Forza Horizon 5 Tips On Becoming A Faster Driver

1 - Get Rid Of All The Assists.

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Ok, Not all at once xD

Manual + Clutch without a doubt. Tho, Manual is sometimes ( rarely ) faster because it provides a better engine breaking effect - slowing down the car faster, thus gaining time. Learning at least Manual, will be a huge improvement in your lap times.

Launch Control ON is faster with antilag. Launch Control On may be faster on some cars/builds, and Off may be faster on others. One thing to keep in mind is that, LC ON doesn't allow 2nd gear launch on PowerBuilds and we all know that some PowerBuilds have a better launch in 2nd gear.

TCR Basically the way it's coded, 1 is perfect traction, you go over this value, u get wheelspin. TCR in a straight line keeps you at ~0.65 so practically if you have the skill to keep the car at say 0.80, then you're faster with TCR OFF.

There is no reason to keep it ON, even on keyboard, most of the time tapping the acceleration is faster than having it ON ( ofc requires a lot of practice ). There are some weird PowerBuilds, usually only for Rivals, which have so much power that TCR ON is a must.

TCR ON usually does nothing in a AWD grippy tune, you'll most likely wanna use it for PowerBuilds, in which case I recommend just practice throttle control.

ABS OFF/ON - Most pro players don't use abs, some of the ones who do: [n**d] AvocadoOne, [nuts] ESV Green, [BEan] K1Z Howzer, [BRe] Marethu1. This should be last on your list to be honest, after you've learned racing lines, tuning, all other assists are off, how to overtake and how to defend, track layouts etc and you ask yourself 'how can I improve further?', turn abs off.

But really, the advantage ABS OFF offers in this game is.. not worth it. Almost all the pros drive ABS OFF but it's because in FH4 and FM there is clearly a difference and it's worth learing, so they got used to it OFF, but in FH5 the difference can be as little as this, depending on the car and track:

ESV Mars ( One of the best players ) on ABS at 54:56 ( Video ) :

On dirt, ABS ON might actually be faster in most cases as it makes it easier to slide, on the other hand trailbraking in most cases is better with it OFF, but another argument for ABS ON is its consistency, whereas OFF you might randomly lock up the wheels and it's possibly gg.

Learning ABS OFF will help you if you decide to play Forza Motorsport or other more realistic racing games.

Stability Control - Off, it slows you down to stabilize the car when there's a sudden shift in weight.

Steering - Simulation cuz standard has some assisted elements.

Driving line - There is absolutely no advantage if you turn it off. Of course you might wanna keep 'breaking only', but like i said, disabling the line offers no advantage at all, on the contrary it might help at night or dunno hills, jumps etc, basically can help u follow the track better.

2 - Rivals.

Skill doesn't necessarily mean only dexterity or raw pace, but also knowledge. Practicing a track is going to increase your dexterity and muscle memory over time ofc, but you're really doing to increase your knowledge of that specific track, you practice and find better lines and even tho you might not have the most dexterity, you have knowledge and you know the proper racing line. Good place to learn track shortcuts too.

Do rivals until you shave off less than 00:00:100s

This right here is where you find out how skilled you really are, you set ur best time and then basically race against ur best self, against your max, and u keep improving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-GoqRhLBvAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtiJ5W711Kk

HorizonPlus Can be useful, not many use it tho. I've used it and no ban, I take no responsibility if you get banned.

https://github.com/Sappytron/HorizonPlus

Now there is something you should know about. Your PC matters in Rivals. U got a fast PC.. u get a better time, u could potentially gain ~.700s. You got a slow PC ? Easy way to test this is by doing a Sprint and choosing the exact same car and tune as the ghost. If the ghost has a better PC, it's gonna be ahead even tho you both have the same car and tune. .700s in Rivals terms is huge and when you also add cheaters into the mix, well you can see why almost nobody bothers with Rivals.

The tune and car play a big role in getting a fast time, refer to tip 6 - Use the right cars/tunes. for Meta cars and tunes.

3 - Watch Better Players Play The Game.

Helped me for example to beat Deity difficulty in Civ 5. ( Ty FilthyRobot ;') ) and to get Legend in HS.

