My FH5 Log: "WE WON JUNK CARS AGAIN, WE DRIVE A LOT"

The collaboration between Forza Horizon 5 and Donut Media continues with the Upgrade Heroes series update where players gained full access to the Horizon Test Track feature, originally accessible only to the Donut Media Horizon Story last December 2022, as well as the recent swarm of, you guessed it, JUNK CARS! LOTS AND LOTS OF JUNK CARS!

The highlight of the recent barrage of JUNK CARS is the arrival of the Donut Media Nissan 350Z (Fairlady Z) cars as featured in the Donut Media Hi Low segment. In case you don't know, the Donut Media boys ran the Hi Low segment where they buy two identical used cars and then modify them with a specified budget. 

Nolan's Z33 costs $20,000 worth of cheap modifications while James' Z33 costs $50,000 worth of "really nice" modifications. Both of these modified cars were booted with new coilovers, wheels, tires, new car paint, and some turbochargers. In typical project car fashion, both cars break down, but hey, long story short.

Both of these Donut Media Z33 cars can be won just by clearing both Hi Car and Low Car Horizon Stories. You can even keep your very own Z33 Fairlady Z after the finale as well as other prize cars in store for both stories.

Rather than comparing these two Donut Media Z33s just to determine "does more expensive really mean more better", I decided to let these cars enjoy themselves at the Horizon Badlands against the competition, just to experience the "MO POWA BABEH" mantra both Donut-modified Z33s had. (cue guitar riff noise)

MO POWA BABEH! Guess these Donut Z33s didn't break down just like what James and Nolan experienced it during their little experiment.

The Donut-modified Nissan Z33 Fairlady Zs weren't the only junk cars in store in the Upgrade Heroes update. A trio of junk cars made a comeback in Forza Horizon 5 such as the Syclone, the Typhoon, and the SL65 AMG Black Series.

First up, the GMC Syclone that I won from the Storm Season Playlist. Based on the GMC Sonoma pickup truck, the Syclone has a turbocharged 4.3L V6 engine equipped with a Mitsubishi TD06-17C 8 cm² turbocharger and Garrett water/air intercooler. It develops 280HP of power and 475Nm of torque while mated with a 4-speed automatic. 0-60mph takes about 5.3 seconds and based on a Car & Driver test, it does a quarter-mile run in 14.1 seconds at 93 mph.

Next up is the GMC Typhoon that I won from the Dry Season Playlist. Based on the Jimmy SUV, the Typhoon features the same specs as its Sonoma-based Syclone pickup truck. It has a turbocharged 4.3L V6 engine equipped with a Mitsubishi TD06-17C 8 cm² turbocharger and Garrett water/air intercooler. It develops 280HP of power and 475Nm of torque while mated with a 4-speed automatic.

Lastly, the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series that I won from the Hot Season Playlist. Using the R230 SL65 AMG as its basis, the Black Series is an upgraded version of the said model which comes with an improved version of a 6.0L V12 twin-turbo engine mated with an AMG SPEEDSHIFT PLUS five-speed automatic transmission. With the engine developing 661HP of power, it is the most powerful V12-powered AMG vehicle ever. 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds and top speed limited to 199mph. Aside from its raw power, the Black Series is 250kg lighter than the regular SL65 because of the use of light carbon fiber composite (CFRP) parts and replacing the foldable hardtop roof with a fixed roof.

Having gotten to know the recent swarm of junk cars, let's thrash them across the Horizon Badlands, and see if these clunkers got any chance of surviving these punishing courses...

Wow, these junk cars managed to survive. I guess immortality is their middle name.

As the Donut boys would say, "WE BUY JUNK CARS, WE PAY A LOT. DEPENDING ON THE YEAR THO". Judging by the recent swarm of junk cars looks like we're going to be sticking around with a potential next wave of junk cars until the final series update of FH5 before the transition to the 2023 Forza Motorsport game coming this October.

Could this day get any worse for me as the Horizon Mexico adventure is nearing its twilight? Ah, junk cars...

Forza Horizon 4: Tropical Syclone

The Series 28 update of Forza Horizon 4 is all about trucks being made by the good ol' US of A, and this prize car that I got from the Summer Playlist, the GMC Syclone, is their opening salvo so let's have a quick look at it.

Based on the Sonoma midsize pickup, the special edition GMC Syclone is powered by a 4.3L V6 engine with a Mitsubishi-derived turbocharger and a water/air intercooler from Garrett, producing up to 280hp of power while mated to a 4-speed automatic gearbox, making it capable of hittin 0-60mph in 4.3 seconds and a quarter-mile run of 13.4 seconds, similar to a Corvette or a Ferrari as a certain car magazine said. In addition, the Syclone became the first production truck to come with 4-wheel ABS.

