Forza Horizon 6 Best Kei Cars: Honda Beat, AZ-1 & Cappuccino
The best kei cars in Forza Horizon 6's Japan map: Honda Beat, Autozam AZ-1, Suzuki Cappuccino and more, plus the engine swaps that make them race-ready.
Why Kei Cars Are FH6’s Hidden Gem
Forza Horizon 6 is set in Japan, and that unlocks a class of car the series has barely touched before: the kei car. These are the tiny Japanese microcars built around strict size and engine limits, originally with engines no bigger than 0.66 litres. In real life they are city runabouts. In FH6, thanks to the new and expanded engine swap pool, they turn into some of the most absurd and fun builds in the entire game.
That is the whole appeal. A kei car is small, light, and dirt cheap, and the game lets you drop wildly oversized power into it. The result is a featherweight pocket rocket that corners like a go-kart and accelerates out of nowhere. The Japan setting and the touge passes are tailor-made for them. Nobody else covers these properly, so if you want a build that turns heads in lobbies, this is your category.
The game is eleven days old, so these are current early-meta picks and the list will move with patches. Check the in-game stats for exact PI before you commit.
The Kei Trio You Want
Three small sports keis form the core of the category, and FH6 has them.
Honda Beat
The Beat is a mid-engine, rear-drive kei roadster, which is a ridiculous thing to exist and a glorious thing to drive. Stock it is gutless, but its tiny weight means even a modest power bump transforms it. Build it up and it becomes a nimble corner-carver that embarrasses far more expensive cars on the touge. As a mid-engine RWD layout it also drifts surprisingly well once you add power.
Autozam AZ-1
The AZ-1 is the wildest of the bunch: gullwing doors, mid-engine, and barely bigger than a shopping cart. FH6 lists it as a B-class car in early tier breakdowns, and that is before you start swapping. It is one of the confirmed kei stars of the game and an instant garage centrepiece. Light, low, and eager to change direction, it is a fantastic base for a hot kei build.
Suzuki Cappuccino
The Cappuccino rounds out the holy trinity of sports keis. Front-engine, rear-drive, and beautifully balanced for its size. It is the most “normal” handling of the three, which makes it the friendliest to drive fast. Tune it up and it is a sweet little touge weapon that rewards smooth inputs.
The Engine Swaps Change Everything
Here is where FH6 keis go from cute to terrifying. The expanded engine swap pool means some of these little cars can take engines that have no business being there, and the game has even added the ability to swap in motorcycle engines for certain small cars.
That matters because of power-to-weight. A kei car weighs almost nothing. Drop a much larger engine into a sub-700kg shell and the acceleration becomes violent. The build path is simple: pick your favourite kei, browse the available engine swaps, and fit the biggest sensible unit the game offers for that car. Suddenly your Honda Beat is pulling numbers that put it in classes you would never expect a kei to reach.
Check the swap menu per car, because the available engines differ. Part of the fun is finding which kei accepts the most ridiculous powerplant.
What Events Suit a Kei Build
Keis are not all-rounders, and that is fine. Play to their strengths.
- Touge and street races. Their tiny size and instant direction changes make them deadly on tight Japanese mountain roads where big hypercars cannot use their power.
- Lower-class racing. A B or C-class kei build is genuinely competitive in its bracket and a refreshing change from the usual suspects.
- Drift, for the mid-engine ones. The Beat and AZ-1 hang the tail out happily once they have power.
- Just messing around. Honestly, half the point is the joy of bullying supercars in a car the size of a vending machine.
They struggle on long straights and rough off-road, so do not force them into top-speed or Cross-Country events. Keep them where their handling shines.
How to Get and Tune Them
Kei cars are cheap Autoshow buys, so you can grab the whole set without denting your credit balance. That is part of why they are such good value: a few of them cost less than one Forza Edition.
For tuning, lean into what they already do. Keep the weight low, tune the suspension for sharp turn-in, and fit tyres to match the surface. Once you add an engine swap, retune the gearing so the new power is usable. The community is already posting kei tune share codes inside the game, so search the car name in the tune browser for a tested setup that suits your swap.
Start Your Kei Garage Here
Buy a Honda Beat, an Autozam AZ-1, and a Suzuki Cappuccino. They are cheap, they are everywhere on the Japan map, and together they cover the whole sports-kei experience. Then dive into the engine swap menu and build the most unreasonable little monster the game will let you. It is the most fun-per-credit you will have in FH6.
One last tip from someone who has wasted hours on these little cars: do not over-power them past the point of control. There is a sweet spot where a kei has enough grunt to be quick but still light and tossable, and it is easy to blow past it. A Beat with too much engine and not enough tyre just spins its wheels and snaps sideways on every corner exit. Add power in steps, test on the touge after each one, and stop when the car still feels like a kei rather than a missile you are merely holding on to. That balance is where these builds become genuinely fast instead of just funny.
These are early-meta picks and will shift with patches. Check the in-game stats and the available engine swaps per car before you build.