Forza Horizon 5 1966 Jaguar XJ13 (DLC)

I'll be straight with you: when Playground Games dropped the 1966 Jaguar XJ13 as a Car Pass addition in January 2022, my first reaction was genuine excitement, and not just because it looks like a billion dollars on screen. This is a car that never got to race in period. Built to challenge Ferrari and Ford at Le Mans, the XJ13 was powered by a mid-mounted 5-litre DOHC V12, essentially two of Jaguar's XK six-cylinder engines mated to a shared crankshaft. By the time it was finished and tested, the Le Mans regulations had changed, the Ford GT40 had lapped everyone, and this gorgeous aluminium prototype was locked in a corner of the factory. Only one was ever made. Forza Horizon 5 is, frankly, the closest most of us will ever get to driving it. In terms of how it actually plays in FH5, the XJ13 sits in that satisfying sweet spot of vintage racer: rear-biased weight, a V12 that sounds properly theatrical through a decent set of headphones or surround setup, and handling that rewards smooth inputs over aggressive braking. It is not a meta competitive car for online PvP events, and if you go in expecting to dominate ranked lobbies against tuned modern supercars, you will be disappointed. What it is, though, is a deeply satisfying cruise and showcase car. Point it down a long straight in Mexico's open roads, let that V12 climb through the revs, and the game just feels different. Playground's audio team has done good work here. On a wheel and pedal setup the weight transfer and rear-end looseness come through nicely, and even on a standard gamepad the car has enough character to feel distinct from the rest of the garage. The context matters for the purchase decision. This is a single DLC car, not a car pack. You are paying for one vehicle, and its use case is narrow. Casual players who mostly run Horizon Story missions or Showcase events will get some mileage out of the novelty, but it will not change how often they fire up the game. For online co-op cruises and eventlab touring builds, though, it is one of the most visually arresting cars in the entire roster. Throw it into a custom cross-country route with friends and it becomes a conversation piece every time. The Steam rating sitting around 80 percent positive reflects a crowd that understands exactly what they bought: a collector piece with real historical weight behind it. The honest caveat is that single-car DLC for a live-service racer is always a tough recommendation as a standalone purchase. If you already have or are planning the Car Pass, the XJ13 is one of its highlights and the decision is easy. If you are buying it individually, be honest with yourself about how much you value having historically significant machinery in your virtual garage versus just picking up something that moves the performance needle in multiplayer. For the motorsport history crowd, the car that never raced, now finally racing through a Mexican canyon in full 1960s green livery, is a moment worth having.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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