Fastest Drag Car In Forza Horizon 5 Guide

Drifting around Mexico is fun, but drag racing has a special place in every entusiasta del coche’s heart. We check out the fastest drag cars in Forza Horizon 5.

• Introduction
• Forza Horizon 5 Drag Strip Locations
• How to Use Launch Control in Forza Horizon 5
• Drag Car Upgrades & Tuning
• Fastest Drag Car in Horizon 5
• Conclusion

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Introduction

Don’t get us wrong – there’s nothing that we love more than drifting and drift cars here at Drifted.

Although there’s nothing quite like the smell of burning rubber in the morning, we’ll admit that few things are as exciting as drag racing when it comes to sheer high-speed thrills, and Forza Horizon 5 captures this perfectly.

Forza Horizon 5 features more than 600 choices within its ever-growing car list roster after the latest updates.

Although this will undoubtedly continue to grow over time, fans already have a good idea of which cars will cross the line fastest in any of the game’s drag strips.

Speaking of drag strips, fans will have a blast in Forza Horizon 5’s extended purpose-built drag racing sections that should give the fastest cars in the space the opportunity to maximize their redline-screaming potential and reach their theoretical top speeds.

Spoiler alert: The longest drag strip in-game is a mile long!

However, because it is easy to drop in an entirely new powerplant in most cars in Forza Horizon 5, just about any car can become a decent drag racer with the right upgrades and tunes. Heck, even the humble VW Beetle might be able to embarrass the Koenigsegg Jesko in the ¼ mile with a simple engine transplant.

So if you think about it, the fastest drag car in Forza Horizon 5 can be anything from a simple people-mover from the 1900s to one of the fastest sports cars in history.

Nevertheless, we have prepared an exciting list of drag cars to help you top the drag strip leaderboards in Playground Games’ latest addition to the Horizon franchise.

Buckle up. It’s going to be a wild ride to the finish line!

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Forza Horizon 5 Drag Strip Locations

If you want to drag race in Forza Horizon 5, you will need a long and wide stretch of smooth roads to unleash the 1000+ horsepower your best drag car in Forza Horizon 5 possesses.

While the highways might sound like a great place to test out your best cars, the presence of random vehicles and motorists will force you to slow down or swerve to avoid crashing – both of which sap you of precious top speed.

So let’s not even get started with the subtle curves and kinks on public roads in Forza Horizon 5.

Fortunately, the game features a selection of dedicated drag strips and events that should let players test out their high-horsepower drag build in-game without distractions.

These drag strips are abandoned airstrips that once accommodated aircraft around Forza Horizon 5’s fictional Mexico. So these drag strips should be straight with smooth pavement where players can achieve maximum grip all day long.

With that said, here are a couple of great drag strips in Forza Horizon 5:

Horizon Festival Drag Strip

Length: 0.6 Miles

Players got the first taste of Forza Horizon 5 drag racing in the game’s opening sequence, where players must sprint to the Horizon Festival Drag Strip in no less than the Mercedes AMG One.

The runway is pretty wide, as well, and easily accommodates a couple of cars simultaneously.

The drag strip is located at the Horizon Festival site itself. So it shouldn’t be too challenging to find in-game.

Aerodromo Drag Strip (La Selva Airstrip)

Length: 1.0 mile

The Aerodromo Drag Strip is one of the most famous drag strips in Forza Horizon 5 because of its perfect 1.0-mile runway stretch. Thanks to this drag strip’s ideal length, players can easily compare standing mile runs and trap speeds in this drag strip.

Players only need to drive a few miles south of the Horizon Festival site to arrive at the Aerodromo Drag Strip.

Teotihuacan Drag Strip

Length: 0.8 Miles

The Teotihuacan Drag Strip is a 0.8-mile-long Drag Strip located on the eastern part of the map that is also one of the main drag strips in Forza Horizon 5.

Players can find the Teotihuacan Drag Strip on the eastern part of the map. If you’re coming from the Horizon Festival site, scan the right side of the map and find the Teotihuacan drag strip.

Drag runs for full builds in this drag strip run in the 11-second range.

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How to Use Launch Control in Forza Horizon 5

As we have alluded to, upgrades and tunes make a massive difference in drag racing in Forza Horizon 5. Two similar cars with identical tunes can post very different trap speeds and drag times depending on their tune.

And then there’s the launch – one of the most exciting (or frustrating) things about drag racing in Forza Horizon 5. Drag racing game enthusiasts know just how crucial getting the perfect launch will be in setting a blazing fast ¼-mile drag time in-game.

Mess up the launch, and you’re easily looking at a few couple hundred-of-a-second time penalty right away. But nail the launch, and you’re on your way to setting a personal record across the Horizon Festival Drag Strip.

