Forza Horizon 6 adds the 525-hp Exomotive Exocet Sport V8 XP-5 as a limited Summer Festival Playlist reward

Forza Horizon 6 has added one of the most extreme interpretations of the Mazda MX-5 formula ever created, and players only have a limited window to put it in their garage.

The 2018 Exomotive Exocet Sport V8 XP-5 is now available in Forza Horizon 6 as part of Series 4: Horizon Mascot Party, arriving as the headline 20-point Summer Season Festival Playlist reward. Players can unlock it from August 13 through August 20, 2026, giving anyone who has not yet completed enough seasonal activities only a few more days to secure the car during its debut availability.

Calling the XP-5 an upgraded Miata barely communicates what Exomotive actually built. Beneath the exposed tubular chassis sits a 6.2-liter GM LS3 V8 producing 525 horsepower, connected to a six-speed manual transmission and sending everything to the rear wheels. The complete real-world car weighs approximately 1,690 pounds—or around 767 kilograms with fluids and a full tank of fuel—creating a power-to-weight ratio comparable with machinery that normally carries hypercar badges and seven-figure prices.

Forza Horizon 6 reflects that brutality immediately. Playground Games has placed the Exocet in the Track Toys category at S2 841, making it one of the fastest stock vehicles available through the Horizon Mascot Party Festival Playlist. There is almost no bodywork, practically nothing between the driver and the environment, and very little mass for those 525 horses to move.

It is essentially the traditional Lotus philosophy taken through an American V8 filter: simplify, remove weight, and then apparently decide that 525 horsepower still sounds reasonable.

The Exocet XP-5 is available for 20 Festival Playlist points until August 20

Unlocking the Exomotive is straightforward. Players need to accumulate 20 points during the Summer Season of Series 4: Horizon Mascot Party, which runs from August 13 until August 20.

That makes it the first seasonal reward car of the current Series, while the 1969 Datsun 2000 Roadster becomes available at 40 points during the same week. Playground Games’ official Forza Horizon 6 vehicle catalogue lists the XP-5 as a Seasonal acquisition rather than an Autoshow vehicle, so the Festival Playlist is currently the direct official route for obtaining it.

Twenty points is deliberately achievable without clearing every activity. Summer includes Daily Challenges, seasonal championships, PR Stunts, the Trial, Time Attack, a Treasure Hunt, Photo Challenge and other Horizon activities, allowing players to choose several different ways to reach the threshold.

There is consequently little reason for an active player to miss the XP-5 unless the Summer Season itself expires before they begin. Once the Festival Playlist transitions to Autumn on August 20, the 20-point reward changes to the 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Playground Games has not announced another immediate acquisition window for the Exocet after its Summer debut, so players who want it should treat August 20 as the relevant deadline rather than assuming it will instantly move into the Autoshow.

A 525-horsepower V8 inside a car weighing less than 800 kilograms

The numbers explain why Playground Games immediately describes the XP-5 through its power-to-weight ratio.

Forza Horizon 6 lists the car with 525 horsepower and 486 lb-ft of torque from a 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8. Exomotive’s own documentation identifies that engine more specifically as a GM Performance LS376/525, part of General Motors’ LS3 family.

The manufacturer measured the finished XP-5 at approximately 1,690 pounds wet, meaning the real car produces roughly 685 horsepower per metric tonne.

That is extraordinary.

A vehicle does not need 1,000 horsepower to feel violent if there is almost nothing for the engine to push. Removing hundreds of kilograms improves practically every dynamic category simultaneously. Acceleration becomes stronger. Braking requires less energy. Direction changes become faster. The tyres have less mass to control, and the driver receives far more immediate feedback because the car contains fewer layers separating the controls from the chassis.

Forza recognizes that combination with an S2 841 stock Performance Index, despite the XP-5 having dramatically less raw horsepower than many vehicles occupying the same overall class.

It does not reach S2 because of one enormous top-speed figure. It gets there because the complete package is absurd.

The XP-5 began life with a 1990 Mazda Miata underneath it

The most entertaining detail is that the XP-5 traces its mechanical ancestry back to a 1990 Mazda Miata.

Exomotive’s basic Exocet concept uses first- and second-generation Mazda MX-5/Miata donor components and surrounds them with a lightweight tubular chassis. The philosophy allows builders to retain proven Miata mechanical parts while eliminating much of the original car’s body structure and replacing it with something considerably lighter and more focused.

