However, don’t go thinking that the lack of an imaginative name means they’ve cut corners on this one, as the batch of cars on offer this time seems to be quite impressive, to say the least.

Hailed as ‘the fastest ever Forza 4 DLC pack to date’, the July Car Pack offers a range of ten iconic speed machines, ranging from current GT3 racers to boutique supercars, iconic track kings and even a former world speed record holder.

It's also interesting to note that, excluding May's Porsche pack, this is the third consecutive car DLC pack in a row that's introduced a new manufacturer to Forza – May's pack introduced Hennessey, Austin-Healey, and smart, June's pack gave us MG and now July's pack sees the inclusion of Hudson and Ascari. Oh Turn 10, you do spoil us. 

As much as we love the unprecedented variety these car packs have consistantly offered, we're starting to hanker for some new tracks to thrash these new arrivals around, however. Hopefully it won't be too long before Turn 10 start to release some track packs in addition to the car packs, given that Forza Motorsport 3 had some.  

As usual, it’s all available for a fee of 560 Microsoft Points and an Xbox Live membership of some sorts, and will be made available on July 3rd. So, let’s see what exactly this pack has to offer.

1952 Hudson Hornet

Younger readers may associate this car with ‘Doc Hudson’ from Pixar’s ‘Cars’ films, but the Hornet isn’t just famous for its starring role in a Disney animated film. Thanks to clever engineering, such as lowering the centre of gravity and making it as aerodynamically efficient as possible, the Hornet and its ‘Twin H-Power’ straight-six motor dominated stock car racing in the early 1950s, winning 83% of all races it ever took part in.

Nowadays, it’s a highly sought after classic – some say it’s “one of the top ten collectible and desirable US automobiles of all time” – and we’re sure the Forza community will be welcoming it with open arms. Even if they only want the car so they can apply a Piston Cup or ‘Fabulous Hudson Hornet’ livery onto it…

1954 Jaguar XK120

The XK120 isn’t popular just for the fact it debuted an all-new and what was a very clever engine for the standards of the day, as the Jaguar was not only beautiful, but it was also the fastest car in the world at the time. This particular model, with 210bhp on tap (courtesy of a cylinder head that was poached from the firm’s C-Type racer) was good for what was then a very ballistic 120mph.

Above all, though, it set the ball rolling for what Jaguar would turn into during its glory days in the 50s and 60s. If the American buyers hadn’t snapped them up in their thousands – almost all of the 12,000 made found homes in the States – it’s likely that iconic Jaguars such as the Mark II and the E-Type would never have been.

1956 Lotus Eleven

It may only have an 1100cc Coventry Climax engine, but as the Lotus weighs a mere 450kg (it’s even lighter with all the fluids taken out!), the Eleven was a hugely quick car, given the piddly horsepower ratings. It won in its class on almost every single occasion, and one Lotus Eleven even managed to finish seventh overall at the 1956 24 Heures du Mans!

Nowadays, even despite the connection to great drivers such as the legend himself, Sir Stirling Moss, the Lotus Eleven isn’t as highly revered as it probably should be. Maybe you guys and gals can make change all that, though, by embarrassing vastly more powerful cars in online races…

1973 AMC Gremlin X

To be fair, there wasn’t really anything drastic for the ‘X’ model – it just essentially just the standard Gremlin, but with a few stickers slapped on the sides – but that doesn’t stop it being quite a novelty. Despite the odd proportions (courtesy of a shortened Hornet platform), it’s actually a far smaller car than it looks in the picture, as the Gremlin was designed as a competitor for the Ford Pinto and VW Beetle.

Whether or not it was a good car or not is anyone’s guess – it was by far once of AMC’s more popular and better offerings, thought that’s not really saying much, given it was also selling the Pacer at the same time! Still, at least it can claim to be one of the very few ‘fuel efficient’ sub-compact cars to come with the option of a 5.0 V8…

1995 Ruf CTR2

Based on the platform that underpinned the all-new 993 generation of Porsche 911, the CTR2 packed a serious amount of kit under the Kevlar bodywork. With up to 580bhp from an overhauled 3.8 turbocharged flat-six, the Ruf could hit 60mph in 3.6 seconds, and march onwards to a not exactly shabby 220mph.

