Quenched and tempered steels are usually the first choice for drop forged parts that have to carry high loads. These steels require time, energy and cost intensive heat treatment. Direct air cooled steels are a possible alternative. They have a ferritic-pearlitic microstructure and get their strength from precipitation hardening. These steels do not require an additional heat treatment. It is no problem to reach the required strength level, but usually the toughness values are too low. In this work three steels with different carbon, microalloying and nitrogen content are compared. Forging tests with variation of forging temperature and cooling rate were done on an existing part. Additionally upsetting tests in laboratory scale with variation of forming temperature and different precipitation steps during cooling. The forging tests showed no influence of the cooling rate on the ferritic-pearlitic microstructure. A precipitation step leads to a slight promotion of ferrite for the steel with higher nitrogen content. Deformation temperature has a big influence on the microstructure. The steel with lower carbon content exhibited a more uniform ferrite distribution and higher toughness even at higher deformation temperatures.