Alex Unleashed on Cars

With Forza Horizon 4 now at its end-of-life status it’s time to look back at the games life and consider whether the game was any good or was actually rather underwhelming. So, let’s break this down into segments: gameplay, cars, map, soundtrack & miscellaneous Gameplay FH4’s whole gameplay and progression centres around the Festival Playlist and Forzathon, it’s what’s known as a Live Service game, relying on regular updates with new content rather than having a main campaign to work through and post game content afterwards to keep you playing and as a reward. Whilst it is good that we were getting batches of cars every 4 weeks for free and only requiring an hour or so’s game time, the issue though is that to access this you needed Wifi and some challenges required a paid Xbox Live Gold Membership which lets be fair, the kids/teens this game is fundamentally targeted aren’t going to be able pay for, effectively locking away content behind a paywall only adults can access whic...

 There are plenty of cars that have gone done in history for their excellence, either through movies, high sales or generally being well remembered, But there are plenty of cars that don't get enough credit or their legacy is simply forgotten, so here's a list of what I think are the most overlooked and underrated cars that deserve their time in the spotlight and we should start talking about. As always here are a few cars that didn’t make the cut. Honourable Mentions Chevrolet Corvette C5 (1997-2004)- What makes the C5 underappreciated is the cars incredible racing track record, it was the only car that could hold a candle to the Dodge Viper GTS-R in the ALMS (American Le Mans Series) and when manufacturer support was dropped for the Vipers, the Corvette’s became untouchable until the Prodrive Ferrari 550’s came onto the scene. And don’t forget, the base car cost £37,000 which is incredibly good value for money even compared to a Lotus Esprit V8 or Mitsubishi 3000 GT, and do...

  From the outset I have to say this has to be the most exhilarating drive I’ve been on yet. But before the drive, I was able to look around the mighty DBS. It still looks like a conventional Aston Martin, the grille and the general shape is still typical Aston Martin styling, inside I wasn’t blown away by the interior, but it was a nice place to be, a lot of owners really like personalizing their cars though the owner of this particular one had kept it very understated bar some red piping on the seats. The seats are mounted low and do a good job of keeping you comfortable but also keep you secure. Whilst the infotainment screen no longer rises from the dashboard it is at least modestly sized rather than consuming the whole centre console. I wasn’t sold on the digital readout for revs and speed though, the first car to need it was the Lexus LF-A because it’s V10 engine revved so quickly, a conventional needle couldn’t keep up. Here though, I’m not sure it’s necessary and the co...

So, motoring fans have been fuming as of late as Ford revealed “the legend returns” in the form of the new Ford Capri. Now this is something Ford has been trying since the original Capri coupe went out of production in Europe in 1984 and the UK/Ireland in 1986. We got the Probe (which was the first US Ford since the Model T sold in the UK) in ‘94, followed by the Cougar in ’98 and the Puma the year prior. But the Probe had a silly name and had been around in the US for several years, the Cougar wasn’t much of a driver’s car and the Puma whilst an excellent car sadly was never replaced. There has been no Ford coupe in the UK since 2002. And no the Mustang doesn’t count! It’s hard to get across just how important this new Capri is, but when asked “what kind of car is it?” it’s actually quite hard to describe, because as you can probably tell, this new version is not a 2-door coupe. It’s an electric 4-door hatch/SUV. Since the Capri concept was spotted a couple of months ago, fans h...

  I discussed with some friends a while ago what the best series of Top Gear was and following that I did some thinking and rewatched every series to come to a conclusion. And my conclusion was that series 5 was my favourite. And what I think set this series apart from almost all the other series was the structure of the series. What do I mean by that? Well, if you look at how the episodes are ordered and which films feature, the series starts off somewhat humble, we have the new Porsche 911, another Hammond stunt (how many bouncy castles can an ice cream van jump?) and the Vauxhall Monaro, Chrysler 300C & Jaguar S-Type R on Pennine Sands alongside the usual news and Star in a Reasonably Priced Car. Then as we go along, we get the Ferrari Enzo, Jeremy’s Nürburgring challenge, the £1500 Porsches and then the final 3 episodes are where we get the best bits yet. The Top Gear Awards, Ferrari 612 vs Plane, Renault F1 car and the Ariel Atom destroying Jeremy’s face. There are als...

  I think it’s fair to say that cars are all becoming a bit samey, I mean, have you seen the Renault range? All of them except the Clio and 5EV look the same. But can you blame them? When manufactures' dare to be different, they often flop in sales but eventually can become the apple of enthusiast’s eyes. Just look at the Mazda RX-7. First things first, it is most certainly a good-looking car, most Japanese cars at the time were very square, boxy designs, and yet here’s a very swooping curvy , European design, it’s very probably the best-looking Japanese car to date. So, it looks different but is also very unique under the skin. The engine is a classic Mazda rotary engine, it’s only a 1.3 but it has 2 turbo’s that make 236 BHP (in UK spec) and can propel the featherweight coupe to 60 in little over 5 seconds. It’s very fast and when you get to a corner, you find grip and very strong brakes, it stops from 70 in just 44.8 metres, a BMW M3 EVO takes 48.3 metres. For a car that cos...

  1993 saw big changes in the world of endurance racing. Group C had collapsed following the rule changes to favour 3.5 litre naturally aspirated engines in 1991, GT racing was on the rise and manufacturers knew this. The 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans saw a tidal wave of entrants into the GT1, 2 and IMSA GT classes. Everything from a Bugatti EB110 to 3 Honda NSX's were being entered. But 1 manufacturer had a plan on how to exploit the rules. Dauer was an unheard-of brand at the time and still is, but in collaboration with Porsche, they planned to homologate a Group C Porsche 962 into a limited-run road car and then enter it into the top GT1 class. Now this isn’t the first time car makers have bent the rules to win races, hell this wasn’t even the first time Porsche had cheated to win Le Mans, they did it back in 1969 with the 917 and then again in 1996 with the 911 GT1 (which would later win Le Mans in 1998 after extensive modifications). But anyways. Dauer’s plan was set, with back...