Road Trip to Montellino

Summing things up, we have completed the third of the six Championships, we have unlocked Clubs, and we have completed two Showcase Events. We've been introduced to the regional Car Meets, the Bucket List System, and the Online Road Trips.

We've collected a fair number of Bonus Boards, we have collected a fair number of bonus Cars thanks to the Wheel Spin and the Showcase Events, and we have explored the lion's share of the world.

It is time to continue the story campaign and head for the next even via the next Road Trip!

As with the previous Championships and destinations we are asked to select the Championship - and to choose a new car for it - and this time around our choices are:

• Sports Utility Heroes Championship - Sport Utility Heroes Class

  - 2011 BMW X5 M (82K Credits)

  - 2012 Cadillac Escalade ESV (90K Credits) - Recommended

  - 2012 Lamborghini Urus (150K Credits)

  - 2013 Mercedes-Benz G 65 AMG (245K Credits) - Recommended

  - 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT (65K Credits)

• American Racers Championship - American Racers Class

  - 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS Coupe (45K Credits)

  - 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 (60K Credits)

  - 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (41K Credits) - Recommended

  - 1971 AMC Javelin AMX (20K Credits)

  - 1971 Plymouth Cuda 426 HEMI (120K Credits)

  - 1973 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am SD-455 (24K Credits)

  - 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am (22K Credits) - Recommended

  - 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (12K Credits)

• Extreme Offroad Championship - Extreme Offroad Class

  - 2011 Ford F-150 Raptor (42K Credits)

  - 2012 Bowler EXR S (196K Credits)

  - 2013 RAM Runner (76K Credits) - Recommended

  - 2014 Local Motors Rally Fighter (75K Credits)

Considering some of the prices for these rides, I have to say that I am simply amazed at the competitive spirit of new Forza Faithful who do not have the Forza Rewards System to fall back on to fund this level of racing choices!

Seriously, if you have not already done so, you should go - right now - to the Forza Rewards website - and sign up! Making choices like this is a lot easier when you have 1.5M in the bank...

That said, it is time to make a choice here.

Now, don't take this wrong - I like offroad, and I think that the vehicles that are part of the SUV Championships show promise - but being as how I am more interested in going fast and avoiding trees, ditches, and girls named Mel, the obvious choice here is the American Racers Championship!

And speaking of obvious choice, have you noticed that the Offroad only has four choices, the SUV five, while the American Racers Championship has a whopping eight?!

Once you have decided on your Championship - and the vehicle you will use - it is time to once again join the pack and head off on a Road Trip to a new destination.

Ostensibly the reason you chose the race and vehicle straight away was so that you could use the RT to get some wheel-time in and thus get familiar with the way that your new chosen ride handles. Once you reach the destination you should really do that - maybe collect a few Bonus Boards while you are at it. Just saying...

When we arrive in Montellino we will unlock the Achievement: Welcome to Montellino (25G) Arrived in Montellino fir the first time.

Horizon Promo Mode

After arriving in Montellino and paying a visit to the local Car Meet we will unlock the next special Mode and Collection: Horizon Promo.

This is the special photo collection that has you snapping pics of specific Cars out in the wilds of France and Italy with the ultimate goal being to turn into Ben a completed set of photos for the cars that are on his list.

You will find more detailed information under the Collections Sextion of the Guide in the "Horizon Promo Collection" pages. Note that there is an Achievement associated with this special mode in the game: Photographer (20G) Take photos of 100 different Cars for Horizon Promo.

During the Introduction and reveal for this special collection Ben will tell you that he pays bonus credits every so many photos. What he will not tell you is that the Promo scheme is base don groupings. To give you an idea of what we mean, here are the basic requirements for this collection - by manufacturer and the grouping counts for same:

Unlocking the related Achievement requires only 100 unique photos - there are 245 vehicles in the total collection - a number of recent entries are not included.

To take a photo get close to the target vehicle and then press (and hold) UP on the D-Pad; that will throw you into camera mode. Line up the shot and snap a pic,. Doing so will cause the Horizon Promo Special Interface to appear - this will let you know that (1) you found a car that is on the list and (2) you need it.

This screen will also reveal the number of Cars in that group you have taken photos of and how many remain un-snapped, it will tell you what the progress is towards your bonus, and it will indicate that the process has been completed.

There is no need to save the photo you took to disk - unless you actually want to. Note that if there is more than one car in the frame and they are all recognizable and they are alll (or some) are needed, you will get credit for all that apply and be paid for all of them as well.

In any case all of teh Cars you earn off of are on the itemized list on the screen. That nicely wraps up this side-bit on the Horizon Promo Collection. For more detailed information please consult the Horizon Promo page(s) in the Collections Section of the Guide.

BEFORE we actually gig into the next racing events now would be a really good time to take a good hard look at the game - and our standing in it - and maybe make our life a little bit better. Bear with me, this will all make sense.