Normal Exocets can use Mazda four-cylinder engines, and Exomotive supports several alternative powertrain configurations across its broader platform.

XP-5 exists to answer the unreasonable question: what happens if the little exposed sports car receives a large GM V8 instead?

Exomotive says this particular machine was the company’s first V8 Exocet development car, constructed to test and demonstrate the LS-based V8 swap package developed with V8Roadsters.

The answer was 525 horsepower in something weighing little more than many compact hatchbacks.

The drivetrain is almost as serious as the engine

Dropping an LS3 into an ultra-light chassis only works if everything behind the engine can survive it. Exomotive therefore paired the XP-5’s V8 with a 2002 F-body T-56 six-speed manual transmission and a Cadillac CTS-V 3.23 rear differential.

The build also received dedicated V8Roadsters components including the V8 front subframe, rear transmission mount, aluminium driveshaft and upgraded axles and hubs rated for the additional power.

Those details matter because the XP-5 is not simply a show car constructed around a spectacular engine swap. The supporting hardware was developed to make the package genuinely usable.

The rear-wheel-drive layout remains central to the experience. There is no all-wheel-drive system attempting to sanitize 525 horsepower before it reaches the pavement. In Forza Horizon 6, throttle control matters because the car combines a huge torque reserve with extremely little weight.

The XP-5 should be capable of devastating acceleration when the rear tyres hook up, but aggressive throttle application while cornering can also make the rear axle considerably more interested in overtaking the front.

That is exactly the personality a machine like this should have.

Fifteen-inch wheels tell you everything about the engineering philosophy

Modern high-performance cars increasingly use enormous wheel and tyre packages. The XP-5 goes in the opposite direction.

Exomotive fitted 15x8 Tracklite Holeshot wheels, along with Apex’i coilovers, polyurethane suspension bushings and a Flyin’ Miata V8 front sway bar.

That setup reflects the car’s priorities. There is no requirement to accommodate enormous luxury-car brakes behind twenty-one-inch wheels, no attempt to create a fashionable stance and very little concern about appearing imposing while parked outside a hotel.

Everything is concentrated around keeping the package light and responsive.

The aesthetic consequence is equally distinctive. The Exocet looks almost skeletal compared with a conventional sports car because much of what drivers interpret as “the car” has simply disappeared. Doors, roof, heavy interior panels and large sections of traditional bodywork are replaced by the visible chassis and minimal exterior surfaces required to define the vehicle.

It looks like somebody stopped building a racing car as soon as it became fast enough to drive.

Even the rear wing came from NASCAR

The XP-5’s enormous rear wing adds another unusual piece to the build.

Exomotive identifies it as a NASCAR Car of Tomorrow rear wing, an appropriately unconventional choice for a vehicle already combining Mazda origins with a GM crate engine, Camaro-derived transmission and Cadillac differential.

Again, the XP-5 feels less like one manufacturer’s carefully managed production sports car and more like an enthusiast engineering project where the only consistent rule is effectiveness.

That is precisely why it fits Forza Horizon so well.

The Horizon series has always been at its best when a million-dollar hypercar can share the road with an outrageous kit car, homologation special, kei car or enthusiast-built oddity. The XP-5 can produce a power-to-weight ratio comparable with genuinely exotic machinery without sharing almost any of the engineering philosophy that created those cars.

A Ferrari or McLaren achieves speed through enormous engineering budgets, active aerodynamics, sophisticated electronics and carbon-fibre construction.

Exomotive starts with a Miata and removes nearly everything.

S2 841 makes the stock Exocet an unusually serious Festival Playlist reward

The most surprising figure in Forza Horizon 6 may not be 525 horsepower. It is S2 841.

For comparison within the current game catalogue, that places the stock Exocet in performance territory occupied by substantially more exotic machinery. Playground Games categorizes it as a Track Toy rather than a conventional Modern Sports Car precisely because its lack of weight and uncompromising construction produce dynamics far removed from an ordinary roadster.

This also makes it a much more immediately useful Festival Playlist reward than a vehicle acquired primarily for collection completion.

Players can unlock it at 20 points and immediately have something capable of entering serious high-performance builds. The standard S2 rating also leaves room for experimentation without requiring the enormous upgrade journey associated with starting from a low-class road car.

