The latest Assetto Corsa EVO update is here, bringing the Early Access sim to v0.6. We tested the new version - here's what we found.
Assetto Corsa EVO's version 0.6 update has arrived, featuring Sebring, six new cars, and several improvements across the board. And I can already see your question in the comments: no, there’s still no sign of the open world or Eifel free roam mode.
AC EVO 0.6 still surprised me, though, because I’ve noticed a significant FPS boost on my system. And there are other nice surprises as well, including improvements to handling and physics! I’ve also found a few interesting clues about potential future content. So let’s dive right in!
Assetto Corsa EVO 0.6 New Cars
Let's kick things off right away with six new cars. Two of them are absolute childhood poster legends: The Ferrari 288 GTO is a supercar icon of the 80s, pop up headlights included. Did you know that it was intended to be a homologation model for Ferrari’s entry into Group B rallying? After 1986, that category was discontinued, and so were Ferrari’s plans. The last 288 GTO ever produced went to Niki Lauda, by the way.
Since there are only 272 of them plus this one, we’ll probably never get to drive a car like that ourselves in real life. At least we can now experience the 2.8-liter V8 twin-turbo in AC EVO. As expected, it’s a real beast - even when the tires are warm, the braking distances remain long and the suspension feels spongy. Kunos really nailed the sound here; the turbos and the engine come through beautifully.
Many may not realize that these sports cars from the ’70s and ’80s don’t drive as well as they look by today’s standards, but AC EVO doesn’t sugarcoat anything in this regard. The Lamborghini Countach LP5000 QV truly lives up to the bull in the Lambo logo. You really have to grab it by the horns, and it’s nearly impossible to tame it on the brakes. 455 hp and braking performance of a Honda Fit don’t go well together; the stopping distances are probably twice as long as with modern sports cars.
But it’s precisely this aspect of taming the beast that makes these two Italians so much fun. They’re likely to benefit particularly from the open world in the future; they’re cars meant for enjoyment on twisty back roads.
The GT3 cars are kind of the headliner of 0.6. And they’ll likely play the biggest role in the community, especially in online racing - after all, they were the key to the huge success of Assetto Corsa Competizione. So the BMW M4 GT3 is finally getting some competition in the form of the Ford Mustang GT3, Ferrari 296 GT3, and a particularly wild car that we’ve only seen in Rennsport so far: The Porsche 911 992 GT3 R rennsport is limited to 77 units and shows what a GT3 car is capable of without restrictions.
This means there’s a variant tuned to the GT3 BOP and a wild unrestricted variant that lets the flat-6 rev freely up to 620 hp. This transforms the 911 GT3 into an absolute beast, hitting nearly 300 km/h on the Döttinger Höhe - generally, this thing is mental on the Nordschleife - which would make for a cool Cup on steroids combination for online races.
The 2026 changes approaching the Nürburgring's Hohe Acht are in AC EVO 0.6.
More Positive Surprises
At this point, I want to jump right into some other positive takeaways I noticed in version 0.6. First off, I think it’s awesome that Kunos has updated the Nordschleife for 2026. At Hohe Acht, the guardrail has been moved significantly closer to the track this year, and the green turf has disappeared. It’s really cool that a change like this gets implemented in the game so quickly!
If we look at the patch notes, we can also see that there were some changes regarding coilovers, the suspension system, and tires. And you can feel it across the board. The road feel is more natural, the steering is a bit crisper in all cars, and especially on the Nordschleife, the compressions, dips, and offsets, as well as some curbs, are much more pleasant to tackle.
The force feedback respone also got pretty decent in the meanwhile with latest updates, at least on my Simucube 3 Pro. You can really feel when small corrections are needed or you're overdriving. A great example of this is the new Mustang GT3. For one thing, it no longer has the Jaguar V8 sound from ACC, instead, I feel like it sounds exactly as it should. The Mustang GT3s I’ve seen frequently on the Nordschleife definitely sounded very similar as they drove by. The new reverb effect when driving through underpasses comes across particularly well in this car!