With that in mind, check out this launch tutorial by SwiftySZN where he goes in-depth on how to use launch control in a drag car in Forza Horizon 5.

His tutorial is handy for turbocharged vehicles, so give his video a good watch.

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Drag Car Upgrades & Tuning

Drag upgrades for Forza Horizon 5 will be the usual fully-upgradeable Race-grade parts for the engine, drivetrain, tires, suspension, etc. This is so that you can tweak and customize as many parameters as possible with your drag car.

Essential tuning items for drag racing include:

• Engine Swaps
• Engine Upgrades (Race)
• Drivetrain Upgrades (Race)
• Tires (Drag)
• Suspension (Race)
• Aero
• Weight Reduction

Engine Swaps

Swapping in an entirely different engine to various cars in-game unlocks their potential to be some of the fastest drag cars in Forza Horizon 5.

To get maximum performance from any car in-game, swap out the stock engine and drop in the next best engine the tuning shop offers for your chosen drag car.

Engine Upgrades

You don’t have to think these upgrades through, as most of these upgrades increase power to the maximum when upgraded to the “Race” option. Besides, a drag car will need all the power to cut down on those standing mile times and increase trap speeds.

Just remember to do the engine swap before upgrading any engine components, as engine upgrades will differ from engine to engine.

Drivetrain Upgrades

You won’t need the 8, or 10-speed transmission for drag racing in Forza Horizon 5, so the race transmission should do the trick.

Upgrade every other drivetrain component under the drivetrain upgrades to improve power delivery to the wheels.

Tires

Speaking of wheels, the Drag Tire is a must-have upgrade for drag racing in Forza Horizon 5.

The drag tire option is presumably a drag slick compound that should improve your drag car’s ability to leave the line as quickly as possible.

Suspension

The stock suspension won’t do it for drag racing, as the soft springs will compress under hard acceleration. This compression will lead to a slight lag in power delivery, which could rob your drag car of a couple of valuable milliseconds.

Upgrading to race suspension should stiffen things up quite a bit and lead to a more efficient power transfer from the engine to the rear wheels.

However, don’t go too crazy with the suspension stiffness, as too hard a rear setting will introduce unnecessary wheelspin.

Aero

Buying Aero upgrades for your drag car will allow you to reduce or increase the drag your car exhibits.

You’re going to want as little drag as possible. So turn down the front and rear downforce as low as possible for the best-standing mile times.

Weight Reduction

Less weight = less mass to move around for the same amount of power.

Therefore, buying weight reduction upgrades will help your car launch faster and carry more speed through the standing mile in Forza Horizon 5.

Drag Tuning

Aside from sheer power, tuning for the optimal gear ratios will help your car cross the ¼-mile much faster than if it was sitting on stock gear ratios.

You’ll probably not need a very tall 5th-7th gear when drag racing, so optimizing your gear ratios for the first four gears will be your best bet.

Now that you’ve fully upgraded your drag car of choice in Forza Horizon 5, you can tweak some of the essential tuning options CRILLA outlines in his How to Tune a Drag Car Forza Horizon 5 video below.

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Fastest Drag Car in Forza Horizon 5

We will be honest – narrowing down Forza Horizon 5’s 600-car roster to just a handful of the fastest drag cars in Forza Horizon 5 can be tricky.

Engine and drivetrain swaps can make any car a drag monster in Forza Horizon 5.

Give vehicles such as the Volkswagen Beetle the ability to rip up the quarter-mile just as quickly as a Koenigsegg Jesko can – even with both cars fully tuned.

Speaking of both cars being fully tuned, drag tunes can also have a significant impact when it comes to how fast you can cross the finish line in any of the three prominent drag racing locations around Mexico.

With the proper engine swap and tune, two fully upgraded, identical vehicles can post drastically different trap speeds and drag times.

Another thing to note about drag racing in Forza Horizon 5 is the length of the drag strip. The fastest drag cars in the ¼ Mile aren’t necessarily going to be just as fast when doing the ½-mile drag. So again, tuning plays a massive part in how your drag car will behave in these races.

Nevertheless, we have developed some of the fastest straight-line missiles in Forza Horizon 5. But, of course, only one will be crowned the Fastest Drag Car in Forza Horizon 5.

10. Koenigsegg CC8S

Koenigsegg fans will recognize the CC8S as the car that started it all for the company. And believe us when we say that Koenigsegg has come an impressive way since they first unveiled the CC8S in 2002.

The CC8S is powered by a 4.7-liter supercharged Ford V8 engine that put out 564 horsepower – an impressive number in the early 2000s.

