Looking for tunes? Check Attax Johnson's Tuning Guide - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4s1VP1nUoM

Reddit discussion thread for suggestions and ideas - https://www.reddit.com/r/forza/comments/e23bbi/competitive_car_list_for_online_play/

Greyed out race type which are not played in Ranked Online Play.

Added 1959 Plymouth Atomic Punk to A-Class for all seasons - the car is heavily used by top players and I have only driven it once so its rating for A-Class Races is subjective to change

Shifted Shelby Cobra Daytona to top place for all B-Class races for all seasons

Added 2019 Porsche Macan Turbo (Rare Car - not in Autoshow) for experimental purposes

Added the Koenigsegg CCGT for S2 Class for Dry - this car has almost the same amazing brakes as the Bugatti Divo, but with a more acceleration and handling at the small cost of a bit of stability - Nalak28 made an "Overall" and "Circuit" tune

---> rearranged the order of S2 Class cars and removed the Mclaren Senna

Noted that the #1 Toyota Baja is for CC Sprint tracks and the Jeep Trailcat for CC Circuit tracks

Removed the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale from A-Class Dirt Racing. This thing is beyond awful. Like Rank 20 with 0 points level awful. Why Attax Johnson has this tune for the second most used is beyond me. Made me lose a lot of league points.

Did more research for A-Class Dirt Racing and essentially the road cars are being used with some tweaks. I tried the 1959 Plymouth Atomic Punk in road and dirt race and it went very well. I bought the car twice to make the distinction. Not sure if necessary though.

I have to test how good the Alfa Romeo TZ2 is for A-Class Road, but for now, 1959 Plymouth Atomic Punk takes the second spots because of its insane starting acceleration.

The 1959 Plymouth Atomic Punk seems to be winter compatible in the tunes I have downloaded so no extra winter car needed for A-Class Road and Dirt.

Tested the Lotus Elise GT1 for Winter S1 Class (forgot to add it here) and it's really good. Not sure if Nalak28's Winter tune for the 2005 Ford GT beats it. Still have to test this in ranked.

Added some more Playground cars as the one I had were just from my experience via the weekly playlist

Added the 2018 ATS GT to S1 Class racing. Seems to be on par with the top tier meta.

I did some comparisions for A-Class Road Races to see who is top tier of my previously used choices.

The 1959 Plymouth Atomic Punk is defintely the best. Even though it might feel a bit wonky, its insane acceleration, handling and traction make it easily the best.

The Alfa Romeo TZ2 takes second, but only on dry races. It's pretty slidy on wet and snow races. The tune I use for the Atomic Punk already comes with Winter tires. My beloved Chevy Nova '69 FE has not enough handling to beat the other two.

If you really really love the Shelby Cobra Daytona, then take it. But there are better choices. It's more of a B-Class Monster, than in A-Class.

Hey guys, just FYI because of the lack of updates: There is not much more to update. B-Class and S2-Class for all seasons are basically set in stone.

For A-Class and S1-Class I wanted to drive more rivals to ensure the integrity of the list, but also to get better. I suck at CC S1 and A-Class more because of a lack of track knowledge.

I will use this to see how top tier certain cars are in the list and to get a better feeling for the car's nuances.

So potenitially, more updates to come for S1 and A-Class for all variants expect for S1 Road Racing. That one is pretty maxed out and already has enough done research by others.

Hey guys, just saying that there has been nothing new and competitive at the moment.

If you want to meme in ranked, you can drive the Ford Supervan 3 for S1 and S2 Class. It's quite good for circuits. Unfortunately, not as good as the meta cars.

A van has no downforce so it sucks ass for cornering without fighting the car itself. If you want to fight with the car and the track at the same time, I can recommend the Toyota Supra for S1 class.

"some cars are only competitive when driving in manual /w clutch as they shift too slowly otherwise. The list includes the EB110, Trailcat, Raptor 17, and I think also the Legacy RS."

Please keep in mind that breaking, cornering and driving stability have a much higher priority to learn, than manual shifting with clutch. For reference, I still drive automatic in the game.

Tested the new Ford Puma and this is not a car for beginners. If you don't drive manually, forget this one. It has really good handling, but the acceleration is lacking. You can make use of it in some handling circuits.

Oh Turn10, what were you even thinking? The Toyota Baja was already a beast in Cross Country because of its speed and thus potency to place well in Free Roam Rushes. Also I found it fun going off the highway with ~200 mph and moving on like nothing happend because of the loose suspension.
There is just one problem with the Baja and the loose suspension; THE HANDLING. The Baja is quite difficult to handle, but once you manage, there are a lot of situations where the Baja is better than the Jeep Trailcat.
So for a long time it was Baja for speed and Trailcat for handling.

Until Turn 10 decided to modify the Baja with the Welcome Pack. They gave it less speed, of which the Baja already had more than enough, and BETTER HANDLING.
In fact, it handles now so well, that this is without a doubt the undisputed King of Cross Country for S1 at the moment. If you don't believe me, look at the leaderboards for Rivals and see the flood of "WP" Bajas coming in.

This also sparks an interesting thought for me. How good does a car have to be to beat this. As the game goes on until FH5 or whatever, the next cars always needs to be better than the last one.

In Gaming terms, this is called Power Creep and is quite usual for MMORPGs. I never thought I might see this for a racing game. But as Turn 10 never nerfs any cars, this is how we got there.

I hope they can learn from this in the future. They should have already learned this from other games (like Need for Speed World).

People have been asking where I've been. Yes, I have been following the new car releases.

While there have been a couple of noteworthy cars, it was nothing that would change this list. Please keep in mind, that this list not only tends to provide guidance for newer players, but also cannot list every car with "weird settings" and manual with clutch.

There are very good cars out there. I just wouldn't recommend them for the average player.

With Forza Horizon 5 coming up, this list will no longer be updated. There hasn't been anything too noteworthy to put here anyway.

Even though it might seem that this spreadsheet is no longer being updated, I'm surprised to still see so many people come here.

This list was originally just for me to be organzied. From the bottom of my heart: Thank you!

I'll link the new spreadsheet at the very top so you won't miss it. :)