At the same time, there is an argument for keeping the XP-5 relatively close to stock. Cars with extreme power-to-weight ratios can become less enjoyable when every available upgrade is installed automatically. Adding even more power may create spectacular speed figures while making throttle application progressively harder and reducing the delicacy that makes the original package interesting.

The XP-5 already has more engine than most drivers would reasonably request.

Japan may be one of the best Horizon maps for a car like this

Forza Horizon 6’s Japanese setting gives the Exocet a particularly suitable playground.

High-speed motorways can expose its acceleration, but the more interesting environments should be the game’s technical circuits and mountain roads. A sub-800-kilogram car with rear-wheel drive, minimal inertia and substantial power is naturally suited to places where rapid direction changes matter more than simply maintaining maximum velocity for several kilometres.

Time Attack is an obvious destination.

Series 4 has added the temporary Edamame Time Attack Circuit, where players can chase leaderboard times at their current PI level. Although the mascot-themed circuit represents the deliberately playful side of Horizon Mascot Party, the underlying Time Attack format is almost perfectly suited to the XP-5’s design philosophy.

The car was built to make very little mass go very quickly around corners.

Putting it against the clock is substantially more appropriate than using it solely for highway drag pulls, even if the latter will inevitably happen within minutes of players unlocking it.

Horizon Mascot Party hides a ridiculous track weapon inside its cutest update

The XP-5 arrives during a Series deliberately built around Japanese mascot culture. Horizon Mascot Party decorates the Festival with character-themed signage, inflatable mascots and additional EventLab props while temporarily transforming the Edamame Time Attack Circuit for the celebration.

It is therefore amusing that one of the three new-to-Horizon cars introduced through the Series is essentially a tube-frame V8 projectile.

The other two new-to-Horizon additions are the tiny 1970 Honda N600 and the 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. That selection gives Series 4 an enormous performance spread: a 36-horsepower Japanese kei-era economy car at one end and a 525-horsepower open-frame track toy at the other, followed by a 650-horsepower modern Camaro in Autumn.

That diversity remains one of Forza Horizon 6’s strongest advantages. A Festival Playlist does not need one coherent automotive category simply because the surrounding seasonal theme is consistent.

The mascot decorations may be cute.

The Exocet is not.

This is new to Horizon, but not new to the wider Forza franchise

The Exocet Sport V8 XP-5 has appeared previously in Forza Motorsport, where it is also classified among the Track Toys. What changes in 2026 is its arrival in the Horizon branch of the franchise.

That distinction is significant because Horizon gives the car an entirely different environment. Motorsport places it on purpose-built racing circuits where lap time and car development dominate the experience. Horizon Japan gives players urban roads, mountain passes, highways, open-world exploration and custom EventLab creations.

For an exposed machine like the Exocet, the open world arguably exaggerates its personality even more effectively. There is something fundamentally different about seeing a barely bodied V8 track car threading through normal Japanese roads rather than sitting naturally among race machinery at a circuit.

It also means Horizon players who recognize Exomotive primarily through the Exocet Off-Road from Forza Horizon 5 are receiving a radically different interpretation of the same basic idea.

The Off-Road version embraced rough terrain.

XP-5 is built around pavement and speed.

The Exocet demonstrates why horsepower numbers are useless without weight

Modern performance marketing encourages enormous horsepower figures. Four digits make headlines, even when the vehicle producing them weighs well above two tonnes.

XP-5 is a reminder that the second half of the equation matters just as much.

525 horsepower does not sound particularly shocking in 2026. Several production saloons and SUVs comfortably exceed that figure. Forza Horizon 6 contains road cars with twice the output.

Very few of those cars weigh roughly 767 kilograms.

The result is why Playground Games explicitly compares XP-5’s power-to-weight ratio with hypercars. The LS3 does not need to overcome enormous batteries, luxury interiors, sound insulation, electric motors or complex body structures before accelerating the vehicle.

It has a chassis, two occupants, the essential mechanical components and not much else.

Every horsepower is doing considerably less work.

The driver is effectively part of the exterior design

There is another characteristic that statistics cannot communicate: exposure.

The Exocet does not surround its occupants with a conventional cabin. The driver sits inside the tubular structure with the wheels, suspension and environment visually present around them. Exomotive’s real build uses Sparco Sprint seating and a five-point harness, reinforcing that stripped-down competition-car sensation.