We all know that by watching others, we can learn and progress our skill. These are the very best players AND streamers. There are of course many more top players but not all are streamers/youtubers at the same time.

giron228 - Mostly custom online racing. Usually drives purist builds and almost wins every race. Ma man is not even using the breaking line..

https://www.twitch.tv/giron228

Nalak28 - Needs no introduction.

https://www.twitch.tv/nalak

K1Z Bard - Doesn't stream from what i know so here's his youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/@vchrono2563

K1Z Bala / balanarus - Top player, mostly drives purist and he's also one of the best purist tuners out there.

https://www.youtube.com/@K1Z_Bala

https://www.twitch.tv/k1z_bala

[*1%*] CORVETTE GS - Not only one of the best players, but also one of the best from [*1%*]. Oh.. and he really likes to drive CC8S XD

https://www.twitch.tv/letzelu

https://www.youtube.com/@letz732

K1Z Suimin / No3InGame - THE best player according to some.

https://www.youtube.com/@Suimin03

[GRT] VNX CODCAOS - Not only Forza Horizon but also Forza Motosport.

https://www.twitch.tv/vnx_codcaos

https://www.youtube.com/@codcaos2591

K1Z_Howzer - THE best on Keyboard ?

https://www.youtube.com/@K1Z_Howzer

[BRe] Marethu1 - THE best on Keyboard ?

https://www.youtube.com/@epicfiend1999

ESV Mars - THE best player according to some.

https://www.youtube.com/@ESVMars

https://www.twitch.tv/esv_mars

[ITC] Rocklxd - Probably the best CC/Dirt Tuner, certainly one of the fastest Off Road drivers.

https://space.bilibili.com/100172/

[LDAC] Zookiiwi - Probably the best CC Driver.

https://www.youtube.com/@ZoOkiiWi

[GRT] GR4 - Pro gameplay and he also streams Team Wars.

https://www.twitch.tv/ashcontent

AnoNyMe - Rivals monster

https://www.youtube.com/@l_Anonyme_ll/featured

4 - Join A Community Maybe Even A Team.

So in order to join a team, a racing team, one that participates in team wars, join Forza Team Wars: https://discord.gg/QXt2GpH8Ca Here you can find all the big players, all the big names in FH5 racing scene. Chose the team u wanna join and message a player from that team ( you can find all of em on the right side ) and you will get an invite to their discord server, where you can see how u can join that team. Usually it's a tryout where you get a car+tune and a track to beat a required lap time, ( ex below ) but not always. They do make exceptions and u can join immediately without tryout if for example you're Legend/Gold in the Horizon Racing Academy ( link below ) or i dunno friends with known players, youtuber/streamer, see where i'm getting ?

Here's a video of 'AvenTRador' completing some tryouts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sYVtcBqtSo

A reality check, you will probably never join teams like [GRT], [*1%*], NÜTS, BEan, simply because these players have known each other for a very long time, they're all good friends and even if you're competent enough, doesn't mean you will be accepted. Some teams are invite only and some have different tryouts like [*1%*], where they gather some members and u race against them a couple of times then based on the results they decide if you're worthy, but to even be considered for a tryout, first you gotta have some crazy Rivals times. Remember, team wars are 6v6 - I wonder if you ever get to actually race, cuz what would be the point in joining otherwise..

[*1%*] Tryout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAtYxMlpxiM

My advice to you, join a team in which you will actually do some racing, you don't wanna be a 2nd driver, a 'just in case' driver ( remember, it's 6v6 ), join a modest team and make a name for yourself, improve and build a CV and then go up the ranks. You can always create your own team if you want, wouldn't be a bad idea to be honest. Once you join a team, I mean you gotta be active, you gotta race with em, you gotta practice the track you're supposed to race next, some wars are open tuning which means u get to tune your car, so more testing, this is why you rarely see these players in Online Adventures.

