Forza Horizon 5 Series 15/16 Preview: Secret Santa’s Sian Sleigh & New Year FORDzathon

The latest Forza Horizon streams have revealed what players will be getting up to over the next couple of months, with the new Series themes, activities, and rewards for Series 15 and Series 16.

It’s a rare double update for the festive period because of… well, the festive period. Like many offices across the United Kingdom, Playground Games will be operating on a very limited basis over the holidays as staff spend time at home with their families.

That means that S15 will land as scheduled on Thursday December 8 but bring with it January’s S16 just after the offices re-open next year.

Forza Horizon 5 Series 15 – Horizon Holidays World Changes

Series 15, Horizon Holidays, will bring back the holiday celebrations of 2021’s Series 2 through the Secret Santa function.

As Christmas is a time of giving, Horizon Secret Santa taps into that spirit. Across the four-week period players globally will contribute to a gifting spree which will see rewards sent out for reaching certain landmarks.

You’ll be able to buy cars through the Forzathon Shop and directly send them to others — once per week — or just use the regular gift drop feature. Each time you send a gift, the global gift progress bar increases ever so slightly.

Once the community hits the 50% mark, everyone will receive a Holiday Tree Outfit clothing item, while the 100% mark is a mystery new-to-Forza car whose silhouette looks remarkably like a convertible Italian hypercar…

There’s also a festive makeover for Mulege, with the market once again becoming the Horizon Wonderland, and the Stadium will become an ice rink again for the Series.

Speaking of the Forzathon Shop, Tommy Bargains will return for two 48-hour spells only. From 1430UTC on December 24 to 26, and the same times on December 31 to January 2, you’ll be able to pick up highly prized cars and cosmetic items for low, low prices.

Forza Horizon 5 Series 15 – New Cars

There’s a gaggle of six new cars coming to the series, with two new-to-Forza vehicles and four returning cars.

That’s headlined by the Lamborghini Sian Roadster, one of the cars recently teased via the still-incomplete Torben Tuesday crossword puzzle. This is the soft-top version of the Sian, a hypercar based on the Aventador SVJ but toting a 25kW supercapacitor hybrid system for a total of 808hp. PG hasn’t revealed how you can earn the car, suggesting it’s some kind of Secret.

Another brand new machine is the Cupra UrbanRebel Concept. It’s full-EV racing concept from recent Spanish spin-off brand Cupra, previewing a road car set to arrive in 2025. Looking like a mad time-attack car, the UrbanRebel packs 340hp — with a 95hp boost function — to back up the styling. This car will be delivered for free to all players who play S15, through in-game messages.

All four returnees are from the USA, and each is available as a 20pt reward in one of the four seasons. AMC provides two of its 1970s muscle cars, with the Javelin AMX and Rebel “The Machine”, while the classic Plymouth Fury also returns — though thankfully without the haunting.

Perhaps the most unusual returning vehicle though is the Cadillac XTS Limousine. One of the longest and heaviest cars in the game, you can live out your Presidential motorcade dreams with this mini-Beast.

Forza Horizon 5 Series 16 – FORDzathon

There’ll be more information in January detailing FORDzathon more closely, but the update with the content will come along with S15 early next week.

As you might expect, the series will be based around the Ford brand, with Ford vehicles forming the bulk of the challenges and prizes across the series.

In addition there’s five new cars not from the Ford brand, with two new MG models — the MG6 XPower road car and its touring car sibling — and three returning Renaults.

For now we don’t know of any world changes related to FORDzathon.

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