This fundamentally changes how speed feels.

A conventional supercar can make 150 mph feel strangely calm because the driver sits inside a climate-controlled structure engineered to isolate wind, vibration and noise. In something like an Exocet, 70 mph can feel dramatic because the environment is immediately outside the cockpit.

Forza cannot reproduce wind pressure through a monitor, but the cockpit perspective and exposed visual structure can communicate part of that sensation. Seeing road surface and surrounding objects rush past with minimal bodywork around the camera makes speed easier to perceive.

It is one reason lightweight open track cars often feel faster in games than technically quicker grand tourers.

The XP-5 may be more interesting without turning it into an AWD monster

Forza’s upgrade system will inevitably allow players to push the Exocet far beyond its original specification, and the community will quickly produce tunes intended for Rivals, road racing, drag racing and general open-world chaos.

But the real engineering story creates a strong case for preserving its rear-wheel-drive identity.

Its appeal is not that Exomotive discovered the easiest possible method of making 525 horsepower safe. The appeal is that the company inserted that engine into an incredibly light chassis and accepted that the driver would need to manage the consequences.

Converting every high-powered Horizon vehicle into an optimized all-wheel-drive build can produce faster launch times and sometimes stronger competitive performance, but it can also erase the mechanical distinction between wildly different cars.

XP-5’s defining equation is simple: minimal mass, enormous naturally aspirated V8 and rear-wheel drive.

Breaking that equation may create a faster Horizon car.

It may create a less interesting Exocet.

The 2018 label hides an interesting detail about the real XP-5

There is a minor historical curiosity surrounding the vehicle. Both Forza Horizon 6 and the wider Forza catalogue identify it as the 2018 Exomotive Exocet Sport V8 XP-5, but Exomotive’s own project documentation says the specific XP-5 development car was actually built in late 2014 to test the LS-based conversion package.

The manufacturer nevertheless clearly identifies this physical vehicle as XP-5 and lists the same defining specifications represented in Forza: the LS376/525 engine, T-56 gearbox, CTS-V differential and approximately 1,690-pound weight.

For players, the discrepancy changes nothing about the in-game car. The official Forza model year remains 2018. It simply illustrates how manufacturer prototype history and videogame catalogue designations do not always map perfectly onto one another.

What matters mechanically is that Forza has recreated Exomotive’s extraordinary V8 development machine rather than a generic production Exocet.

There are only a few days left to add it to the garage

As of August 18, the Exocet’s debut Festival Playlist window is already nearing its end.

Players need 20 Summer points before the Horizon Mascot Party switches seasons on August 20. The required score is low enough that completing a handful of Festival Playlist activities should be sufficient, and there is no premium Car Pass requirement attached to the vehicle.

That is worth emphasizing because Series 4 also includes paid Car Pass machinery such as the 1987 Porsche #203 Porsche AG 961. The XP-5 is different: it belongs to the standard Festival Playlist reward structure.

Unlock it, and players receive a stock S2 841, rear-wheel-drive Track Toy with 525 horsepower and 486 lb-ft of torque.

No assembly manual required.

Forza Horizon 6 has found the perfect car for anyone who thinks a Miata needs 525 horsepower

The Exomotive Exocet Sport V8 XP-5 captures one of the best parts of enthusiast car culture: the willingness to take an idea that already works perfectly well and ask what happens if every sensible limitation is removed.

The Mazda Miata became famous because it was lightweight, balanced, affordable and enjoyable without requiring enormous power. Exomotive preserved the lightweight part, removed most of the body and then installed a 6.2-liter LS3 producing 525 horsepower.

The result weighs approximately 1,690 pounds, uses a six-speed manual, sends everything to the rear wheels and achieves the kind of power-to-weight ratio Playground Games reasonably compares with hypercars.

Forza Horizon 6 gives it an equally appropriate rating: S2 841 straight from the garage.

It is not elegant in the same way as an Italian supercar. It is not technologically sophisticated like an electric hypercar. It does not attempt to isolate the driver from anything.

It is a chassis, a huge engine, four tyres and very little restraint.

The 2018 Exomotive Exocet Sport V8 XP-5 is available as the 20-point Horizon Mascot Party Summer reward until August 20, 2026.

Fasten the harness.

There is not much else around you to hold onto.