Forza Horizon 6 Drag Tires Nerf: What the June 15 Patch Changed and How to Retune

If your favorite circuit tune suddenly feels like it is on ice, you are not imagining it. The June 15, 2026 update, version 375.327, nerfed Drag Tires in Forza Horizon 6, and it broke a lot of popular road and time attack builds in one shot. This was deliberate, and Playground Games was upfront about it.

Here is exactly what changed, why it nukes certain tunes, and how to rebuild the ones that got hit.

What the patch actually did

Drag Tires used to be a loophole. They dropped your Performance Index by a meaningful amount while still keeping enough lateral grip to corner well, so people slapped them on circuit, road route and time attack builds to game the PI system. You could run a faster, lower-PI car in events that had nothing to do with drag racing.

Playground called that out directly. In the patch notes, the team said Drag Tires were “reducing Performance Index significantly while still providing enough lateral grip to work effectively” outside of drag racing, and that “this is not the expected behaviour or use case for Drag Tires.”

So they fixed it. The change has two parts, and the second is the one that matters:

• The PI cost did not change. If your tune was A 700 before the patch, it is still A 700. Nothing about how Drag Tires affect your number moved.
• The cornering grip got gutted. Drag Tires now have “significantly reduced cornering performance.” Same PI, far less grip in corners.

That combination is what breaks tunes. Your car still sits at the same class, but it can no longer hold the line it used to, so your lap times fall apart in any event with a turn in it.

What is NOT affected

Read this part before you panic and strip Drag Tires off everything.

The change only touches cornering performance. Straight-line drag behavior is untouched. In Playground’s words, “Drag times and Drag Leaderboards will be unaffected by this change.” So if you have a proper drag build, leave it exactly as it is. The nerf does not slow your launches, your trap speeds, or your drag times one bit.

This is purely about stopping Drag Tires from being the meta choice in circuit and road events. For drag racing itself, they are still the right tire, and my drag tune guide still applies in full.

The leaderboard cleanup

There is a consequence to all those old circuit tunes. The team flagged that “a lot of Leaderboard entries that will need to be removed” because they were set using the old Drag Tire behavior. That cleanup is ongoing rather than instant, so over the coming weeks you will see circuit and time attack times set with pre-patch Drag Tires get wiped.

Again, Drag Leaderboards are safe. Only the non-drag boards that were polluted by the loophole are being cleaned out. If you set a clean circuit time the legit way, you are fine.

How to retune a build the nerf broke

If you had a circuit, road route or time attack tune leaning on Drag Tires, here is how to bring it back to life.

1. Swap the tire compound. Go back into the tune and change Drag Tires to the right compound for the event. For grippy circuit and road racing, that means a sport, semi-slick or race compound depending on your build and class. Pick the compound that the discipline actually wants instead of the one that cheated PI.
2. Recheck your PI after the swap. Switching off Drag Tires will move your Performance Index, almost certainly upward, since proper grip tires cost more PI. You may pop out of your target class.
3. Rebalance to get back under the cap. Trim PI somewhere else to land back in class. Drop a tier of forced induction, pull weight reduction back a notch, soften an upgrade you do not need. The goal is real grip at a legal PI, not the fake-cheap grip you had before.
4. Retune the suspension for the new grip level. With real tires under it, the car will behave differently. Stiffen or soften to match, and dial your alignment and differential for how it actually rotates now. My full tuning guide walks through every slider if you need the reasoning.
5. Test on the actual event. Do not trust the garage. Run the circuit or time attack you built it for and feel whether the grip holds through the corners that used to carry your time.

The mindset shift

The honest takeaway is that Drag Tires were never meant to be a circuit tire, and now they are not one. Going forward, tune for the discipline. Drag builds keep Drag Tires. Grip builds use grip tires and pay the PI they cost. If you have been chasing the lowest possible PI by abusing the old loophole, the new meta rewards building a genuinely good car at its class instead.

That is a healthier place for the tuning scene to be, even if it stings to rebuild a few favorites. If you are looking for fresh platforms to build on at a given class, my best cars in every class list is a good starting point.

Quick answers

Do I need to redo my drag tunes? No. The nerf only touched cornering grip. Drag launches, trap speeds and drag times are all unaffected, so leave drag builds alone.

Why does my car still show the same class but feel slower? Because the PI cost of Drag Tires did not change but the cornering grip did. Same number, far less grip, so it corners worse at the same class.

Will I lose my old times? Circuit and time attack times set with pre-patch Drag Tires are being removed over time. Drag Leaderboard times are safe.

Rebuild your grip tunes with real tires, rebalance the PI, and you will be back on pace. Your drag cars do not need to change at all.