Upgrading and tuning your car is very important to be competitive in multiplayer. In AC or PC2 you can only change setups. FM allows you to swap engines, upgrade tires and nearly every part that affects the performance of the car. The class system is good, but sometimes flawed. You can build cars with totally different goals, like top speed, handling or acceleration, but end up with the same class and index points. So, you can run really fast into beeing in the disadvantage. Letting Forza Motorsport upgrade your car to a desired class will not be competitive either.
Driving aids like ABS, TCS or stability control can slow you down. Driving with a wheel can also be much harder, because the lack of steering help (controller) makes it easier to oversteer with high powered cars. Automatic shifting is also way slower, because Forza shifts way too early for you. The redline that you see on the hud can also be misleading with many cars. Some cars are not worth to rev out like older V8 engines. And then you have cars that need high revs like naturally aspirated engines from BMW and Honda. You really have to look at the diagram of every car in the tuning options and see where the peak power lays in comparison to engine rpm.
I would try to hang in there. Compete more and more online, trying to improve setups. Sometimes you need more grip or more power. Learning the tracks is also very important.
The best advice would be to find likeminded people. Most people don’t use their headset and just be anonym. But there are many people who share their setups and knowledge. The best way to become faster, is to compete against each other and build faster cars. There is a big community with fast and very nice people out there.
