Racing Tips

Most of your education in Forza 2 is going to have to come on the track; there are simply too many tracks and cars to give you any kind of projected walkthrough to the game, besides the basics of "go fast". You'll want to also check your manual for more general tips, as it has some decent info on passing and turning.

Using The Line

Anyone who played Forza on the Xbox will remember its famous dynamic racing line. It's back in Forza 2, but with a twist: it's now turned on by default only when you're cornering. That's not a bad change at all, as cornering is when you're mostly likely going to need it. You can still turn on the full line if you like, but that will simply leave you with a big green line in most of the straightaways. The full line can be helpful when dealing with curves that appear just after you crest a hill, but in most cases won't be needed.

Purists may hate it, but if you use the line you'll find that it's often the best approach to any given turn.

The line is, in essence, a tool that will help you know when you brake and turn so that you can learn how best to approach a corner and get through it. It is customized for each course, and will change colors based on your speed, with green indicating that you should be going full-throttle and red indicating that you need to brake, if you're using the classic always-on line. With the corner-only line, though, you're not going to get any acceleration indications; just an indication of how much faster you're going than you should be. Red means that you should break hard, dark yellow indicates that you really need to slow down, while light yellow indicates that you're slightly above the desired speed. If you drop below the desired speed for a turn, the line will disappear entirely, instead of turning green.

The key to dealing with the line is, oddly enough, knowing when to ignore it. It is a fantastic tool for learning courses, but won't necessarily always apply to your car or driving style, so as you get a feel for how your favorite rides handle, you may find yourself using it more as a guideline than a hard and fast rule, or even turning it off altogether. The thing about the line is that it's a model of the path you follow in a perfect situation, and said situations are unfortunately somewhat rare, especially when dealing with numerous cutthroat A.I. opponents. It also doesn't always take into account the differences in braking and acceleration between all cars. You'll need to play around with a car on different tracks to see exactly how to adjust your path to the line. Cars with excellent braking may be able to travel into the red zone before pumping the brakes, for instance, while cars with oversteer or understeer may have to deviate from the line in order to get through turns.

Short Turns

One of the interesting aspects of the racing line is the way it often inserts yellow and red segments into short turns of no more than 20 degrees. Although top-end racing cars with extreme top speeds may find these handy, most of the cars you're going to be using throughout the game will be able to handle these turns simply by undercutting the line while staying at top speed, eliminating the need to brake; at worst you may just want to lay off the gas a bit before heading into the turn. (Turn 2 on the Maple Valley Raceway Short course is a good example of this.) The exception here is, of course, areas where chicanes or short turns precede sharp turns; if you attempt to speed through one of these, then you may find yourself poorly equipped to deal with the subsequent turn.

Hopping corners may give you an edge on some courses.

The line also doesn't usually take into account corner-jumping techniques. While corner-jumping and rail-riding isn't often a technique that will net you a big position bonus, mostly due to the way that the courses are laid out, it's worth noting that the line will never indicate when it actually might be faster to ride up onto a rail or jump a corner entirely. A bit of experimentation in areas with grassy terrain may net you some speed bonuses, but you can expect to damage your tires a bit even when you do find a quicker line. You will also take a time penalty when more than two of your wheels hit the grass at the same time, so if you're looking for a new time record, then this isn't your best bet, but if you just want to win a race, then you could do worse than attempting to jump a corner here and there.

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