With the quick look done, let's sandblast this tropical cyclone to the beach and see if it can rock me like a hurricane.

Excellent. There's nothing more to talk about.

Forza Motorsport 4: HIJACKED

No no no no... Not the GTA kind of hijacking cars, Hijack. You know, it's Ridge Racer stuff. Hijack. It's a pickup truck that first appeared in Rage Racer at the end of 1996 and then resurfaced again on RR6 in late 2005 when the XBOX 360 first went on sale. Anyway, enough of that analogy because that Hijack pickup only comes into your imagination but what if you want a true-to-life pickup that behaves just like the Hijack pickup?

What we have here in FM4 are three potential sport trucks that have blown away their "pickup" images to become one of the most performance-oriented sport trucks on the market in the not-too-distant past. Those sports trucks might lose their ability to go offroad but they sure are quite a handful when they start to misbehave themselves. Putting big power in a big pickup truck might sound ridiculous but with all that added brute force, it can be as punishing as The Punisher himself.

Take a look at those three sports trucks I had lined up...

GMC Syclone

Based on the GMC Sonoma pickup truck, the Syclone is GMC's high-performance sport truck that was launched in 1991 and then it spawned a Jimmy-based Typhoon a year later. Some critics say that the Syclone pickup has specifications that had more in common with a Porsche rather than pickups even though the Syclone has a turbocharged 4.3L V6 engine equipped with Mitsubishi TD06-17C 8 cm² turbocharger and Garrett water/air intercooler. It develops 280HP of power and 475Nm of torque while mated with a 4-speed automatic. 0-60mph takes about 5.3 seconds and based on a Car & Driver test, it does a quarter-mile run in 14.1 seconds at 93 mph.



Dodge Ram SRT-10


What happens when you drop a big Viper V10 engine under the hood of the Dodge Ram pickup? The answer was the Ram SRT-10 and unlike any other Ram Trucks, which were focused on utilitarian purposes, it was made for the purpose of speed.

It features an 8.3L Viper V10 engine which develops 510HP of power and 712Nm of torque. The regular cab model of the Ram SRT-10 with such an engine has a top speed of 153 mph (246 km/h), and could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 4.9 seconds.

During its tenure, Dodge released several special models for the Ram SRT-10 such as the Viper Club of America Edition, the Yellow Fever, the Commemorative Edition, and the Night Runner. Right when the SRT-10 Ram stopped production after the 2006 model year, about 9,527 Dodge Ram SRT-10s were manufactured.

In 2004, the Ram SRT-10 was hailed as the fastest production truck in the world with an average speed of 154.587 mph (248.784 km/h). This record was beaten by an Australian-made HSV Maloo with a speed of 168.668 mph (271.445 km/h).



Saleen S331


While essentially a tuned version of the Ford F-150 SuperCab FX2, the S331 is Saleen's first-ever pickup truck since 2001 and it was priced at $54,000 for the supercharged model while non-supercharged models priced at $44,000.

The supercharged 5.4L V8 engine that powers it generates about 450HP of power and 500lb-ft of torque while being mated with a 4R75-E 4-speed automatic gearbox.

The S331 Sport Truck featured specially tuned front and rear springs and new shock absorbers specifically designed to withstand the bulk of the 23-inch forged, one-piece aluminum wheels holding 305/40R23 BFG high-performance tires, thus giving it a lower center of gravity.

While high-performance trucks sacrificed their utilitarian traits for performance purposes, the S331 keeps its traits while maintaining its performance quo. The base model has a full payload rating of 1300lbs and it's capable to tow a 5-ton trailer.



Okay, now that we finally get to know more about those sport trucks, let's find out which of these three is the best round the Top Gear Track and that means handing them over to the tamed racing driver...



I had the time! Let's see...

Syclone - 1:33.411
S331 - 1:38.145
Ram SRT-10 - 1:31.274

So based on the times, the V10-powered Dodge Ram is the quickest around the track so by sneaking suspicion, maybe the Ram SRT-10 is quite a sport truck that blown away its pickup image and sacrificed its utilitarian and offroad capabilities to become a muscle truck with a big engine that powers it. The Syclone though, that's just right for sport truck enthusiasts because even though it's not quite as fast as the V10 Ram, it's lighter and I think both of these sports trucks are instant classics because it's going to be very rare to find one of those for grabs. These are definitely future classics because of such rarity and value.

What about the S331? Meh, that's just a tuned Ford F-150 but who cares about it?