The CC8S returns from the previous game with arguably worse stats across the board. However, with the correct mods and careful tuning, the CC8S will rip up the Aerodromo Drag Strip’s standing mile in a blistering 18.3 seconds.

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 18.3 seconds

9. Ford Hoonicorn Mustang

The Ford Hoonicorn Mustang is arguably one of the most iconic Forza Horizon vehicles ever.

The Ford Hoonicorn Mustang’s 1400-horsepower AWD V8 will propel the car to 250 MPH in Forza Horizon 5. With that much power, it’s easy to mistake the Hoonicorn Mustang for a purpose-built drag car, but that cannot be farther from the truth.

Fans will recognize the Ford Hoonicorn Mustang as one of the best tire-shredding drift cars in the Forza Horizon series.

We know. We know – this is a list of the fastest drag race cars in Forza Horizon 5, not the Best Drift Car in Forza Horizon 5. But the Ford Hoonicorn Mustang can do both ends of the spectrum so well that we just had to add it to our list anyway!

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 18.0 seconds

8. Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5

Ford’s V8 powerplants are known to handle boatloads of power. And the Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5’s 460-horsepower Coyote V8 can be tuned to give the RTR the power it needs to complete the Aerodromo Drag Strip’s standing mile in just 18.2 seconds.

Speaking of power, 1000+ horsepower is a cakewalk for the Mustang RTR.

Upgrading everything, engine-wise, will give the Mustang enough power to embarrass drag cars twice or thrice its sticker price.

The Ford Mustang RTR has a wide body kit and black RTR wheels to complete its go-fast looks. As an added benefit, it also makes an epic drift car if you’re looking for something that ticks multiple boxes.

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 18.2 seconds

7. Hotwheels Bone Shaker

The Hotwheels Bone Shaker is one of the few Hot Wheels cars ever converted into real-world concept cars.

Picture Car Warehouse built a real-life Bone Shaker using a Corvette C6 chassis and slapped on a 5.7-liter V8 engine that produces 402 horsepower and 398 lb-ft of torque. Power gets sent to the rear wheels via a six-speed transmission.

The Forza series has featured the Bone Shaker in several games, such as Forza Horizon 4, Forza Motorsport 6, and now Forza Horizon 5.

The Bone Shaker might look like a toy, but don’t be fooled – a fully-upgraded Bone Shaker will cross the standing mile in 18.05 seconds. Not bad for a blocky-looking chassis.

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 18.05 seconds

6. Ariel Atom V8 500

What would happen if you slapped a 500-horsepower V8 engine into what is a go-kart chassis? The Ariel Atom V8 500.

The Ariel Atom V8 500 has all the ingredients for a zippy track monster. The super-lightweight chassis and accessible power make it feel like a go-kart on steroids around Mexico’s race tracks.

That’s great, but this list features the best drag cars in Forza Horizon 5, not the best track cars in Forza Horizon 5.

So how fast can the Ariel Atom V8 500 cross in the standing mile? Fully upgraded and optimized gear ratios, the Ariel Atom V8 500 will cross Aerodromo Drag Strip’s standing mile in just 17.9 seconds. Absurd.

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 17.9 seconds

5. Mosler MT900S

Mosler’s MT900S is probably the least recognizable sports car on this list, but it landed at number 5 for a good reason. More on that in a bit.

Mosler is an American sports car manufacturer founded by Warren Mosler in 1985.

Some of the more iconic cars to come from the company was the Consulier GTP, which was so successful in the IMSA Supercar series that the organizers decided to ban the vehicle outright for future races.

The Mosler MT900S is the street-legal version of the company’s MT900R – a car designed to compete in various motorsport series.

In Forza Horizon 5, the Mosler MT900S’s Chevy-derived LS1 V8 can be swapped out for a Lamborghini-derived V12, giving the MT900S over 1500 horsepower in-game. With that much power, the Mosler MT900S will cross the standing mile in just 17.89 seconds.

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 17.89 seconds

4. BMW X5 M Forza Edition

The BMW X5 M Forza Edition is a pre-tuned version of the BMW X5 M found in Forza Horizon 5 that was part of the VIP Membership DLC.

Don’t let the four doors and the rear hatch fool you – the BMW X5 M FE features some of the best Acceleration and Launch stats of any stock vehicle in the game (10 Acceleration rating and 10 Launch rating), making it a drag monster that players can also take to the circuit if they wish to.

Fully tuned, the BMW X5 M FE will cross the Aerodromo Drag Strip’s standing mile in less than 18 seconds – not bad for what is a grocery-getter SUV.

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 17.8-seconds

3. Rimac Concept Two

Love them or hate them, we cannot deny the monstrous acceleration that comes with a hybrid or fully electric powerplant.

