Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges Guide Series 9 – Winter

It’s Winter in Series 9 of Forza Horizon 5’s Festival Playlist and that means a host of new Weekly Challenges have rolled into play. As is now the norm, we’re here with the best cars, the finest tunes and some little hints and tips which should all help you get through what is on offer. 

Series 9 – Winter covers the usual bases…  Daily Challenges, The Trial, Speed Zones, Seasonal Championships, a bit of a #PHOTOCHALLENGE and more. 

Part 1 – Weekly Challenge – Real Rider

Again, we are tasked by the people at Playground Games to take a car of their choosing and mess about in it. The subject of this week’s challenge is the 2014 Mercedes Benz Unimog, so something a little different at least. 

Chapter 1:  True Realism

First step in the chain, get yourself behind the wheel and take it for a spin.

If you don’t have one yet, it will set you back 100,000 credits from the Autoshow. By comparison, if you wanted one in real life, they are around $200,000. 

Chapter 2: Rubber Treatment

Take your shiny new Unimog and win a Cross Country Race event in it.

I have tuned one up a bit to cope with the off-road trials, the share code is: 623494238. Only A Class, but quick enough!

Chapter 3: King of Rocks

Earn 1 star at the Barranco Trailblazer in your newly tuned Unimog.

This isn’t too tough, and as long as you reach the end of the course with more than 5 seconds remaining, it’s all gravy.

Chapter 4: Versatile

Finally, the last part of this challenge is something that a big, off road tuned truck will excel at: wrecking stuff.

Get 10 Ultimate Wreckage Skills in the Unimog to complete this week’s challenge. I found a good place to get these was around the outside of the stadium, as there are lots of things to smash up.

Part 2 – Weekly Challenges

Once again we find the usual suspects rocking up throughout Series 9 – Winter, with The Trial and Eventlab offerings matched up with a Drift Zone, Trail Blazer and Speed Zone. There are a couple of Seasonal Championships to enjoy too. 

Eventlab – PHASERECON  PresentsSkey Castle Circuit

Another week, another Eventlab, and this time we have to use any Hot Hatch car tuned up to A Class 800.

For these situations, the answer is always a Focus RS, and my share code is: 151963655.

AWD and a bit more power make this little car punch above its weight. 

Winning will grant us an Acura NSX from 2017, so it’s worth trying to cope with another stupid swoopy sky track. Have I ever told you how much I dislike the Eventlab events?

The Trial – Mustang Mania

Ready to take on the best that digital racing can offer? We have to find a team from the depths of the interwebs, and race well enough to beat Unbeatable driverbots over the best two out three races. You know the score by now. 

This time we have to use any Mustang, tuned to A Class 800, so I reached for the trusty Shelby. Share code is: 402868577.

For our success (we’re bound to win, right?) we will receive a 1971 Ford Mustang. And very nice it is too.

Seasonal Championship – Baja Blazers

Some racing to help us unwind after a long week at work, and this time we are faced with a choice of Pickups and 4X4’s, to a maximum of Class 600. Not my favourite class, I have to say, but still, you’ve gotta be in it to win it. I went with a Ford F150 SVT Raptor, and its share code is: 139383916.

Winning the championship (or best two out of three in a convoy) will get us a nice #11 Ford F-150

Seasonal Championship – All Stars

This is the second of the championships against Highly Skilled Driverbots, and while the choice of car is somewhat limited, the action promises to be slow and boring.

Classic Muscle cars, tuned to a D Class 500? Probably be faster to walk around the course…

Still, I went with a bone stock Pontiac GTO, mainly because it’s one of the few classic muscle cars that meet the criteria. 

Winning in this event will get you a Hummer H1, so you too can pretend to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Speed Zone – La Silica

A hypercar, tuned to S2 Class 998? And an average speed of a mere 145 mph? Well, I went with an unusual choice – a Porsche 918 Spyder that I had tickled a bit to give a share code of: 113809560. 

Approaching from the north seems a little easier, but the last corner is a doozy, so be careful. Best of all, when you’re done, pop on over to Copper Canyon to complete this week’s photo challenge!

A SuperWheelspin will be your reward if you manage to keep your speed up.

Drift Zone – Los Campos

Drifting, my favourite, and this time we have to slide a Ford about, tuned to a max of B Class 700.

Now, for drifting, it’s big power and rear wheel drive we need, so I went with a Capri RS3100, as they are famed for spending more time going sideways than forward.

The share code is: 125134743 and we have to score more than 150,000 drift points on the run.

Now, be warned: this car has 938 bhp and weighs 940 kg, so it’s a bit bitey, but get it into a nice rhythm and it will smash the score required.

Slide about sufficiently and a lovely super wheelspin will be yours.

Trail Blazer – Malpais

Another Trail Blazer this week, after the fun of doing one in the Unimog. At least this time it is in something a little more suited to the task – an unlimited Offroad vehicle in an A Class 800.

Obviously, offroad = Jeep, and so the trusty Trailcat comes out again. The share code is: 118411445.

We have to finish with more than 21 seconds on the clock, a full 6 seconds faster than the old 3 star time. Hitting the start gate fast and keeping the hammer down will see you right.

Reach the end with enough time on the clock and you’ll gain another Super wheelspin. I’m noticing a pattern…

Part 3 – Other Challenges

Series 9 – Winter is a bit sparse in terms of other challenges, with a new Horizon Open and the standard #PHOTOCHALLENGE in place. 

Photo Challenge – #SPEEDTEAM

Let’s take a photo for a change this week, shall we? The theme seems to be fast cars, as we have to take a photo of any Hypercar at the Copper Canyon.

I’ll include the photo I took and my location for it below to provide inspiration / a good laugh (delete from your mind as appropriate). 

Completing the photo challenge this week will net us a beautiful set of Horizon Race Gloves. Totally worth it. Honest. 

Horizon Open – Drift Racer

This is a fairly simple task this week, taking place in the Horizon Open events. We have to earn 20 drift or E-drift skills while competing in any event. I don’t know about you, but this sounds tailor made for the Drift playlist, doesn’t it? Take your best rear wheel drive car of the appropriate class (it can be a bit random) and slide it around to win.

Completing this challenge will see us walk away with a 1971 Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R, which is better than a poke in the eye.

Horizon Arcade – Mini Games

Last but not least, we have to play the Horizon Arcade mini games and complete Round 3 for a measly 3 Season points.You know what to do – pick your favourite event from Drift, Air, Chaos, Wreckage and Speed, get in a suitable car (any of the Formula Drift ones will win the Drift events easy) and let rip. Complete Round 3 to tick off another weekly challenge.

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The arrival of Winter means that we’re through the midway point of Series 9 and that means you should really have completed both of the Monthly Rivals challenges which are in place. In case you haven’t, you just need to set some clean laps around the Chihuahua Circuit or in the Forza EV challenge across the Horizon Mexico Circuit. 

Earn enough points through the challenges and you’ll be gifted some new motors. Those in place for Series 9 – Winter are the Dodge Super Bee (20pts) and Zenvo ST1 (40pts), whilst the full Series 9 options of the Hot Wheels Twin Mill and Ferrari Dino are both still there too. 

All that is left is for Series 9 to conclude with the Spring challenges. Be sure to find our full walkthrough and tips piece as we let you know how best to gather up the Hot Wheels Metro and Peel Trident.

It’s not long now until the new Hot Wheels expansion kicks off for real in Forza Horizon 5 too. If you haven’t yet got the game, you’ll find it playable on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S or PC via the Xbox Store. It’s on Game Pass too.   

The comments are below – we’d love to know if our tunes have helped you out.