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Forza 5 receives free Nürburgring download

Turn on your Xbox One, launch Forza 5 and enjoy the Nürburgring circuit for free. Yes, you read that right.

When racing game Forza 5 was teased this time last year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka E3) everyone praised the next-generation graphics, but mourned the loss of the revered Nürburgring circuit. Now Forza 5 developer Turn 10 Studios has rectified the situation with a free track download.

Not a track for the faint-hearted
Not a track for the faint-hearted

Forza 5 mastermind Dan Greenawalt took to the stage at E3 in Los Angeles to deliver the exciting news that everyone who owns the game can get the Nurburgring for free. That’s 14-plus miles of ‘Green Hell’ shenanigans in glorious 3D.

Forza fans will know the Nürburgring has featured before in a previous game, but not to the same degree of accuracy. Improved laser scanning was employed to recreate every nook and cranny of the track to within millimetres of accuracy.

As Greenawalt explained: “We want to be something where the professional racecar driver, the Jackie Stewarts of the world, can recognise every little bump, every piece of grass. Can recognise the trees, every building, they can use all those references that most of us have never seen, but they don’t hurt our experience either.”

“So we have this incredibly detailed track that we can learn, and fulfil our fantasies, while having pro drivers able to drive it at any level,” he added.

The track took 30 developers a year to complete, totalling a ridiculous 13,000 man hours of effort. Such is the level of authenticity, even the graffiti was accurate at the time of scanning. Turn 10 Studios also used E3 to announced the forthcoming arrival of Forza Horizons 2.

The Nürburgring is famous for its high speed straights, long sweeping corners, unforgiving surrounds and tight dimensions. A number of places on the track have seen many professional drivers crash and even die. The infamous Pflanzgarten section, for instance, claimed the life of Peter Collins during the 1958 German Grand Prix.

The West German track was a regular fixture in the Formula One calendar until it was deemed too dangerous after Niki Lauda famously crashed (as portrayed in the film Rush) in 1976. These days the ‘Nordschliefe’ variant of the track is a public road open to all.

There were fears the track could close forever but it was recently purchased by German company Capricorn Developments for €77 million (£64.3 million). The fastest ever lap time of 6:11.13.was set by Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956.

The update is meant to be available but we couldn’t see it so you may need to be patient. We’re guessing eventually you will be prompted by a ‘new DLC available’ message and the download will be found within the Marketplace option.

Check out the ten most memorable Nürburgring moments while you wait for the DLC to download.

Forza 5 Nurburgring DLC video

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