One of my favorite writers is Bill Bryson - an American journalist and author from Iowa who spent almost entirely all of his adult working life in the United Kingdom, where he ended up living because he met a girl while working a job there to help pay for an extended holiday.

Bryson worked as a journalist - a newspaper journalist - but he is best known now for his books - and particularly his travel, humor - and this is very hard to believe - history - books. If you have never heard of him - Bill Bryson - I do recommend you get some of his books if you are a reader and, if not, you hit up Audible.com for some of his audio books which, by the way, he reads himself.

Bryson was on holiday in the UK when he met the woman that was destined to be his wife and the mother of his children and that is why he remained there. His occupation was print journalist, newspaper columnist, and author. He is a keen fan of words and language, and he is a very funny man. I've never met him.

In his autobiography The Thunderbolt Kid Bryson talks a lot about the social changes that took place all over the world in the late 1940s and early 1950s - and in particular how the world changed as a result of World War II. Among those changes was the massive leap forward in tech that nearly assaulted the population of the world.

When we speak of tech improvements we are not talking about computers and the Internet - we are talking about safer and faster Cars, color TV, and electrically powered appliances like the refrigerator.

It may be difficult to wrap your mind around this but, prior to World War II and outside of commercial kitchens and the homes of the very wealthy, when a person told you to get a beer or soda out of the ice box they meant, literally, the insulated box in the kitchen in which was stored a large block of ice in the top of it that, by its coldness, made everything else inside the insulated box chilled.

Nothing was every ice-cold in that ice box mind you. Generally speaking the best that you could reasonably hope for was "chilled" and the average result was a cool temperature that promoted the preservation of food that otherwise would spoil.

The Introduction of the electrically powered device we call a refrigerator was a big deal. For the first time in the history of the world man could have, at his beck and call, an ice cold drink. Hell, even more significant, man could have ICE. You now, that he MADE himself, not that the world made thanks to a thing called Winter.

The point I am trying to make here is that often what seem like small changes now had major impacts and effects back when they were first introduced, novel, and new... Who can say how many lives were saved because that ground meat did not go bad thanks to an electrically-powered box of cold goodness?

In the world of Forza Horizon 2 there are, at your beck and call, and with just a little effort, available to you a number of improvements in tech and cost that you can obtain just by making that aforementioned small effort.

What I propose is that you avail yourself of them now. I am, in essence, suggesting that instead of starting right in on the American Racing Championships at Montellino, you instead partake of the following purely voluntary activities that you can partake of at your leisure:

1. Barn Hunts

2. Bonus Boards

3. Bucket List Challenges

4. Car Clubbing

5. Car Collecting

6. Car Meets

7. Drivatar Head-to-Head Races

8. Online Road Trips

9. Road and World Exploration

10. Skill Points

The consequences of availing yourself of the activities above are the following benefits - and not necessarily in this order:

• Fun & Entertainment;

• New Cars;

• Cheaper Fast Travel;

• Loads of Levels;

• New Cars from spinning the wheel thanks to the loads of New Levels;

• Rare racing and touring Cars found in barns and nicely restored;

• Challenging and entertaining experiences;

• Meeting new people;

• Unlocking new abilities (from the farming Skill Points thing);

• Banking the Credits you then can use to buy any car you want;

• Did I mention fun and entertaining?

We have created a comprehensive collection of pages that will help you to make tasks like Bonus Board smashing, Barn Finds, and the like very easy and convenient. All you have to do is, well, do it!

I promise you that you will have fun, you will improve the tech in your game, and you will expand your ability to discretely thumb your nose at the idea of having to settle for one car because you cannot affort the other.

In exchange for all of this you simply have to go out and have fun... So what do you say? Want to have some fun??

After that pleasant interlude it is time to go back to the whole story and single-player campaign part of FH2 - which means taking the ride you chose in the category of Classic American Racers and tear up you some racing places!

Seriously, it is time to partake of the following:

Montellino Championships: Race 1 - the Northern Vally Cross Country

1 of 4: Northern Vally Cross Country American Racers Championship

This race potentially pays off with 6,724 Cr. & 4,483 XP.

This race is found in the far northern part of the area, above Montelliino and on the main highway. It consist of a mixed surface route that is mostly fields and farms, which means it is a LOT of sliding - call it controlled chaos if you like - that is as accurate a definition as they come.

Remember you are driving a car that weighs far more than the modern equivalent for its form and function, and handling SUCH a beast while looking good doing it happens to be an art form all its own!

Winning here is really about making fewer mistakes than the competition, and keeping tighter control over your car during the many arcs and turns that are part of the route. Keeping an eye out for the markers for the checkpoints also helps a lot.

Montellino Championships: Race 2 - the Grande Cross Country

2 of 4: Grand Cross Country American Racers Championship

This race potentially pays off with 6,148 Cr. & 4,099 XP.

