There’s one thing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 5 can do that the console version of the game can only dream of: mod support.
While Rockstar is quick to chop down any mods that might hamper the GTA Online experience, there’s a thriving community of creators turning out creative, realistic, funny and damn useful mods for the PC player.
Here’s 21 of our favourite vehicle mods, including real supercars, bikes and military aircraft, handling variations, cosmetic changes, oddities and some plain old cool-as-fuck motors.
Grand Theft Auto isn’t short of supercars, but sometimes you’ve got to have the real thing. They don’t get more super or real than a Lamborghini so leave you Zenturno parked in the garage and hop inside an Italian classic.
Download & Instructions
GTA players have been asking for biker DLC for months now but you don’t need to wait if you install this mod. It adds the iconic American bike and incredible detail to the game for all you easy riders.
Download & Instructions
Built for the love of it, this mod of the Thunderbolt boasts incredible detail. Six different skins, working engine fans, day and night lights, rotating gun, airbrakes – the lot. If you like flying over Los Santos and raining death from above, allow us to recommend what the US airforce affectionately calls “The Warthog”.
Download & Instructions
Hot shit. If Trevor was to drive a nasty piece of American muscle in real-life you know it would be the classic Dodge Challenger. This model is based on the car from Driver: San Francisco but looks at home on the mean streets of LS, and it comes complete with a customisable license plate to really make it your own.
Download & Instructions
Replace the Hydra with the X-wing and you too can scream around the skies like a demented Rogue Squadron pilot. Add the Imperial Star Destroyer for extra immersion.
Download & Instructions
Hey, you got Need for Speed in my GTA! Fancy some German engineering in your pretend American city built by British game developers? This BMW comes with dirt, full tuning and working lights. No one cares if it’s street legal.
Download & Instructions
Sweet Talula! This classic was one of the most-loved cars in Brazil during the early 1970s, with a simple design and big engine. The mod is another that recreates a vehicle with love, care and attention. One for Sunday car meet-ups and cruising down to Vespucci beach.
Download & Instructions
With this mod you can improve the constantly moving freight train that rumbles around the entire map. It adds more carriages, better textures and more engines. If nothing else, you’ll have a larger target to jump vehicles over out in the desert.
Download & Instructions
Good news everybody! You can now recreate the exploits of Fry, Zoidberg, Leela and Co. with another mod that replaces the Hydra. Which means it also packs some serious firepower.
Download & Instructions
What’s better than Grand Theft Auto? Grand Theft Auto with a little pinch of Fallout. This mod adds the Fusion Flea from Fallout 3 so you can trundle around listening to “Who Wants To Set The World On Fire” on your custom soundtrack.
Download & Instructions
I like big rims and I cannot lie. If you also want to put ridiculously big rims on your motor this is the pack for you, as it features the Chino, Virgo and Manana with stoopid wheels. And the train horn, for some reason.
Download & Instructions
Take the mellow route around Blaine County at the controls of a train or tram. This mod lets you drive a train with acceleration controls, the ability to open and close doors, change seats and generally choo-choo to your hearts content. And if you need to liven things up, it also features derailment and explosions.
Download & Instructions
You’re going to need a superbike in your garage so why not go for a classic from Kawasaki? Cheekily, this is a model from Superbike World Championships but it’s just at home blazing along the Los Santos interstate.
Download & Instructions
There’s not many alternative tank mods for GTA 5, but there is this neat handling mod. Now you can make the Rhino even harder to steer and lose control more often!
Download & Instructions
This one cracks me up. For no other reason than “because you can”, why not get the Cargobob completely plastered with stickers?
Download & Instructions
Sometimes you just need to crush other vehicles under your massive tyres while honking the Dixie Horn, and this is the perfect vehicle for such a task. Growing up in the UK, this is what we though Americans drive on a daily basis.
Download & Instructions
Realism is boring, but arcade physics can get a little too cartoony. This mod is a mix of the two, with handling for vehicles caught somewhere between GTA 5 and GTA 4. It’s up to date, so includes all the new vehicles added with the Ill-Gotten Gains DLC.
Download & Instructions
There may not be a dinosaur mod for GTA 5 (yet) but that’s not to say you can’t pretend you’re exploring Isla Nublar with these maintenance and tour vehicles. Clever girl.
Download & Instructions
Add that cool early-70s LAPD vibe with this Adam 12-inspired mod, complete with old-school cherry lights, yellow headlamps and license plate.
Download & Instructions
This pack adds drift handling to a bunch of modified cars. You’ll need to mod those cars into GTA first (follow the link below), but if you want to burn rubber and smell the tyre smoke, this is the mod for you.
Download & Instructions
Pristine is for pussies. This mod cakes vehicles in more dirt than a redneck’s truck for players who refuses to shower at the weekends.
Download & Instructions
