Of course, we’ll be releasing more information on the game soon—we might not answer all your questions but, at the very least, you’ll soon have a very good understanding of just what Forza Horizon is all about. We’re so excited to share with you all the cool stuff in the game—trust me, your patience will be rewarded.

VIP Membership Is Now Available!
The debut of Forza Horizon’s box art and first screenshot is exciting but it’s not the only news we’ve got this week. As of today, Forza Motorsport 4 VIP Membership is now on sale through Xbox LIVE and through the Forza 4 in-game Marketplace. In addition to offering Forza 4 fans all the great benefits of VIP Membership (including a discount on next week’s Porsche Expansion Pack!), this also marks an alliance between Turn 10 Studios, Microsoft, and international charity organization Save the Children; with a portion of money garnered from sales going to the charity.

For all the details on VIP Membership benefits as well as details on how the charitable donations will work, please see this story.

Also a couple of VIP related notes that you should know about:

First, if you are a current VIP member (which you received after purchasing the Limited Collector’s Edition of Forza Motorsport 4), you DO NOT need to purchase this VIP Membership, as you already receive all VIP membership benefits.

Second, if you are a VIP Member and are interested in purchasing the Porsche Expansion Pack when it is released on Tuesday, May 22, please do so in the in-game Marketplace menu of Forza Motorsport 4 in order to take advantage of the VIP discount. If you purchase the expansion pack within the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, you will not receive the VIP discount. In order to save money and get the most value from your VIP membership, make sure you purchase the Porsche Expansion Pack from within Forza Motorsport 4! 

Porsche Expansion Pack… Four Days and Counting!
There’s just a few more days before the launch of the biggest DLC release for Forza Motorsport 4 this year: the Porsche Expansion Pack! If you’re a lover of the German marquee then I’m hoping the past few weeks have been fun for you as we’ve been pointing the spotlight on Porsche and all 30 of the cars that will be part of the Porsche Expansion Pack when it rolls out on Tuesday.

As many of you know, this week we’ve been announcing cars via our official Twitter feed and on our official Facebook page, and awarding prizes to two lucky folks who retweet our car announcements. This week’s winners include: 

• Jinzo2678
• KeiranF
• justindeprekel
• Unalive3
• pmvbd75
• TLRZero
• undakuva
• poloforlife
• twinpakk
• PhreshPharaoh36
• GSWKnucklehead
• paulbarton31
• Maxlamnace44

For last week’s winners and a list of all the currently announced cars, see here. Congratulations to everyone who has won so far!

For those of you who have yet to win, you still have a chance! We will be running our Porsche Expansion Pack retweet contest until Tuesday’s release of the pack itself (including on Saturday and Sunday). The rules (the official versions of which you can read here) are simple: Simply retweet our daily car announcement tweets and you are entered into a random drawing to win one of two daily prizes. By retweeting our morning announcement (which is released at 8 a.m. Pacific) you are entered to win a free Porsche Expansion Pack download code. By retweeting our afternoon announcement (which is released at 1 p.m. Pacific), you are entered to win a pack of Porsche swag. Good luck to everyone who enters!

Porsche Rivals Mode Events and Hoppers 

While the 30 cars that make up the Porsche Expansion Pack are certainly the centerpiece of the DLC, this is no mere car pack. You’ll also be able to take part in new Porsche-themed events for your single player career, as well as new achievements to earn along the way. In addition we’ve got a new batch of Porsche-centric Rivals Mode events that will launch on Tuesday. These events will be found both in the Community Monthly channel of Rivals Mode, as well as in the other channels within Rivals. Here’s a quick breakdown of all the new Rivals Mode events you’ll be able to play on Tuesday:

911 Experience – Hot Lap Channel
Few automobile manufacturers are able to achieve the amount of success that Porsche has had throughout the life of 911. Choose your favorite 911 then hit the track to take down your rival in this A-Class event. Upgrades and Tuning are allowed within restrictions.

Formula Ferdinand – Drift Channel
The Porsche 993 GT2 was the first Porsche to enter into the North American professional drift circuit in 2008. Find out for yourself if this car was made to drift. Tuning and upgrades are allowed within restrictions.

