Forza Horizon 5 (FH5) Launch Control and Wheelie Guide

If you are into cars and racing in general, they you may have come across the word “Launch Control”. This term is widely used for drag races, normal races, and super cars in general.

In layman  terms Launch control is an electronic aid to assist drivers of both racing and street cars to accelerate from a standing start. 

You can use this feature prominently in Forza Horizon 5 if you know how to do it. In this guide I will discuss some methods to launch control in the game. These tips will hopefully enable you to win Drag Races and get a head start in toe to toe competition.


Forza Horizon 5 (FH5) Launch Controls and Wheelie Guide

Turning Launch Control ON or OFF

If you rev the engine too much, you run the chance of a burnout. This will look cool, but it is sure to mess us the launch. If you rev the car too little during automatic shifts, it can under-launch and make you lose the match.

This is where a neat little feature comes in Forza Horizon 5. This will enable you to launch the cars at the perfect Rev range and speed. To turn on this setting do “MANUAL SHIFTING” From settings, and to turn it off, simply switch back to AUTOMATIC.

What is launch control in General?

Modern sports and Hyper cars are often fitted with launch control from the factory manufacturers. This system sets the clutch to the bite point and revs the engine just right to rocket off of the start. In cars with turbochargers, the launch control will also spool up the turbo.

This helps the driver to get the full benefit of the extra power from the launch. This is ideal for drag races and general controlled racing in open strips.

Smokes may look cool but not ideal here to do the perfect launch. Let us know more before diving in to how to do the correct launches. In a drag race, getting off the line faster than your competition is as important as how much power the engine has.

In this scenario, wheel spin is the enemy. Suppose your opponent’s vehicle has minimal wheel spin while you’re doing an unintentional burnout at the starting line. In that case, your 800 horsepower won’t matter if their 700-hp car is halfway down the straightaway by the time your tires grip.

Launch control not only minimizes wheel spin (and hop) but also helps manage torque, throttle, and gear settings to prevent vehicle damage. Without launch control, there is a higher probability of over-revving the engine and overheating the transmission.

How To Use Launch Control in FH5

The tips and tricks are quite simple. First, go to the settings tab and then go to “Difficulty”.  Make sure that “SHIFTING” is set to MANUAL. If you are an expert driver, you can also do this with Clutch option. But that requires even more inputs which I do not prefer. For casual players, MANUAL is fine to do this.

Next you want to use the best car you want in the game. You will see that shifting up will increase gears and shifting down will decrease them. Sadly there is no Neutral gear here so use the First Gear as a Neutral to come to a stop. If you Press and HOLD HANDBRAKE and press ACCELERATE, you will see that the Rev RPM is redlining. You do not want this to happen if you want to launch control.

fh5 manual gear shifts

Now what you want to do is bring the car to a halt. SHIFT GEAR to 2 and then BACK TO 1. At this moment if you hold the brakes and press accelerate, you will see that the Rev RPM is getting locked at a certain limit. This is the indication that the Launch Control is working and ready to go.

And that is how you can properly launch control in Forza Horizon 5. If you are in a drag race, simply let go off the handbrake while holding accelerator to get the perfect launch! TLDR;

  • Change Gear Shifting to Manual
  • Bring Car to a halt
  • Change gear to 2 then back to 1
  • Hold down the Handbrake and Accelerator
  • Let go off the Handbrake for Launch Control and Acceleration!

Video Example for Launch Control

Here is a video of this is example. I was using an Apollo and a Huracan for it since they have higher Launch settings. You can try these out with any cars or vehicles. My personal recommendation would be to look for a car that has High launch ratings.

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This will ensure that you are getting the best launch possible if you do things correctly. Check out this LINK for a live example of Launch Control Testing. 

Take careful note that the TCR (Traction Control) kicks in. This will also help you to prevent unwanted wheelspins and burnouts. Look for cars that have good TCR if you are into high Launch rating vehicles. The option for Traction Control can also be found in the Difficulty settings. You can turn that ON or OFF.

How To do a Wheelie using Launch Controls

You can use Launch Controls settings I have shown above to do wheelies also. This will help you to get those covered rewards and EXP Points. Ideally look for cars with a lot of “Muscle Power”. Ground Clearance matters a lot here so look for that also. Next thing to do is drop down the rear of the car and decrease Tyre pressure on that. This will help the Tire grip the road perfectly.

Make the front of the car light and increase the Tyre Pressure. Lift the front up as much as you want. You can figure out how the tuning is going. This will ensure that you get on two wheels when you do a launch control. If you fine tune it correctly, The car should look something like this:

As you can see the player has dropped the rear by a lot and lifted the front by a decent amount. Here is the list of things you need to do to build a wheelie car or do wheelies. To do these, go to upgrades > Custom upgrades. Here are the Tuning settings to look for, to build a wheelie car:

Upgrade Settings

  • ENGINE SWAP: Get the Highest Engine rating possible from tuning
  • CONVERSION: Rear Wheel Drive
  • ASPIRATION: Twin Turbo if Possible
  • Remove Front Bumpers [Optional]
  • Rear Bumper needs to be removed [Optional]
  • TIRE COMPOUND: DRAG TIRE COMPOUND [Can be found at the bottom of the screen]
  • FRONT TIRE WIDTH: Smallest Size you can manage
  • BACK TIRE WIDTH: 245 ideally or the max width to give it the highest grip possible
  • RIMS: As Light as possible and Size is optional
  • DRIVETRAIN: High Performance/Race Parts
  • TRANSMISSION: Performance/Race Oriented
  • SUSPENSIONS: Rally Suspensions are ideal for this
  • ANTI-ROLL BARS: Mandatory
  • WEIGHT REDUCTION: Must Do
  • ENGINE TWEAKS: Make sure to get all the parts needed to bring the MAXIMUM HORSEPOWER possible.

Tuning Settings

OPTIONS SETTINGS
FRONT TIRE PRESSURE
  • Maximum
REAR TIRE PRESSURE
  • As Low as possible for best grip
GEARS
  • Tune only the 1st Gear to 3.5
ALIGNMENT
  • Angle – 1.0
ANTI-ROLL BARS
  • FRONT – Soft (Lowest Value)
  • REAR – Stiff (Highest value)
SPRINGS
  • FRONT – Soft (Lowest Value)
  • REAR – Stiff (Highest value)
DAMPING
  • FRONT – Soft (Lowest Value)
  • REAR – Stiff (Highest value)
BRAKES
  • Default values are fine here
DIFFERENTIAL
  • Acceleration – Maximum
  • Deceleration – Maximum

Now you need to simply use the launch controls I have shown above, and you should be able to do wheelies without any issues. Note that if some of the custom tuning options are locked for you, install the required race parts from the upgrades menu to unlock these settings.


That is all I am sharing in this guide on Doing Launch Controls and Wheelies in Forza Horizon 5. Check out our Forza Horizon 5 section for more such interesting content. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Last Updated on May 24, 2022

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