Forza Motorsport celebrates its first anniversary with stats, drifts, and Mustangs

I can’t help but feel that every car aficionado might find it funny that Turn 10 has chosen the legendary Mustang as the featured vehicle of the new Drift Mode update. All cheekiness aside, Forza Motorsport is celebrating its first anniversary in a surprisingly delightful way, with ponies aplenty.

Now, I’ve been quite vocal in my displeasure with how the recent Forza games have been handled. Between an annoyingly excessive reliance on FOMO and a dearth of permanent, non-timed content, it wasn’t looking good earlier this year. Yet, Turn 10 has managed to turn things around and I’m now happy to say that Forza Motorsport is in a reasonably good spot. Its anniversary celebration, specifically, will be all about custom-built Mustangs and drifting, and I’m hard-pressed to imagine a better coinciding update. Well, not really, but that’s a different can of worms.

Claim free Mustangs in Forza Motorsport and prepare for Update 13’s imminent release

For all of its many, many faults, Forza Motorsport is now a fairly enjoyable game if you’re not keen on Forza Horizon 5‘s ultra-cheery attitude. When Turn 10 announced late in August that it would return a bunch of previously sunset content and cars, introduce the long awaited Drift Mode, and a variety of other goodness, I was thrilled.

Now, to cap its first year of existence, Forza Motorsport has shared a whole assortment of somewhat interesting statistical trivia and (more importantly) told us what its anniversary content and Update 13 will deliver, specifically. To begin with the lovely new goodies, we’re getting three free new versions of the Ford Mustang:

• Ford #25 Mustang RTR (2024)
• Ford #88 Mustang RTR (2024)
• Ford #130 Mustang RTR (2024)

These are technically “just” different builds of the same car, granted, but they’re neat regardless. All owners of the Forza Motorsport Car Pass, Deluxe Edition, Premium Edition, or the Premium Add-Ons Bundle will also have a chance to get the 2024 Mustang Dark Horse, the reputation of which needs no explanation.

If unlocking a host of new ponies isn’t your forte, though, the other big part of the Update 13 equation is, obviously, the introduction of Drift Mode. Drift Mode is a whole new category of races/events that’s going to add a load of variety to the game’s meta. We’ll have to wait and see how it works in practice, but I expect it to be a fairly standard, if engaging way of interacting with certain vehicles. Besides, more variety is never a bad thing.

Players can also expect a bunch of new options for Multiplayer Races, as well as the hotly anticipated Sunset Peninsula race track. The update’s rollout is going to kick off on October 14, with Turn 10 subsequently releasing more information and the patch notes. Good stuff, overall.