Located to the far east of Montellino off of the dirt road that runs east of the main highway, the Grande Cross Country is similar to the race we just ran in that it takes place on mixed surfaces that are mostly grass.

The massive amount of sliding combined with an inconvenient tree meant I actually had to use the rewind feature - if it had not happened so late in the race I might have tried to tough it out but as it did there was not much choice. I am one of those racers that feels like using rewind is very close to cheating.

As with the other races, this one pays off nicely in XP and loot. Just saying.

Montellino Championships: Race 3 - the Hill Scramble

3 of 4: Hill Scramble American Racers Championship

This race potentially pays off with 5,689 Cr. & 3,793 XP..

This race is not strictly speaking what most racers will think of when they hear Hill Scramble - though there are some slight hills involved. Basically what it is in a nutshell is a mixed surface three-lap hill race that is made all the more interesting by the fact that you are driving a muscle car.

One odd thing - when the race started I realized that the music on the radio was the Flower Dance - and I cannot hear that particular piece of music without images of Agent 47 using his garrote to execute assassination targets! Seriously - that bald-headed fella is in my mind for that song - might as well be a bloody music video.

In addition to having three laps, this one also has a number of checkpoints - and missing one is very likely to be your only mistake here. I missed the one at the extreme turn near the end of the laps - so I had to rewind as otherwise disqualified!

For what it is worth this was one of the funner races in this series.

Montellino Championships: Race 4 - the Fort Street Race

4 of 4: Fort Street Race American Racers Championship

This race potentially pays off with 5,224 Cr. & 3,482 XP.

Now that is more like it! Be gone with your sliding grass nightmares! Hello to your sliding pavement nightmares!

OK first it was great to be back on pavement - but weird too - for one thing the Drivatars here did something that was rather surprising - the acted and raced like this was a NASCAR event. Seriously! I saw them lining up on the Guide line and drafting off of each other, and I was like, whoa! What the heck?!

Add to that that this point-to-point race had regular checkpoints AND as it was an unofficial Street Race, it also includes civilian traffic, and you can see that there are some impediments you have to pay attention to.

Still winning is nice - heck, winning is great!

After the fourth race ends, Ben asks you all to regroup at the Montellino Hub. When you arrive you are prompted to hit 'X' to continue the Road Trip. Do that and you are presented with the next three race championships to choose from - which naturally means choosing a new car!

Don't forget that you have also added the Montellino Car Meet to your map. Sadly there is no Showcase Event for this one.

The choices that we were presented with are:

US Street Muscle Championships

-- 1968 Dodge Dart HEMI Super Stock - 250K Credits - US Street Muscle (Recommended)

-- 1969 Dodge Charger R/T - 64K Credits - US Street Muscle Class (Recommended)

-- 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge - 44K Credits - US Street Muscle Class (Recommended)

-- 1970 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 - 85K Credits - US Street Muscle Class

-- 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS-454 - 48K Credits - US Street Muscle Class

-- 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 427 - 90K Credits - US Street Muscle Class

-- 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T- 120K Credits - US Street Muscle Class

-- 1968 Oldsmobile Hurst/Olds 442 - 40K Credits - US Street Muscle Class

GT Championships

-- 2010 Maserati Gran Turismo S - 120K Credits - GT Cars Class (Recommended)

-- 2013 Bentley Continental GT Speed - 200K Credits - GT Cars Class

-- 2012 Jaguar XKR-S - 120K Credits - GT Cars Class

Retro Saloons Championships

-- 1988 BMW M5 - FREE if you have the Car Pack - Retro Saloons Class (Recommended)

-- 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II - 26K Credits - Retro Saloons Class (Recommended)

-- 1995 Audi RS 2 Avant - 26K Credits - Retro Saloons Class

-- 1997 BMW M3 - 10K Credits - Retro Saloons Class

-- 1991 BMW M3 - 16K Credits - Retro Saloons Class

-- 1987 Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 - 53K Credits - Retro Saloons Class

OK, don't take this wrong - I actually like muscle Cars - but I had enough of those ungainly beasts for the moment so picking the first choice - US Muscle Championships - was simply not an option for me. That left GT Championships and Retro Saloons Championships - both of which meant buying a car since I did not have any that qualified.

Most of the Cars that you have to choose from the first two championships above are not what you would consider cheap - and many of them are actually classics in their categories, which can make picking one of the more expensive ones a legitimate choice if just because you always wanted to drive one...

The third Championship does have a fair number of affordable Cars - and considering that it is about as far away from the Muscle Car class as you can get - and in consideration that there may be players who have not had the chance to build a large bank account in the game, I opted for the third choice, the Retro Saloons Championship.

The car that I chose - after serious and lengthy consideration - was the 1988 BMW M5 - not because it was free but because it is an unassuming and fun car to drive.

With that choice made, it is off to Saint-Martin!