It also made a phenomenal competition weapon – Ruf entered two stock CTR2s into the arduous Pikes Peak hill climb event (quite literally, actually, as they were driven there on public roads) and ended up finishing second and fourth overall. Needless to say, we expect the Ruf CTR2 to completely devour the many Fujimi Kaido variations!

1998 Aston Martin Vantage V600
The previous generation of Aston Martin Vantage is quite underrated nowadays, with many people being far more aware of the cars that came before and after it. However, we reckon quite a few would have perked their ears up when they heard that a 600hp Vantage would be included in the July Car Pack.

Such colossal power (more than any Aston Martin that’s currently on sale) came courtesy of a reworked 5.3 V8, with two Eaton superchargers bolted on for good measure, so the Vantage V600 could easily topple the 200mph barrier. To cope with such ferocious power, the V600 also came with uprated suspension and racing spec brakes as standard fitment.

Such performance, though came at a price – there were only a handful of road cars on sale at the time which were more expensive to buy than the Vantage V600, so Aston Martin was only able to shift 53 or so examples. For many people, its introduction into the realms of Forza 4 is the closest they’ll ever get to seeing or hearing one.

2011 McLaren MP4-12C GT3

Built in conjunction with CRS Racing and intended to be fielded by both professional teams and amateur ‘gentlemen racers’, the MP4-12C GT3 car has been finished to the quality you’d expect from something that had Ron Dennis’ perfectionist input.

Though regulations mean it’s not quite as powerful as the road car – it ‘only’ has 540hp to play with – it’s still loaded to the gunnels with race-spec sequential gearboxes, diffs, suspension components and all sorts. It won’t win Le Mans outright like its big brother, the F1 GTR, did ’95, but expect them to hold a candle close to the established and well hardened crop of GT3 competitors.

2012 Ascari KZ1-R

Thankfully, the Ascari KZ1-R has been given more sim-orientated justice with its inclusion in this DLC batch, and if the stats are anything to go by, it’s going to be one hell of a ride! With a 520bhp V8 mounted amidships, mated to a lightweight carbon-fibre chassis and various race-spec gubbins, it’s likely that very few will be wanting for more performance from it.

Of course, as it shares quite a lot with the Ascari A10 that famously once held the lap record around the Top Gear Test Track, expect to see quite a few replica liveries and tunes dotted around various forums and online race lobbies once the pack is launched.

2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG

With essentially a version of AMG’s 5.5 V8, but without the turbochargers, even this ‘baby’ in the AMG sports car line-up packs a serious punch. After all, what do you expect from a car of this size with a snarling 415hp top-notch motor under the bonnet?

The pace is so intense, in fact, that Mercedes themselves have limited it to 155mph, so one can only speculate as to how fast it could go if it were unleashed. Or, indeed, once people launch fully tuned examples down the drag strip…

2012 Spyker C8 Aileron

The C8 Aileron may be getting on a bit now (despite the model year date that we’ve quoted from Turn 10, the Aileron has been in stop/start production since 2009), its age is the only part of this car that’s not at the cutting edge. Under the jet fighter-inspired bodywork lies a chassis co-designed by Lotus, racing-spec components, a ZF semi-auto gearbox and a 400hp V8 from Audi, and many other little pieces here and there that make up a very special sports car.

If the real life car is anything to go by, it’s likely that the in-game C8 Aileron will cost quite a lot of credits to buy. Then again, money isn’t the hardest thing to come by in Forza 4, especially if you’ve racked up a prosperous Affinity Level with a few manufacturers, and given that there’s nothing else quite like the Spyker C8 in the game, it’s money well spent in our opinion.

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