Like a runway model who looks hot but can't figure out how to turn left; a racecar with a fancy spoiler and ground effects butnothing new under the hood won't perform very well. Forza 2's upgrade options give you so many ways to make your car look good and run well. I decided to see what were the best upgrades to buy and how to get the best bang per buck.

One of my favorite cars to use in a racing game is the Toyota Supra. So, to explore this idea, I picked my old reliable 1992 Supra 2.0 GT Twin Turbo. For the track I wanted to run on something that was short enough that I could get a lot of laps in a short time, but so easy that I couldn't really test the car out. I decided to run on the Test Track Infield - Boomslang. The track is just .63 of a mile but it has enough twists and turns and tricky corners to really give the car a good workout.

I ran ten laps at a time and recorded the best lap time and the total lap time. After each ten laps I'd add some upgrade to the car and do it all over again. I had a theory when I started that the "visual" type of upgrades (like spoilers, bumpers, and side skirts) would be pretty much worthless by themselves. My cousin once put a huge spoiler (it looked bigger than the car itself) on his '73 Chevy Nova. Looked cool but it also looked like the car was going to flip backwards at any moment and it didn't really add to the performance of the car (but when you're 18 looking cool is far more important...right).

The stock Supra ran the test track with a best lap of 00:37.857 and a total time of 6:41.509. Not too bad but I knew those times could be slashed by quite a bit. The first upgrade I made to the car was adding brand new tires. When I made the upgrades I bought the highest and best available. The Supra's new tires cost 3,900 credits.

There was a noticeable difference right away with the upgraded tires and I finished with a best lap time of 00:35.522 and a total time of 6:10.746. That's a 2+ second improvement on the best lap and a 30-second improvement overall for the ten laps. Pretty good...but I want more!

Let's see what a spoiler does to this baby (my cousin would be so proud). I removed the upgraded tires and replaced them with the stock tires and added the Forza spoiler. Looks really cool but will it cut my lap time?

After ten laps with the spoiler I reached a best lap time of 00:35.972 and a total time of 6:22.326. A little slower than with the good tires but about the same. I took the spoiler off and tried to see how nice the car would look with the best front and rear bumpers and the Do Luck side skirts...oh, yeah, and how fast it would run, too.

Matching my expectations, the weight of the flashy ground effects slowed my lap times down. I ran a best of 00:36.426 and a total time of 6:18.773. Still better than the stock Supra but not good enough to justify spending the money on just those parts.

Okay, now my theory is looking pretty good but I wanted to see what other combinations of parts would cut my times and be worth the cost. I tried one of my favorite car mods -- a combination of the best tires and the best brakes available.

Now we're talking! With the brakes and tires installed, and the rest of the car stock, I hit a, so far, best time of 00:34.930 and a total time of 6:08.093. Pretty good for just tires and brakes. Okay, let's take those off and finally do some playing around with the engine.

I added all of the best available engine upgrades to the stock Supra. I expected to zoom past my best times. But, wait, I was slower!?! My best lap time fell back to 00:35.547 with a total time of 6:25.126. Very curious. I chalked this up to the car being too powerful for its standard tires and brakes.

So, next up I get those engine upgrades and put the best tires and brakes back on the car. I figured I'd see an improvement in my times but what really impressed me was the car was so much fun to drive! I set my best lap time so far with a 00:33.083 and a total time of 5:57.308. Nice!

Hmm, the car is running very well so can I make it look good now, too? I kept all of the previously mentioned upgrades and added the spoiler, bumpers, and side skirts back on. This brought the car up to its heaviest weight so far of 3,455 lbs. Yep, I ran slower this time. But just barely. The best time was still a quick 00:33.248 and the total time was 5:50.978.

Okay, one last test. Let's lighten this Supra up! I bought the weight reduction upgrade and the car dropped way down to a svelte 2,609 lbs. I couldn't wait to get it on the track and I was not disappointed. I crossed the finish line with best times of 00:32.140 and 5:44.860!

I was able to cut 5+ seconds (an almost 15% improvement) off my lap times of the stock Supra overall. The various combinations of upgrades had different results but they all worked to cut the lap times to some degree. My initial theory that the "visual" upgrades wouldn't be worth it seems to have been proven false

Of course I still would definitely advise leaving the bumpers and side skirts and probably the spoiler (depending on the track you're racing) as last upgrades. The tire and brake combination worked pretty well as a cheap way to get some extra performance out of the car.

One of Forza's most fun elements is that you can totally customize your car both visually and under the hood. There's nothing cooler than seeing a screenshot of a completely decked out car with a great paint job. But, if you want to run consistent laps, and give yourself a better chance to win, teach that runway model how to turn first. ;-)