Both the Mustang and the Ferrari 296 GT3 are a joy to drive; they’re intuitive to work with and communicate grip and weight distribution very well. Due to their design, they also handle very differently - which is just as superbly implemented as in Le Mans Ultimate, and, in my opinion, a step ahead of ACC. Kunos’ physics department is really making strides here - hats off to them!
Basically, I sense more similarities to AC Rally in the fundamental driving model; I wonder if the teams are giving each other feedback here - it would explain a lot, especially with this new suspension geometry. Compared to the biggest GT3 simulators, iRacing and LMU, I’d say the cars in AC EVO are a bit more responsive, easier to catch, and therefore a bit more fun. By the way, there’s a first iteration of a BOP for GT3 and GT2, which so far only takes power into account, but not weight yet.
The sixth car is the Audi R8 LMS GT4 Evo, still a stunning sports car. The V10 is incredibly responsive; naturally aspirated engines in AC EVO generally have great throttle response. The R8 handles very nicely, has fairly light steering, and a quite short gear ratio - you’ll probably almost never use first gear.
Meanwhile, Sebring is the new track added with the update. It’s no secret that this is my absolute favorite among the US tracks, so I’m a bit biased here. As usual, Kunos hasn’t skimped on the details. I don’t think any developer has ever placed this many RVs along the track before. GamerMuscles’ beloved Noodlemen are also present in large numbers.
The atmosphere is amazing, and it looks great even at night with all the floodlights. The surface feels instantly familiar if you know the track from LMU, iRacing, or Le Mans Ultimate. The dangerous spots, especially at Sunset Bend, are the usual suspects.
AC EVO Performance Improvements
After installing the update, I noticed I was getting about 20 to 30 FPS more. On medium to high settings with DLSS set to Balanced, I’m now consistently hitting the 140–160 FPS range at 1440p on a single screen. For context - I have an RTX 4080 Super and an AMD Ryzen 5800X3D. So I had to check right away whether triple-screen performance is finally acceptable without having to roll back the graphics to 2008.
Unfortunately, it’s still not a miracle, but at least I’m getting a stable 75–90 FPS on medium settings with a decent dose of DLSS. So FPS is roughly cut in half, even though I’ve reduced the settings. This needs to get significantly better; other sim racing titles only lose 30% of their frames when going from single to triple. But we’re heading in the right direction!
The AI also uses fewer CPU resources now and has become a bit more stable. No chaos at Monza T1 - almost unbelievable! The computer drivers are now somewhat raceable, but still far from offering true immersion or much fun in head-to-head battles.
I really like the UI changes, which are particularly noticeable in the car selection and control settings. The latter are now more in line with ACC and AC Rally. The car selection now includes a few filters and better-presented information about the cars and trim levels.
Historic Nürburgring Hints?
I mentioned possible hints at future content at the beginning. There are posters in the car dealership and Kunos office showrooms that were already there before, but it only just clicked for me now: Kunos has hidden clues in the showrooms before, so that’s definitely no coincidence. There is the poster for the 1968 Grand Prix at the Nürburgring (seen in the top right of the Ferrari 288 screenshot earlier in this article), and in the dealership showroom, the car under a cover in front of a picture points in that direction, too.
The Nürburgring celebrates its 100th anniversary next year. Based on these clues and the general context of AC EVO, including the upcoming open world around the track, I’m very confident that we’ll see some historic content and specials there as well. But let’s wait and see!
Conclusion: A Positive Update For AC EVO
You’ve probably gathered that my impression of 0.6 is quite positive. As someone who checks in on AC EVO regularly, I can definitely say that things are moving in the right direction. But Kunos is asking a lot of patience from us, since progress is moving quite slowly.
The new cars and Sebring are definitely very well donem, as there’s a lot of attention to detail there again. Ultimately, the content mix and what AC EVO has to offer will still have to win sim racers over, and I know many of you are still waiting to see how it develops. So feel free to let us know how you currently feel about AC EVO and what you think is missing most. The fact that they’re taking so much time with the open world - which was originally announced for summer 2025 - hopefully indicates that they want to get it right. We’ll see!
What are your thoughts on Assetto Corsa EVO 0.6? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion in our AC EVO forum!