Forza Horizon 5: Best cars and tunes for Winter Festival Playlist challenges (Series 3)

Forza Horizon 5's third series offers up some pretty interesting rewards. In Series 3: Happy New Year, nabbing 120 points across the series will net you the Zenvo TS1. If you manage to collect 200 points, you'll bag yourself the Ford Mustang '71.

This week's Festival Playlist season is Winter, and as always, there are two cars up for grabs. For accumulating 25 points, you'll unlock the Porsche Carrera, and for 45 points, the Toyota AT38.

This week's Trial is a bit of a tough one to make recommendations for as Grand Finale restricts you to class S1 Classic Racers. Classic Racers are all ridiculously expensive bar a few cars, and thanks to last week's Bently Blower Weekly Challenge rinsing us of 4,000,000 CR, we're a little skint this week. We took home the gold with the Lola #6 Penske Sunoco T70 MkIIIB (which is 850,000 CR from the Autoshow) and SINEAP's tune: 987 481 489. The first and last race in the Grand Finale Trial are absolute nightmares with random players – many will crash into you in the tight bends, but the Lola 6 should help you get out of trouble when space on the road opens up. We imagine there could be a better option out there with a more expensive car, so if you've got any suggestions, let us and the community know down in the comments!

Next, we have the Speed Trap: Bypass, which requires you to beat a 195mph speed target using any S2 class car. Many of you will likely already have cars that can beat the speed trap's seasonal objective, but if you don't and you're looking for something cheap, we recommend using the fantastic Mosler MT900S with Eley9's tune: 455 741 143. You should be able to beat the target with this setup if you get a decent run-up from the south.

Danger Sign: La Cruz restricts you to using the Bentley Bentayga 2016 in a class A configuration. You probably won't beat this Danger Sign with a stock version of the Bentayga, so you're going to need to tune it up. We opted for COMoonstars' Season Jump EZ tune (409 385 323) and managed to beat the target with a run-up from the intersection next to the Foto Final Cross-Country Pro event marker.

For Trailblazer: Over the Dune, you can only use the Ford #25 "Brocky" Ultra4 Bronco RTR 2017 in a Class A setup. It's unlikely (but not impossible!) that you'll beat the Trailblazer with a stock configuration of the Brocky. We used CoMoonStar's tune for this one (175 498 805) and managed to beat the Trailblazer's 25-seconds-remaining target by about three seconds. As soon as you pass through the gates, hit a left and climb up and over the hills heading in a straight line towards the finish line. Try to avoid hitting pockets of cacti that will slow you down, as well as getting any big airtime — the landing will sap your speed. Also, if you do make a mistake, make sure you use that rewind feature and try to seek out a slightly different route.

On to Seasonal Championships! Cross-Country Skiing restricts you to class A800 Unlimited Buggies. To complete this Championship, we used an Ariel Nomad 2016 (despite it being the reward for winning the Championship) with DonJoeWon Song's tune: 589 887 197. With this tune, the Nomad is incredibly nippy, with excellent acceleration, launch, and offroad stats — perfect for this Cross Country Championship. You should find yourself in first place somewhat early on in each race, and as long as you can handle the Nomad in the corners, you should take three wins here.

For the Athletes Seasonal Championship, we have something a bit different in terms of restrictions. You can only use S2 class cars with the words 'Super Sport' in the name. This restricts you down to just a handful of cars, two from Bugatti and seven Chevrolets. The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport 2011 fits the bill perfectly here, but if you haven't already unlocked it, it will set you back a whopping 2,200,000 CR. If you don't have the Veyron, and you want to complete this one on the cheap, we recommend Chevrolet Camaro Super Sport Coupe 1969, which is 110,000 CR from the Autoshow, with SINEAP's tune: 729 403 063 to bring it up to an S2 class. Now, this thing doesn't corner well, I'll tell you that now, but it will fly on the straights. Try and keep it tight in the bends, drive aggressively, and you shouldn't have too much trouble picking up three wins on the trot here.

The Speed Skating Seasonal Championship is a series of Street races where you're restricted to class S1 Super Saloons. To complete this one, we used a stock Porsche Taycan Turbo S 2020. This car should easily win you the Championship — it's ridiculously fast off the line and has fantastic acceleration. The only thing that lets it down is its brakes. It takes a lot to slow the Taycan down at high speed, so brake hard if you're coming up to a particularly sharp bend. If you have the "Welcome Pack" version of the Taycan, definitely use that over the stock version.

Got any recommended cars or tunes for completing this season's challenges that differ from ours? Give the community and us your suggestions down in the comments below, and let us know if you found our round-up useful!