Forza Horizon 6 Best S1 Cars: Top Picks for Touge and Street

Why S1 is the class you’ll live in

S1 is the high-level racing class that does the most work in Forza Horizon 6. A huge chunk of seasonal events, championships, and online lobbies sit here. It’s fast enough to feel exotic, but tight enough that car choice and tuning still decide races. In S2 and above, raw power starts to flatten the field. In S1, a well-chosen car with a clean tune still beats a faster car driven by someone who picked wrong.

That makes S1 the most rewarding class to get right. Here are the cars carrying the early meta.

2024 Nissan GT-R NISMO — the street and touge king

If you only build one S1 car, make it this. The 2024 GT-R NISMO has been the standout S1 pick since launch. It’s all-wheel drive, it puts down roughly 600 horsepower, and it was built for exactly the kind of racing Japan’s map throws at you: street circuits through Tokyo City and tight touge runs through the mountains.

You can buy it from the Autoshow for around 270,000 CR, or earn it as the final reward in the Touge & Street Rivals Collection Journal. Either way, it’s worth the investment.

What makes it special is how forgiving it is at the limit. AWD traction means you can get on the throttle earlier out of corners than a RWD rival, and on the cold, technical roads of FH6 that’s a real edge. It’s not the flashiest pick, but it wins.

Tune it for: street and touge. Keep weight down, prioritize a balanced AWD setup, and don’t chase top speed at the cost of corner exit grip.

Acura NSX Type S — the all-rounder anyone can drive

The NSX Type S (2023) is the car I’d hand to someone who’s new to S1. It’s the friendliest top-tier pick in the class. Hybrid AWD, balanced weight distribution, and handling that doesn’t punish small mistakes.

Where the GT-R asks you to commit, the NSX lets you ease in. It’s stable under braking, it rotates predictably, and it holds a line through long sweepers without drama. That makes it a strong choice for mixed-surface S1 events where you can’t predict every corner.

It’s a true all-rounder. Road, street, even some lighter dirt sections, the NSX handles them without needing a different tune for each. If you want one car that just works across the S1 calendar, this is it.

Tune it for: everything. A balanced all-purpose tune on the NSX covers more event types than almost any other S1 car.

Ford GT — the top-speed road weapon

The Ford GT is the pick when the track opens up. It’s a mid-engine, rear-drive American exotic with the kind of top-end speed that wins on long straights and fast, flowing road races. Where the GT-R and NSX shine on tight technical layouts, the Ford GT pulls ahead anywhere there’s room to stretch its legs.

The trade-off is that RWD plus that much power asks more of you. It can get loose on cold or loose surfaces if you’re heavy on the throttle, and it’s less forgiving than the NSX. But on the right circuit, nothing in the trio covers ground faster.

Tune it for: road racing and any event with long straights. Favor top speed and high-speed stability over low-speed agility.

Picking between the three

Here’s the short version:

Street and touge: Nissan GT-R NISMO. AWD traction wins the tight stuff.
One car for everything: Acura NSX Type S. The most forgiving, most flexible pick.
Open road and top speed: Ford GT. RWD power for the fast layouts.

Most players should start with the GT-R or the NSX. They cover the bulk of the S1 calendar, and they’re both stable enough that you’ll actually finish races instead of spinning out of them.

Tuning notes for S1

A few things that apply across the class in FH6:

Watch the PI ceiling. The class system was reworked this game, so a build that sat at the top of S1 in Horizon 5 might land differently here. Tune up to the in-game PI limit, not a number you remember from before.
Don’t max top speed by default. FH6’s roads are cold, technical, and full of elevation. Corner-exit grip and braking matter more than a higher trap speed on most layouts.
AWD is king on cold tarmac. The GT-R and NSX both benefit from it. RWD cars like the Ford GT are quicker on the right track but demand more discipline.
Tune per surface when it matters. A dedicated road tune and a separate dirt-leaning tune will beat one compromise setup in mixed seasonal championships.

Build the GT-R first, add the NSX for flexibility, and bring out the Ford GT when the track rewards raw speed. That trio covers almost everything S1 will ask of you.

Other S1 cars worth a garage slot

The top three carry the early meta, but S1 is deep and a few more cars earn their place depending on the event:

Lamborghini Huracán EVO — a reliable modern supercar that handles circuit racing cleanly. It’s a strong buy-it-and-go option if you want something stable that doesn’t need a fussy tune.
AWD performance icons — Japan’s map rewards all-wheel drive on its cold, technical roads, so don’t overlook AWD coupes and sedans that tune neatly into the S1 range. Traction wins races here more often than peak horsepower.
Drift-leaning RWD cars — if your seasonal calendar includes drift zones in the S1 bracket, a dedicated rear-drive build will out-score an all-rounder. Keep one tuned for angle rather than grip.

The point isn’t to own every one of these. It’s to recognize that the “best” S1 car depends on whether the next event is a street circuit, an open road race, a dirt leg, or a drift zone.

How S1 racing rewards you

S1 is where the Festival Playlist and seasonal championships start handing out the better rewards, so it’s worth getting competitive here rather than coasting in lower classes forever. Many of the cars on this list, including the GT-R NISMO, double as Collection Journal rewards, which means racing well in S1 can hand you the exact cars that dominate it.

That creates a nice loop. You buy a solid starter S1 car, you win events with it, those events reward you with stronger cars and more credits, and your S1 garage deepens without you ever needing to grind a single repetitive route. Lean into the variety of the calendar and the rewards follow.

These picks reflect early meta right after the game launched on May 19, and will shift as patches land. Exact PI and top-speed figures point to what shows in-game.