Drag racing in Forza Horizon 6 isn’t about cornering and drifting. It’s about flooring the gas and disappearing into thin air while your opponent is still blinking. The key here is takeoff, acceleration, and top straight-line speed. Yes, the best drag cars are usually useless in circuit racing or off-roading—they’re too specialized, that’s all. But the good news: with the right tuning and customization, you can turn almost any car into a drag racer. Almost. Just in case you don’t feel like experimenting, here’s a list of cars that blow away opponents before they even get into first gear.
Table of Contents
Top Drag Racing Cars in Forza Horizon 6
VPEsports personally recommends taking a closer look at these four—their acceleration is beyond comprehension:
-
Mazda MX-5 Miata Forza Edition
-
Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro Forza Edition
-
Nissan GT-R Black Edition (R35) Forza Edition
-
Aston Martin Valhalla Concept Car
You’d think the fastest cars in the game would also be the best at drag racing. But no—the Forza Edition Miata (incidentally, the easiest to obtain) boasts some kind of demonic performance right out of the box and comes with stock drag tires. It’s the undisputed king of the drag races, at least right out of the box. The other three are harder to obtain: either you can randomly select them from a wheel of fortune or shell out a hefty sum of credits.
Quickly tune your car for drag racing with ready-made presets
Make these monsters even faster? Easy. Arrive at any Horizon festival and go to the “Upgrades and Tuning” menu (under the “Cars” tab). Click “Find Settings,” search for “Drag,” and the system will display ready-made presets tailored for drag. Use them.
If you’re craving some manual labor, crank up your speed, acceleration, and launch performance to the max, and be sure to install drag tires. And one more thing: master the launch control system and other FH6 assistants—learn how to launch off the line like you’re being catapulted. Without it, even with the best car, you’ll lose the first few meters.
Detailed manual tuning of drag cars in FH6
In drag racing, the rules of the game change radically. If you need a fine balance in circuit racing, then only two factors matter: brutal grip at the start and a complete lack of air resistance before the finish line. Parameters that would instantly ruin handling in regular races (like loose rear suspension or zero downforce) become your main weapons on a straight line.
Adjusting the gearbox and gear ratios of a racing transmission
We install a racing transmission right away. No other options. This is a must-have, which unlocks manual adjustment of gear ratios. Skimping on this part guarantees a bad start.
Next, we delve into the final drive settings. Lower the ratio: you get a wild acceleration from a standing start. Raise it: you increase the top speed. For classic quarter-mile races, the ideal range is 3.50–4.20. If you’re planning on flying down long highways, feel free to crank the slider up to 3.00–3.50.
Keep first gear as tight as possible. The car’s goal is to accelerate without slipping in a split second, not to grind the tires to a halt for the first third of the distance. Distribute the remaining gears evenly. Toward the end of the range, it’s best to move them slightly closer together to prevent the engine from dipping in revs during shifts.
Final Drive Setup by Drivetrain Type
Suspension, differential, and downforce parameters
The chassis setup is straightforward: we set the rear springs as soft as possible and compress the front springs. When starting off, the car’s weight is transferred sharply rearward, pressing the drive wheels into the asphalt. The rigid front end prevents the car from diving. As expected, we lower the rear ground clearance lower than the front.
Now the differential. We lock the rear for acceleration to 100%, and reset the braking to 0%. All-wheel drive (AWD) owners should avoid overdoing the front axle: set the acceleration at 15-25%. Raise the acceleration any higher, and the front wheels will start fighting the rear wheels instead of pulling the car forward.
Forget about aerodynamics. Turn the downforce down to absolute zero to avoid dragging an invisible parachute. (The only exception is for ultra-powerful, lightweight rear-wheel drive vehicles, where minimal downforce prevents skidding.) Release the tire pressure all the way to the bottom. The contact patch becomes wider, and grip in the first few meters increases exponentially.
Basic Drift Setup
And finally. All this fiddling with the telemetry is pointless without the right tires. Buy only drag tires. They warm up instantly and grip the track better than any racing slicks could ever hope to.
Where can I find the Mazda MX5 Miata Forza Edition in the game?
Want that Mazda MX-5 Miata Forza Edition? You won’t have to spend hours spinning it or save up millions. There’s an easier way. At the main Horizon festival site, just north of the Festival Kilometre Drag Meet, there’s a special rare car spawn point called the Aftermarket Car Spot. This is where the Forza Edition Miata has a chance of spawning.
The rest is purely mechanical. Reload the map: enter any race or restart the game. Repeat until the car appears. I got it after the third restart, so it won’t eat up much time. Then all that’s left is to buy it for 500,000 credits. It’s not the most expensive purchase in FH6, but make sure you have some working methods for making quick money. Without them, half a million can become an unexpected problem.
Next article: Beginner Guide — From Settings to Festival Legend.
