Forza Motorsport 7 Update (August 2019)

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A new race-ready Porsche car and some eagerly anticipated improvements to Forza Race Regulations (FRR) are at the heart of the August 2019 update for Forza Motorsport 7. In addition, there are also some new goodies in the Forza 7 UI that have come highly requested from the Forza community, including interval gaps in seconds and FRR-related information when spectating races.
 
Let's break down all the details of the August 2019 update, starting with a look at this month's free car, the 2019 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
 

2019 Porsche #4 Porsche Motorsport 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport

The "718" moniker added to the fourth generation Cayman harkens to the 1957-1962 mid-engine Porsche racer that made its mark in motorsport history. This GT4 Clubsport is a true track-only competitor, so the rebirth of the hallowed development number is a good fit. This time around the simplicity of the original model gives way to the benefits of technology to deliver fast and capable results. For perfect balance, the 3.8-liter naturally aspirated flat-six is mounted amidships, facing backwards (when compared to a 911 engine) with the transmission in the rear. Weight savings is partially realized through a sustainable natural-fiber weave in the doors and aero. From nose to tail this is a single-seat, race-ready track car (complete with escape hatch!) from the winningest marque in racing history. If that doesn't sum up what this car is capable of, there is only one other thing that will: driving it.

Forza Race Regulations: Disqualifications
Over the past few months, the rollout of FRR features has been the primary focus of the Forza Motorsport 7 development team. From its beginnings as a private beta to last month's addition of collision-based penalties, the team has taken a measured approach to introducing each new aspect of FRR to the wider Forza community. That long string of Forza Race Regulations work in Forza 7 culminates here in August with the long-awaited introduction of race disqualifications into the mix.
 
With the August 2019 update, players in FRR-enabled hoppers who accumulate a total of 12 seconds of penalties in a race will immediately and automatically be removed from the current race and be placed back into the Hopper Select screen. Players who are disqualified and removed from races will see a message explaining that they have been removed from the race. After accumulating 10 seconds of penalties in a race – the game will note that players have been placed in "Probation," a warning state before disqualification at 12 seconds of penalties. Once disqualified, that player is able to matchmake for a subsequent race.
 
The 12-second time accumulation is the result of a great deal of in-house testing from the Forza 7 team, who were determined to find a balance between a time penalty total that was difficult for well-meaning but lesser-skilled players to accumulate, while still punishing griefers or rammers who want to ruin the races of others online. A few caveats regarding penalty times and accumulations: First, because there is no way to reduce penalty time in a race, once a player has entered the "Probation" period (after accumulating 10 seconds of penalties), there is no way to reset that and remove "Probation" status until the race is complete. Secondly, once a new race is started, penalties are completely reset for all players in the lobby. Finally, players in private FRR-enabled lobbies will not have control over disqualification time thresholds. However, players can choose to disable disqualification in the private lobby race setup menu.
 
Mini Leaderboard Interval Gap & Spectate in Ticker
A pair of UI improvements are also arriving this month, both highly requested from the Forza Community. First up, the Mini Leaderboard (seen in the lower left-hand side of the screen when racing) will now show distance between cars in seconds. The time interval will become the new default setting with the August 2019 update, but players can set the previous interval (feet/meters) via the HUD options menu. Forza Race Regulations information, including penalties and disqualification state, will now also be viewable in the Horizontal Ticker when in Spectate mode.
 
For more details on the August 2019 update, check out the full Release Notes on the Forza Support site.

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