If you don't wanna deal with discord, team leaders etc, here is the tryout for team ''Astra Racing'' or [ATR*], which is a mid pack team I would say, currently sits 9th out of 19:

Tarmac:

Car: 2016 Mazda MX5

Tune: 114 245 996

Track: 124 347 930

Time to beat: 1:53.800

Dirt:

Car: 1966 Ford #2 GT40 MKII

Tune: 336 211 378

Track: 231 493 262

Time to beat: 1:46.800

Another tryout, this one is way easier for team AR* ( not currently ranked ):

Tarmac:

Car: 2016 BMW M2

Tune: 141 129 687

Track: 755 695 131

Time to beat: Sub 1:43

In Asia some top teams would be ZERO, [ITC], ZGC, AcAw. I do not know much about the asian FH5 racing scene, but from what I've heard, it's more serious.

Of course, you can join some cruising teams, or drifting teams but this is a guide on how to become faster not a guide on how to take beautiful screenshots, create liveries etc.

Some Team Wars videos just to get an idea:

nood vs BEan / GRT x BEan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIGsIWdMexIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVSiAb5XmW8&t=1sGRT vs hpm / F1 vs LFR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyNdIYnmfXIhttps://www.twitch.tv/videos/1701684213

Maybe you're not interested in doing Team Wars, but still want something competitive, maybe join:

FailRace - He does sometimes ''vs the community'' where you get to tune a car and race with the community.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FailRace

Discord: https://discord.gg/EsmKkrf5Tb

RacingHaven - Challenges like Touge 1v1 racing, Cups etc

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/racinghaven

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@racinghaven/featured

Discord: https://discord.gg/RacingHaven

Horizon Street Wars - Forza Horizon competitive scene for all levels of skill.

Discord: https://discord.gg/fedaC3sVbx

Horizon Racing Academy - Learn and improve your skills with the help of some of the fastest drivers.

Discord: https://discord.gg/rdVc6kfzTU

Forza Stage - Touge racing

Discord: https://discord.gg/EyMzE9WjxV

SR1 Road to Squad Rank 1 - You can participate in a variety of events.

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/road2sr1

Discord: https://discord.gg/QXSBAYxA5J

These are just a few guys. Join and meet new people who share the same interests and over time you'll discover other new communities. Another thing that you could do is add players. You just had an amazing race against a random player ? Add him, race again, create a team etc.

5 - Tuning.

Just like in Forza Horizon 4, there are some tuning settings that work for most cars, for example 1/65 Antiroll Bars, max front downforce and the opposite on the rear, differential 100,0,100,0, there are also some good to know things like power > handling, in game stats are not accurate, braking balance is inverted in the tuning menu, offroad tires for Dirt/CC and Rallies for Tarmac, some tunes/cars are only viable in Rivals ( instability, one trick pony ) etc. Be consistent in your lap times when tuning. There is a clear link between the best tuners in the game and the best players - they are all consistent. But this is not a tuning guide specifically, so I will just provide other sources for you:

SepiSP4's Spreadsheet ( Make a copy in case it gets deleted or something ): https://t.ly/OLhHR

SepiSP4's Video: https://youtu.be/kVfBJu580Sw

SepiSP4's Tuning unreleased script ( Again, make a copy ): https://t.ly/ZuOab

Steam Tuning Guide: https://t.ly/u0WWK

Void's Tuning Guide: https://t.ly/WsFsM

Tuning Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ForzaOpenTunes/

ForzaOpenTunes OPTN Chart: https://optn.club/chart

RHEC Setup Reference: https://t.ly/v6I4B

[*1%*] KapienPL ( the man himself ;) explains suspension tuning ): https://t.ly/_K2lv

Horizon Racing Academy: https://discord.gg/rdVc6kfzTU

You gotta take some time to understand and practice this art, cuz it plays a tremendous role in getting fast times.

If you can't be bothered to learn, these are the tuners I trust:

( If you ever see ''T0'' or ''T0.5'' or ''T1'' in the title of a car basically means T0=Meta, T0.5=Off Meta, T1=Competitive/Viable. It's used in the Chinese FH5 scene. You can even find ''T1.5''.. at that point ya know XD )

K1Z Suimin/No3Ingame - Top notch tunes, they are however geared towards intermediate/advanced players.

Rocklxd - Usually dirt/cc power tunes.

