Forza Horizon 2 - Playground Select Car Pack (FREE until 11/08/15)

Playground Select Car Pack

Come and get it! The Playground Select Car Pack is here for Forza Horizon 2 for Xbox One. This pack brings six new rides to explore with and dominate the highways and by-ways of southern Europe. And best of all? All six cars are free for a limited time!

That’s right, in celebration of Gamescom 2015, the Playground Select Car pack is free until August 11. To collect your free car pack, just go to the Forza Hub app for Xbox One, click on the “Playground Select Car Pack” story, then click the “Get it Free” button on the first page of the story. From there, you’ll be taken to the Xbox Live Marketplace where you can download the pack for free. Note that if you go to the Xbox Live Marketplace and find the offer by any other method, you will see the pack, but you won’t be able to redeem the pack. The only way to get the pack between August 4 and August 11 is via the Forza Hub app on Xbox One. After August 11, the pack will be available for sale for $5 on the Xbox Marketplace.

The Playground Select Car Pack for Forza Horizon 2 is full of great cars. You may have seen the Volvo S60 Polestar winning in the Swedish Touring Car Championship, or Australia’s V8 Supercars series. Volvo’s limited-edition production model leads off the eclectic mix of muscle and exotics that make up the Playground Select Car Pack. The 1986 Honda Civic Si is this month’s free car. It’s a classic pocket-rocket just waiting to be loved by Honda fans and tuners.



Here’s a look at all the cars in the pack:

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2015 Volvo S60 Polestar

The Swedish carmaker may be best known for building safe family cars but, as anyone who has ever pushed them hard can tell you, performance has always been the heady undercurrent to Volvo’s safety-first mentality. Polestar is Volvo’s racing division that has dominated the Swedish Touring Car Championship and snatched surprise results in Australia’s V8 Supercars with young driver Scott McLaughlin at the S60’s helm. In the limited-production, road-going S60 Polestar, a 345-horsepower turbo-charged inline six meets a Haldex all-wheel-drive system for a thrilling driving experience. Of course, all the safety and comfort you expect from Volvo is included. But in this case, performance is at the forefront.

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1969 Dodge Charger Daytona HEMI

While the Charger Daytona Hemi is closely related (and from a few steps back, virtually indistinguishable) from the Plymouth Superbird, it actually predates the better-known car by about a year. The “aero” cars were created to out-do the Ford Torino Talladega, which was outcompeting the older Charger 500. The only way to go faster was either more power or a clever design. When the engineers did the math, they realized that power was not an option, so to the wind tunnel they went. The aero gear—the nosecone, flush rear window, and functional spoilers—added a lot of weight, but lowered the drag coefficient to just 0.28, making it incredibly fast. In fact, the Charger Daytona was the first NASCAR entry to do more than 200 mph, in the hands of Buddy Baker in 1970. Street cars were needed to homologate the racing variant, so Dodge built 505 street versions. As for the rear spoiler, there’s a controversy about whether its extreme height was for aerodynamics or to allow the trunk to open. Ultimately, it is functional and the trunk opens just fine, so it’s a moot point.

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1997 McLaren F1 GT

Is the standard McLaren F1 too common for you? The F1 GT may be the answer to your problem, as just three were produced as Le Mans homologation specials. As the briefest glance will tell you, the primary change from regular (“short-tail”) F1 to the GT variant is the long tail and improved aerodynamics. That’s because the F1 was originally intended not to race, but rather to be the ultimate road-going supercar. It accomplished that in spades, but when it was finally decided to race the F1 at Le Mans, testing showed that to achieve the high speeds required and to be competitive, the GT would require the aerodynamic improvements. The Le Mans variant was known as the GTR, and it managed to secure second and third place at the 1997 race, proving that the modification program was largely a success. The road-going version was also a success from an enthusiast’s standpoint—an incredibly rare version of an already superlative car—perhaps the closest a lucky driver can come to taking one of McLaren’s incredible race cars out onto a public road. Or, more appropriately, a track with a straight long enough to explore the F1 GT’s top speed, if you dare.

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1978 Ford Mustang II King Cobra

There’s a snake in the grille, instead of a pony, because this isn’t your ordinary Mustang II. It’s the King Cobra, the fanciest version on offer in the heady days of the late 1970s, when automotive visual flair was at its wildest. Available in a number of bold colors with bright red pinstripes, a huge hooded cobra menacing onlookers from the power-blistered hood, and the large “King Cobra” script on the tail and doors, there’s no mistaking it for anything else on the road. The sporty looks continue to the “lacy” pinstriped alloy wheels and the “5.0” badge on the hood bulge. The 302 cid V8 exhales through a pair of chrome exhaust tips poking out from under the ducktail spoiler on the trunk-lid. There are few cars that get you in the mood to pop in a period 8-track and rock out like the King Cobra. But if you’re not feeling nostalgic about the ‘70s performance, rummaging around in the garage will present numerous options for making this snake more vicious.

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1952 Fiat 8V Supersonic

Fiat designed the 8V Supersonic to challenge their Italian rivals in racing’s 2.0-liter GT class. True to its intentions, this diamond in the rough made its mark on racing history, but went mostly unnoticed by the car-buying public. The 8V or “Otto Vu” was so named to avoid any conflict with Ford, who Fiat incorrectly presumed to have a copyright on the term “V8.” The minute 70-degree V8 under the hood breathed through dual Weber carburetors and was comprised of two four-cylinder blocks mounted on a common crankcase. The roughly 110-horsepower made by the 8V Supersonic’s engine proved to be a strong match for the V12s of Ferrari, Maserati’s straight 6, and Lancia’s V6. Contributing largely to the 8Vs success on track was a tube frame chassis with independent suspension all around. In Supersonic guise – a “jet-age” body designed by Ghia for the American market – the 8V is a standout. Only eight models were produced, making this driving experience a speedy rarity.  

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1986 Honda Civic Si (free car)

When Honda introduced the third generation Civic it blurred the lines between traditional hatchbacks and the European shooting-brake body style. It was at once a hit and with Honda reliability once again the masses flocked to the big “H.” Within the Si – the “i” standing for “fuel injection” – you find sporty features like a roof spoiler, color-keyed front air dam, and a full-width taillight panel. You will also find all of 91 horses under the hood that are ready to get up and go. That may not seem like much, but the Civic weighs less than 2,000 pounds and if you do the math the power to weight ratio is worthy of a test drive. Honda fanboys have been enthralled with the Civic in all its forms, this hot hatch from the eighties is ready for a tune that can smoke some big V8s and show its stuff. That is likely to make Honda lovers of the rest of us.