Drifting is an important racing discipline which is why it is a vital part of every Forza Horizon title. Forza Horizon 5 is no different and it brings drifting back with tons of improvement all around the formula with dedicated drift tunes and modification parts to choose from. Still, it is one racing discipline that looks amazing however it is not easy to master. This is why we have curated this Forza Horizon 5 Drifting Guide for you in which we will guide you on how you can easily drift in Forza Horizon 5.
Drifting Guide – Forza Horizon 5
Our Forza Horizon 5 Drifting Guide details everything that you need to know about drifting in Forza Horizon 5 along with some tips and tricks.
Drifting Basics
Before you begin drifting in Forza Horizon 5, there are a few mechanics that you must understand that are crucial for drifting in not just Forza Horizon 5 but every racing game. You must know about your vehicle’s drivetrain and must know a thing or two about tuning as well. Not all vehicles in the game are good drifting cars and it is also a completely different racing discipline. Not everyone is a good drifter as well however we aim to help you as much as we can with the help of this guide in order for you to learn the basics of drifting.
It takes a lot of practice as well so with the following tips and tricks, you must practice and find your own balance in order to become a good drifter in the game. Without further ado, let’s start with the drifting basics.
Choosing the Right Vehicle
While you can drift with any vehicle or ‘powerslide’, certain vehicles are obviously better at drifting than some of the vehicles in the game. Weight plays an important role as well as your power and the power delivery system to your wheels because drifting is all about delivering the right amount of power to the right set of wheels. For drifting, the right set of wheels is the rear ones so your natural choice of the vehicle must be RWD. Choosing an RWD vehicle ensures that you have the right set of tires to get all of the power that you need for your drifting requirements.
If you want to drift using an AWD or FWD vehicle, there is a small trick as well however it is not ideal. For AWD vehicles, you are all set however for FWD vehicles, you will first need to upgrade them with an AWD drivetrain because you cannot tune an FWD to drift. Once the AWD system is in place, go to the Tuning section and look for the Drivetrain section. Here, you can choose which set of tires gets the most amount of power and you can slide all of the power towards the rear wheels thus making your AWD vehicle into an RWD vehicle. By using this little trick, you can drift your FWD or AWD vehicles as well however I will still suggest that you go for a stock RWD vehicle.
Upgrading your Drift Machine
Some of the powerful vehicles are all set for drifting right out of the Autoshow however for most vehicles, you will need to head straight to the Upgrades section. You will need to focus on two major things while considering upgrading your vehicle for drifting. These are suspension and engine. Increased horsepower ensures that you can easily spin your wheels and continue to spin them on demand while your suspension upgrades ensure that your car’s suspension facilitates drifting and helps you maintain control over your drift.
You need to keep both things balanced because increasing too much power while upgrading the suspension a little will not work and vice versa. You must ensure that your suspension is able to handle the increased power and that your increased power is enough for your souped-up suspension to work properly. Apart from these two things, your selection of tires also plays a vital role in drifting. Equipping race tires will make drifting really hard because they are all about grip and drifting is all about losing grip. Your tires should be drift tires while your suspension must also be drift suspension as the camber settings are much more manageable here.
Tuning your Drift Machine
After putting in the upgrades, you have to do some tuning and this is the section where you will be spending most of your time while you are making sure that your ride is set up according to your drifting style. I will be honest here. No player drifts like the other and every player has their own drifting style, so you really have to find your own balance here. I will only be able to guide you on the basics and you must find the right balance for your vehicle by continuous tinkering in the tuning section.
Before anything else, you must go to the Differential and set the Acceleration and Deceleration to 100%. This ensures that all your wheels spin at the same time and none of them tend to grip the surface making you lose your drift. After this, you need to go to your Suspension and lower your vehicle to a decently lower height. Do not lower your car entirely because this will cause issues on uneven roads as you will bottom out often and you will get stuck. Make sure you leave a little space beneath your vehicle since your vehicle’s body needs a little flexibility to rock to its sides as well.
Apart from this, you can fine-tune your camber settings to adjust to your driving skills and continue to adjust it the more you get better at drifting. As you get better at drifting, you will need to further fine-tune your suspension setup in order to drift more effectively. You can also tune your braking bias more towards the forward and less towards the rear because you will need to stop the front wheels from going out by tapping on the brakes. While most people recommend going for 100% front bias, I prefer keeping a small percentage inclined towards the rear as well because you also have to adjust your speed so this can help in chaining longer drifts.
Turn Off All Driving Assists
Drifting is an advanced driving discipline and to properly drift in Forza Horizon 5, you will need to turn off all of the driving assists that the game offers. This includes Stability Control and Traction Control. You need full control over your vehicle, and both of these will only make things worse for you if you are trying to drift in the game. Additionally, if you are playing with a wheel, switch Steering to Simulation as well because it will stop dampening any steering effects as well giving you full control over your vehicle’s steering.
Drifting Control
To control your drift and make sure that you continue your drift and do not always end up spinning out, you must learn to balance out your acceleration and braking. If you are playing with a wheel setup, this is much easier because you can lift off your accelerator and continue to tap the brakes if you think the vehicle is about to spin out in order to bring it back under control. You might need to check your sensitivity settings to make sure that you have the wheel set up right and according to your playstyle. While playing with a controller, you must find the right balance between tapping the R2 and L2 keys.
While the Xbox Elite Controllers and default Xbox One or Xbox Series controllers have excellent triggers that work just like real accelerators and brakes, you can tap both of them in order to find the right balance. Since different factors come into play here such as the vehicle’s HP, selection of tires, and the drivetrain configuration, you have to find this balance yourself for your chosen vehicle. However, one thing is the same for all vehicles, if you think that your vehicle is spinning out, lift off the accelerator and use brakes and if you think your vehicle is straightening out, stop braking and give it some more power to continue spinning.
Apart from managing the acceleration and braking, you must also manage your steering angles. As your vehicle is drifting around, the wheels will automatically move to the right and left as well depending on your angle, but you must control it and direct the vehicle in which direction it must go in order to continue the drift. You will need to counter-steer to continue a drift meaning that you will need to turn the wheel right to continue drifting left and turn the wheel left to continue drifting right. The angle will depend on your approach however do not push too much as you will end up spinning out so always make sure that you are tapping the wheel instead of just pushing it all the way. If your angle is too narrow, you will need to continue pushing in the opposite direction in order to prevent straightening out on your way back.
Keep Practicing
Practice makes perfect and for choosing drifting, there is never enough practice because once you get comfortable with low HP vehicles, you will want to try out vehicles with higher HP outputs as well. Vehicles like Silvia, Rx7, and other low HP vehicles are excellent for drifting at both low HP and high HP tunes however you will need to practice a lot if you want to excel drifting vehicles like the Dodge Viper or the Chevrolet Corvette. In addition, you must have special drift builds if you are serious about drifting because having an ‘all-rounder’ will not be a good option.
For more help with Forza Horizon 5, check out the guides linked below:
This concludes our Forza Horizon 5 Drifting Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.
I would point out that drifting is “all about losing grip” isn’t accurate. You need enough grip to have tires hook up to accelerate and prevent spinning out. Additionally in a straight line tires would be flush for optimal performance. However, when cornering or drifting the angles of camber, caster, and toe come in to play. The negative camber you apply to a drift tune helps tires “bite” to grab grip needed to maintain drift. When I first gained interest in drifting via racing games I was overwhelmed and I may as well have been trying to learn Chinese. So articles such as this are great for a starting point, but grip, the right amount for the right situations is a huge part of a solid drift build.