K1Z Bard/ThankfulBard261 - Purist, Seasonal, Rivals, Online tunes, WR tunes, man does it all.

VNX CODCAOS - Probably your best choice for PowerBuilds.

KapienPL - Most likely the fastest guy on Dirt and he usually tunes only for Dirt.

[ZGC] nyasmowisher - One of the best S2 Tuners.

[*1%*] GreetedDust8 - Tunes pretty much everything and he's really good at it.

ESV Mars - One of the best drivers and tuners.

K1Z Bala - For Purist Tunes, but not only.

UnworthyPleb - Usually only cares about Dirt/Mixed.

SeeyeahBoss - One of the best Meta tuners.

EGAO no HANA - One of the best Meta tuners.

Noa Miyako - Creates WR Tunes.

Usually you want to look for Teams like [*1%*], K1Z, ZERO, NUTS, BEan, [GRT], ZGC, AcAw, ESV.

You might be surprised to not see some names here, well.. it's because I think they're not putting as much effort as they used to, they don't care anymore or they don't play as much. Also, I'm sorry to say it but DJS, Hoki, AR12, while they might be entertaining to watch for you, their tunes are underwhelming. Same when it comes to PTG tunes, also Apps like QuickTune and ForzaTune Pro are *******. ( you understand what I said XD ).

A 5 star tune is most of the time dog♥♥♥♥, also some top tuners make 'purist' tunes and while they're nice to drive, they're most likely not the fastest version. Most of the time, adding aero, swapping the engine is going to give u a faster lap time.

6 - Use The Right Cars/tunes.

You need to know the best tuners and the best cars to give yourself the highest chance of winning races ;) and to be fair, finding out about these things, is a skill in itself. Use whatever car you want bro, Online Racing is a free for all, you can use whatever tune/car you'd like and as long as you're not a rammer you're good in my book.

Prioritize RWD / PowerBuild for Sprints, especially in B/A Class, but not only. In S1 too you got a couple of choices, in S2 on the other hand you can go with the Mosler or the F1 GT but there are quite a few high speed AWD and.. I mean you're in S2 Class, you're not going to take full advantage of a RWD / PowerBuild Speed, stick to AWD I'd say, at least in Online Adventures.

To be honest, you shouldn't download old tunes from like 2021. The tuners didn't give a ♥♥♥♥ when the game came out, they made tunes as fast as possible to get credits / fame, plus new updates come out and those tunes might become obsolete, also some things have changed like tire pressure, and some proper testing needed to be done. New physics update happened too so some tunes 100% got affected.

Gonna provide a couple of lists of Meta Cars:

This is my first guide. I've updated it a couple of times and I think it contains not only today's Meta but also some Off Meta strong cars.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3014838195

Chinese Meta Spreadsheet. A very nice list with lots of choices, also very popular in the chinese FH5 scene.

https://docs.qq.com/sheet/DVGh2RE1Gd3VNa0pQ?tab=dhhbqj

Another Chinese Spreadsheet, this one created by the team ZGC. Has more Speadsheets inside. There is a translated version.. a badly translated version rather.. just use google translate man.

https://docs.qq.com/sheet/DRUtkS091TmlaRGRa?tab=be64n8

Another Chinese Spreadsheet, I will also provide the translation for this one.

https://t.ly/-0cx1

Translation:

https://t.ly/QAIXq

snosaes’ Meta Car List for Rivals/PVP:

https://t.ly/6JKNp

Meta.pdf doesn't provide any tunes tho.

https://t.ly/yj1FP

I got a couple more like Johnson's, Veno's, DKTrue's but they're all outdated. Look through everything man and try out different builds.

7 - Better Input.

Forza Horizon 5 is better played on a controller.. not a wheel or a keyboard.

I feel like in this category, there are very few people who can race on Keyboard AND Controller. I'd like to think that I'm one of those people. Out of my 1,6k hrs of online racing ( FH4+FH5 ), 1,3k where spent on keyboard for sure. And even tho I'm maybe 1,5-2 secs slower on controller, I could still win online races mostly thanks to racing knowledge rather than dexterity.

