No doubt about it, I love racing games. And Forza Motorsports III is no exception. I enjoyed FM2 a lot, but all I really did was race.

Since getting FM3 (and a new power supply for my M$ wireless feedback racing controller) I’ve been racing and creating custom looks for my cars.

At first I had some pretty wild solid paint on the cars. Lately though, I have toned it down a bit, changed the big red and white number circle to a very subtle black/grey (but it’s still there on each and every one of the cars I’ve raced in the game).

In a blog to be posted at a later time, I’ll talk more about the cars (I have 20 or so right now, over 1/2 have never turned a wheel in the came — those are all painted white so at a glance I know which are stock, and which are not).

Some of the fun in the game is creating custom looks for the cars. Sure is cheaper than doing it in real life. In fact, if you are good enough people will pay our in-game credits for your masterpieces (I sold 3 in the first 8 hours they were posted). I can win enough credits in the game, it’s not about that, it’s about customizing, exploring a little artistic expression.

Once you have a car you really like, you can upload them to the FMIII website, then save them to anyplace you like. So, I have done just that.

Now, if you are still reading this, you might wonder when I’m going to post the ‘great graphics masterpiece’ I created that has been so popular, it is now sold out. Well, it’s in the last photo (more on that).

Here is the first car I bought in the game, and the only one not painted black. It’s a smoking Ford Fiesta. Wee. Now it’s pretty over-done, and basically impossible to drive. LOL. Still, I can win races with it.

Next is a the most recent of my racers, and the first with a proper racing stripe on it. Not very exciting I realize that. That’s sort of the point, understated but unique enough to get spotted in an on-line race with friends.

OK, so here it is. The beast of my fleet (currently at ‘Supercar’ status due to mods). The V10 powered BMW M\\\5. Woo! And what did I sell out on the Forza Storefront? The license plate. That’s right. That little license plate graphic. All 95 layers of it. It does not look like much but it’s right with vector graphics detail. Measured and re-created from one of the many actual German EU plates I have round the house. I uploaded that template (users can change the letters to anything they want, or remove the registration tags, whatever). It took about 2 hours to figure out how to use the FMIII in-game editor. It’s not what I would call ‘easy’ but once you get the hang of how they manage layers, it’s not that difficult to get a basic result.