Threading the Needle Forza Horizon 6: the Mini Mania challenge

The Close Call skill is one of the least explicit skills in Forza Horizon 6. The game never explains it anywhere, and yet it regularly comes up in seasonal challenges - including the current Mini Mania. Here's how to trigger it cleanly, without wasting time.

What this skill actually requires

Close Call is unlocked by passing between two vehicles (AI-controlled, not human competitors) at close range, without touching either of them. The two cars must be about 5 to 10 metres apart from each other, and you need to slip through that gap. It works whether you're following the same direction of traffic or driving straight into oncoming traffic, but in practice, staying in the right direction of travel is noticeably easier to manage.

Note

No collision, no skill. The slightest brush cancels everything out. So you need to be precise, not reckless.

Where to go to get this skill easily?

The best area to trigger Close Call: the highways running along the perimeter of Japan's main island. Traffic there is dense, the lanes are multiple, and the gaps between vehicles are wide enough to manoeuvre without panicking.

The advantage of multi-lane roads is that you can pass diagonally between two cars - which gives you a slightly wider corridor than when two vehicles are driving side by side in two parallel lanes. The difference might seem trivial, but on a large vehicle, it makes all the difference between a validated skill and a crumpled body panel...

Which vehicle to choose

Outside of a specific challenge, always favour a vehicle with good handling and a reasonable size. The narrower and more responsive the car, the more Close Call becomes a formality.

If you're on the Mini Mania seasonal challenge, you must use a Mini Cooper. Among the available options, the 2012 John Cooper Works GP is without a doubt the best choice: it's the fastest Mini on the open road, which helps you get through tight gaps with more margin for error. One to avoid: the X-Raid All4 Racing Countryman. Bigger engine on paper, but lower top speed and a rally-tuned handling profile - not suited to open highways.

Tips to succeed with flying colours

Here are a few points that seem obvious but make a difference in practice:

• Aim for the diagonal gaps between two lanes rather than head-on passes - the space is objectively bigger.
• Stay in your own direction of traffic if you're just starting out, it's easier to anticipate.
• On ring-road highways, traffic is dense enough to chain several attempts in a loop without having to reload the area.
• If a challenge requires a specific vehicle, check its handling stats before you dive in - a machine with good top speed but loose steering will make you fail every time.

Close Call is a skill that requires consistency, not luck. Once you've spotted a busy stretch of highway, triggering it becomes almost mechanical. The only real constraint is the vehicle imposed by the seasonal challenge - and in this case, the John Cooper Works GP is clearly the right answer for the Mini Mania challenge.