If you're at the beginning, go with a controller 100% even if it's going to suck for a while, maybe you've got used to keyboard, but in the long run it's going to be SO much better. The controller basically opens every door for ya, so to speak, while the keyboard opens only a few.. what do I mean by that? Well, PowerBuilds ? You might be like - TCR.. but wait cuz TCR loses you A LOT of time, just by tapping the ''W' key you are faster, it's not worth using TCR most of the time. Not to mention the launch which is so much easier and faster on Controller. MAYBE sometimes there will be a weird PowerBuild in Rivals that has so much power and so much wheelspin that you need TCR even on Controller.. it happend in FH4 and FH5 ( 68 Renault 4L Export ). How about RWD cars ? Ok, they're not PowerBuilds but you still get some wheelspin in 1st, 2nd gear - that's time lost, and I'm not only talking about at the start of a race, but every single time you gotta drop down in 2nd to take a corner, sometimes it's so tight that u gotta drop down to 1st for extra rotation or maybe to use the engine breaking effect. Luckily the difference between ABS On and Off is not that big here, in FH4 you had to use ABS Off, impossible on Keyboard so - time lost. Even after 1k+ hours on Keyboard, I still had massive troubles with some RWDs + ABS, dropping down to 2nd-3rd and trying to trailbrake while also trying to carry as much speed as possible.. pure agony, my forearm genuinely hurt sometimes from so much tapping. Should I also talk about the feedback you get through vibration ? yeah cuz on Keyboard there is none...

All that being said, there is however 'some' potential on Keyboard too. I know about 3 players that are without a doubt better than me: K1Z Howzer, [BRe] Marethu1 and [#OPR] TheDannny

There is also NotMitsuha, Dzevox, BluecarterEX, and IsuckAtDriving/GrandmaDriving/MineralWater/WalmartLeClerc/OneErection/mswgr ( same dude :) )

The fact alone that you can give it gas anywhere between 0% and 100% instead of either 0% or 100% should be enough to declare the winner.

There was another top keyboard player part of [*1%*] named 'Mo0n' in Forza Horizon 4, I don't know if he changed his name, if he doesn't play anymore but I haven't seen him since people were doing Team Wars in FH4.

8 - The Racing Line Is Most Of The Time Wrong.

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It's easy to fall into this trap especially as a newer player. You might think that the game's racing line is the fastest way and if it's red, u immediately jump on the brakes. Think of it as an AI path rather than a racing line, still you might wanna keep it on as it literally offers no benefit unlike the other assists if turned off, on the contrary - it might help when the visibility is low ( storm, night, hills ). Now the braking line definitely helps, but again, depending on the car/tune, medium/high speed corners can be taken flat out, no need to slow down even if the line is red.

I suppose here is where we should talk about shortcuts as well. There are a few tracks where there are some nice shortcuts that can save a couple of seconds. Here is a video of SepiSP4, showing you some nice shortcuts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXy4aEaJjFkAlso, use props like fences, trees, bushes, anything that can slow down the car faster.

Think outside the box, many default tracks can be abused. Watch some drivers in Team Wars, you will be surprised by how they're finding more pace.

Just because the game draws a line for you doesn't mean it is the fastest.

EXAMPLES OF MASSIVE SHORTCUTS:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3036063162

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3036440999

9 - Be Competitive.

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Be competitive, have some balls and go for that gap. Give no quarter and expect none. Now, don't misinterpret all this and start ramming people off the track. If you do, say sorry or whatever and let that person go in front, saying sorry and not giving back the position is BM in my opinion.

I really recommend watching some Team Wars videos ( provided a couple above ) so you can see how the best players defend and overtake. You could also join Team Wars on Discord ( link above ) and among many useful things there, you can check out 'race control' and see what kind of penalties are dished out, just to name a few: Bump and Run, pushing, aggressive dive ( divebombing ), forcing someone off the track etc. Gotta keep in mind that Online Racing / Team Wars is not Rivals / AI, you might sometimes be out of your comfort zone, there are faster guys out there, sometimes you might not be on the racing line, sometimes you might be forced to give up the position - you race and learn, you go through experiences and you become better. Being fast is impressive but being fast and not disrupting anybody's race is amazing.