The Porsche Cup – Spec Channel
Sebring International Raceway has long signaled the start of the American Le Mans Series and with the arrival of Porsche in Forza Motorsport 4 there is no better car to attack Sebring than the two-time ALMS champion Black Swan Racing #54 911 GT3 Cup.

The Gear Factor – TopGear Channel
The 911 GT2 RS is the most powerful street-legal Porsche in history, its twin-turbo engine pumping a whopping 641bhp straight to the rear tyres: no all-wheel drive security here. Can you keep tabs on the car they call ‘The Widowmaker’ around America’s wildest race circuit, and conquer the terrifying Corkscrew?

Love, Panamerican Style – Community Monthly Channel
While the Porsche Panamera Turbo does not look like your quintessential Porsche the Panamera still packs quite a punch for full-sized luxury car. The challenge to this rivals event will be weaving this large bodied car through the slower traffic. Tuning and upgrades allowed within restrictions.

Autocrossed Porsche -- Community Monthly Channel
Take to the track in production cars in the new Porsche Pack to answer the question, Which production model Porsche is the best at navigating the autocross circuit?

Giant Killer -- Community Monthly Channel
The legendary ‘Giant Killer’ has returned to the Forza Motorsport franchise, set out on the Top Gear Loop to see how this iconic car from the '50s handles the Dunsfold Aerodrome. 

Multiplayer Hoppers Updated with Porsche  

All the Porsches from the Porsche Expansion Pack will be in Cycled Production hopper, and there will be a "Decade’s 911" hopper in which you can pick a 911 from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and up plus the "Best Modern Porsche" hopper where you can pick your favorite Porsche from 2000 and beyond.

Community Bounty 

warcryFIN gave no mercy and is showing everyone that Finn’s can drive and that some painters can drive. Thankfully, Johniwanna gave out a bunch of unicorns in the Rear View Mirror thread because as it looks right now only about 450 of you are going to beat warcryFIN. You have until 8 a.m. Tuesday to hit Easy Racers in the Community Monthly Rivals channel.  His last time as of this writing was 1:44.153. Good luck with that!

VIP Poll 

In our weekly VIP Polls, last week’s choice of competition was Drift. Where will the VIP’s be drifting is now the question. Go to our official Facebook page and choose a track. Will it be Maple Valley Full, Infineon Long, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta Full, Sebring Full, Catalunya Full, or Indianapolis GP?

Rear View Mirror Thread Hits 100 pages, Hundreds of Unicorns Given Away 

In what has become "Porsche Love Month" in what began as a simple hope to raise awareness of the Porsche Expansion Pack, our community writer John asked the Forza Community to help build the Rear View Mirror thread for the May 7 edition to five--maybe ten--pages. He offered unicorns to his favorite posters who wrote about why they love Porsche. The response has been tremendous! As of this writing, the thread has reached 111 pages and John spent a significant part of his week gifting several hundred unicorns. As you've shown, there certainly are a lot of reasons to love Porsche.

Johniwanna’s 5 Days of “Green Hell” Challenge 

Inspired by Forza Community member Shortt Sirket’s “50 Days of Green Hell” in which Sirket drove 50 different cars around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 50 days and made a YouTube video of each lap with no assists, cockpit view, no HUD, no map, and no rewind. Johniwanna’s “5 Days of Green Hell” Challenge asked for videos of “Green Hell” laps and had several ways to win a unicorn. 

See the thread for details and all the video submissions. The challenge ended today at 1p.m. Pacific.

Check out the top submission, in addition to being well directed and produced, the car has a cool themed livery, is driven professionally, and the soundtrack is awesome and appropriate.  

Next week I’m heading to Playground HQ to check out Forza Horizon in-depth for myself. Expect more great stuff out of that visit in the near future. In the meantime, our ace community content writer John Schommer will be on Week in Review duty next week, so be gentle with him, and prepare for more great Forza stuff in the weeks ahead! Have a great weekend everyone!