Forged Crankshaft

Lore & Background

In the real world, a crankshaft is the heart of every internal-combustion engine, converting the linear thrust of pistons into rotational force. A cast crankshaft is economical and adequate for daily driving, but under sustained high-RPM load its microstructure can fatigue. A forged crankshaft, made by hammering a solid bar of steel into shape under enormous pressure, aligns the grain structure along the load path, making it significantly stronger and lighter at the same time. That is the engineering story the Forza tuning system borrows: swap the cast unit for the forged one and the engine can rev higher, hit more horsepower, and survive the punishment of a full race weekend.

Within the Forza universe, the Forged Crankshaft is treated as the 'serious but not overkill' choice. Players who want their car to feel genuinely faster in a sprint or a long circuit reach for it early. It pairs naturally with a forged piston set and a performance camshaft, and together those three mid-tier engine parts can transform a modest street car into a credible track machine. The part is available across a wide swath of the catalogue, from compact hot hatches to large-displacement coupes, which makes it one of the most universally useful tuning items in the franchise.

Fans often joke that the Forged Crankshaft is the 'one upgrade your garage mechanic would actually recommend over a full turbo build,' and that sentiment captures its place in the community: a no-nonsense, mechanically honest improvement that rewards the player with a smoother, stronger, more responsive engine without turning the car into a fragile, high-maintenance project.

In Their Own Story

The tuning garage hums with the low buzz of fluorescent panels. You set the car on the lift, pop the hood, and the stock cast crankshaft sits there looking almost apologetic, its grey surface matte and unremarkable. You slot the Forged Crankshaft into the install menu, and the part renders in a clean, oiled sheen, the grain lines visible in the metal like the growth rings of a tree. Confirm. The engine bay reassembles with a satisfying clatter of bolts. You drop the car, step back, and rev it once in the quiet of the garage. The idle is the same, but the top end has a new voice, a tighter, more aggressive bark that tells you the engine can now hold that extra couple of thousand RPMs without flinching. You smile, close the hood, and head for the first corner of the next race, feeling the difference before you even hit the throttle.

Reader's Guide

The Forged Crankshaft is a powertrain tuning part available in the Forza Horizon and Forza Motorsport tuning garages. It replaces the standard cast crankshaft in the engine and is classified as a mid-tier engine upgrade, sitting between the stock unit and the top-tier billet crankshaft. In stock form, a car with a standard crankshaft will have a moderate power figure and a limited redline; installing the Forged Crankshaft raises both, typically adding a noticeable chunk of horsepower and extending the usable RPM band so the engine pulls harder out of the top of the gears.

The tuning levers around it are the rest of the engine tree: you can also swap the pistons (standard, forged, billet), the camshaft, the turbo or supercharger, the intake, and the exhaust. The Forged Crankshaft is most effective when paired with a forged piston set and a performance cam, because all three work together to let the engine breathe and rev more freely. Pushing it alongside a large turbo and a billet crankshaft is possible but can create a very high-power, high-stress combination that demands upgraded brakes, tires, and a good chassis balance to keep the car controllable.

The trade-off is primarily cost and, in some titles, a slight increase in engine weight or a small penalty to reliability if you stack too many top-tier parts without supporting upgrades. The Forged Crankshaft itself is a sweet-spot choice: strong enough to feel like a real upgrade, affordable enough to fit into most mid-budget builds, and compatible with nearly every engine configuration in the game.

Build philosophy: treat the Forged Crankshaft as the foundation of a balanced, naturally aspirated-feeling power bump, then layer the rest of your engine and chassis upgrades around it rather than stacking raw power on top of raw power.

Did You Know?

• In real-world motorsport, forged crankshafts are standard in high-revving formula and touring-car engines because their aligned grain structure resists fatigue far better than cast iron at sustained high RPMs.
• The Forged Crankshaft is one of the few tuning parts that is universally available across nearly every car class in the Forza tuning garage, from small hatchbacks to large supercars.
• The three-tier engine part structure (Standard, Forged, Billet) mirrors how real engine builders progress: cast for economy, forged for performance, billet for extreme or bespoke applications.
• Players who install the Forged Crankshaft alongside a forged piston set and a performance cam often report the most noticeable 'feel' difference in mid-range acceleration compared to swapping a single turbo upgrade.