I'd like to end this section by quoting from 'The Driver’s Code' - Drive Cleanly – '' Whether it is your first time on the track or your 1000th, you owe it to your community to drive a clean and fair race with no unsportsmanlike conduct on the track. Aka, no intentional ramming! ''.

10 - Practice.

Honestly this should be the 1st and most important tip, but because people want to improve and they want to improve NOW, it's the last one.

I liked to go back to Forza Horizon 4 after a couple of hundreds of hours in Forza Horizon 5 just to see how much I've progressed. The difference sometimes was stunning; on some tracks I was ~2 sec faster, corners that I was struggling with, they somehow seemed way easier, also I saw a faster racing line, it's not only about dexterity, but also about racing knowledge. It might seem sometimes like you've hit a wall, but that's when you're actually making progress.

Not going to lie, it's gonna take many, MANY hours until you can consistently win and even then you will still lose against [*1%*], ESV, GFR, NUTS, *F1* ( FH and FM teams/clans ). These guys, racing is their passion, they love racing and they also love cars, they've been playing racing games since they were kids, FH5 might be your first racing game where you decided you wanted to become decent at it.. for these guys, FH5 is the 20th racing game they're playing. Most of them are or were competing in Forza Motosport, FH5, Trackmania, FH4, FH3, some are still posting WRs even in old games like NFS Porsche ( Suimin ), Forza Horizon 3 ( Nalak28 )... Some have literally played racing games all their lives. You know you sometimes see a guy with prestige 9 and like level 800 and be like 'cheater for sure'.. well no, some are legit that level. Sometimes I have met these 'pros' from RiZE, GFR,'R3', BEan, NUTS and I could keep up, sometimes I even won :')

What I'm trying to say is that, if this kind of passion is not somewhere inside you, you'll never become as fast as the top players. For me, this kind of passion, at least for racing.. doesn't exist inside me. For me, it's competition, but not necessarily racing or Forza Horizon 5, more like - leaderboards. I love being competitive, I like winning and being better, but It ain't the cars / racing for me.. the leaderboards in Diablo 3 worked just fine to scratch my 'itch', ♥♥♥♥ even in Batman Arkham Knight I was taking the friends leaderboard seriously xD.

I wish you good luck and if racing / cars is your passion, keep playing and follow these tips and you will eventually become as good as these pros.

Smaller Tips.

Record your gameplay. Works in many games, why not here too ?

Be aware of certain game mechanics:

Slipstream - Less Drag --> Faster Top Speed ( You really need a long straight to see any benefit )

Engine Braking - Works better with only manual ( at least on FH5 ) - Downshifting aggressively will slow down the car faster.

Dirty air - Less Downforce --> Understeer --> Slower ( Especially noticeable in S2. )

Buy a better PC ( lol ).. yes.. you can gain up to ~.700sec in Rivals, which is just ridiculous if you have a strong PC.

Test cars on custom track. ( Slow corner, medium corners and high speed ones + Changes in elevation, a straight for top speed etc )

Sepisp4's test tracks:

Road: 405 475 770 Dirt: 689 815 376

Don't use dodgy stuff like 'Forza painter tool', it will get you banned.

Might wanna consider close camera, gives a slower speed impression.

Pay attention to your gears, it matters a lot.

Break as little as possible, DUUH!! No but like you don't break until the red line is gone and then turn, you break to slow down, let the car coast while the line is still red ( u still lose speed at this point cuz of friction, engine break etc ) and u start accelerating as soon as u have enough grip.

Spot rammers, usually top cars meta, stupid names like ''xxxIdothesegsallthetimeXXX'' lol

Join tournaments / Cups see how u compare to some of the best players. ar12 for some, Failrace too.

Don't trust in game stats. Ex might say speed 5.9 but the car reaches 300 km/h+ etc ( 1968 Renault 4L Export )

Buy with ''Y'' when sniping cars to avoid loading screen.

Lower the in games graphics. Track more visible, PC not working as hard.

Use interactive map : https://guides4gamers.com/forza-horizon-5/map/mexico/

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034350023

Tips On Becoming A Faster Driver