Hybrid and electric power plants were initially developed with efficient and low CO2 emissions in mind. However, performance car companies have since utilized the technology to augment the internal combustion engine’s torque gaps and increase overall engine performance.

The Rimac Concept Two takes it up a couple of notches and features one electric motor per wheel that combine to make a staggering 1887 horsepower and 1695 lb-ft of torque. Mind you, that torque comes on instantly, which means that the Rimac Concept two should be able to accelerate from 0-60 MPH in just 1.85 seconds.

How does this all translate to Forza Horizon 5? Well, the Rimac Concept Two will cross the standing mile with a time of just 17.7 seconds. Not bad for a green machine, huh?

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 17.7 seconds

2. McLaren F1 GT

The McLaren F1 was the world’s fastest car in 1998 when Andy Wallace pushed the F1 to a 242.95 MPH top speed.

To this day, the McLaren F1 is still one of the world’s fastest cars and arguably the fastest NA production car ever built.

The McLaren F1 GT featured in Forza Horizon 5 is a limited-run road-going version of the 1997 F1 GTR race car.

How limited? Just three McLaren F1 GTs have ever existed.

Nevertheless, the legendary BMW S70/2 engine mounted at the rear of the McLaren F1 GTR will propel the car to a face-ripping 285 MPH top speed and a rapid 17.5-second standing mile run.

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 17.5-seconds

1. Koenigsegg Jesko

Currently, only one car can breach the 300 MPH barrier in Forza Horizon 5 – the Koenigsegg Jesko.

Remember when we said Koenigsegg had come a long way since the 2000s? This is it. The Jesko is the pinnacle of Koenigsegg engineering and is the culmination of their not-so-humble beginnings with the CC8S.

While the classic Koenigsegg cab-forward design language lives on in the Jesko, the performance numbers are not even worth comparing to the original CC8S.

The Jesko features a redesigned V8 engine that produced 1600 horsepower on E85 and 1280 hp on pump gas. However, the show’s star is the new Lightspeed Transmission that makes lightning-quick gear changes possible.

The high-horsepower V8 engine and ultra-quick transmission help propel the Jesko through the Aerodromo Drag Strip in just 17.4 seconds, making the Koenigsegg Jesko the fastest drag car in Forza Horizon 5 and a must-have for any drag racing fans’ garage.

Aerodromo Drag Strip Standing Mile: 17.4 seconds

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Conclusion

Drag racing is arguably even more popular in Forza Horizon 5 than in the previous game. Fans are raving about drag cars behaving more realistically in-game, which explains why more and more players post their drag builds and drag cars in Forza Horizon 5 lists online.

While the game does not feature “real” ¼-mile and ½-mile drag strips, Mexico’s multiple runways mean that players will have a drag strip as long as they were used to in Forza Horizon 4. Juiced-up drag cars should have no problems reaching the 250+ MPH top speeds they can in-game.

That said, most cars in-game can easily reach that number in stock form.

Still, thanks to the engine swap option for many cars in Forza Horizon 5, players should be able to pick and choose almost any car they want to turn into a drag car and still post decent numbers on the drag strip with the right tune.

Nevertheless, all ten cars featured in this list are some of the fastest cars in any drag race up to the standing mile.

As such, it’s no surprise that the game’s fastest car – the Koenigsegg Jesko – topped our list for the best drag car in Forza Horizon 5. As the only car with a 300 MPH top speed in-game, it’s hard to beat Koenigsegg’s fastest supercar in a straight line in Forza Horizon 5.

The rest of the cars on this list aren’t that far off, as well. The slowest car on this list, the CC8S, will still cross the standing mile in just 18.3 seconds – only .9 seconds slower than its younger brother, the Jesko. Impressive stuff, considering the CC8S only has ⅓ the horsepower of the Jesko.

If you feel you’ve mastered what drag racing offers in Forza Horizon 5, we’ve got one final challenge – see how quickly you can get a Peel P50 down the drag strip. Would you look at this thing shift?!

As far as challenging fun on the drag strip goes, you’ll struggle to beat trying to control this:

We hope this guide gives you a good idea and the necessary knowledge about the ultimate drag racing cars in Forza Horizon 5.

Once you’ve topped the drag car leaderboards, it’s time to show off your drifting skills. We show you the best drift car in Forza Horizon 5 in our latest guide.

Need to stash your new sports cars somewhere? Try our Forza Horzion 5 Houses guide.

Is your in-game currency looking low now that you’re trying to build your dream drag cars? Learn how to earn credits with our Forza Horizon 5 money glitch guide.

Learn tips for finding and smashing solar panels in Forza Horizon 5 here.

Thank you for reading our Fastest Drag Car in Forza Horizon 5 guide.

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