Regardless of the direction that the Fast and Furious franchise is taking these days, you can’t deny the legacy it carries. Perhaps the series should’ve stopped after the passing of the car community’s beloved Paul Walker, after which there also seemed to be a marked decline of the series’ JDM use, too. But that remains a decision for the filmmakers and Vin Diesel to quarrel over.
For us fans, the reason for our continued love towards the franchise is simple: it still features some gorgeous cars that are taken to the extreme with both their styling and their camera work. Of the feature cars, the JDMs remain a fan favorite, given that they essentially made the franchise what it is. So, we’ve decided to make a list of the 10 fastest JDMs to appear across the movies.
We’ve refrained from featuring the stock versions of these cars, since they would’ve been substantially altered for their fictional racing purposes. We’ve also avoided the more modern examples, like Roman’s 2018 Acura NSX in F9, or Han’s LFA in Fast Five. Rather, we’ve just made this list out of what we think the 10 fastest conventional JDMs to have appeared are, depending on their roles in the movies and how fast they were portrayed to be.
10 Mia’s Acura NSX
It comes as a surprise that the Acura NSX — billed as the father of all modern supercars — didn’t feature more prominently in the franchise, considering its immense potential. We catch glimpses of it in underground meets, namely with the Veilside Fortune NSX that appears in Tokyo Drift, but the only memorable scene where it catches some action is at the end of the fourth movie and the start of the fifth movie.
With Mia Toretto behind the wheel, the team stage a daring rescue mission where Dom escapes, which sets events in motion for their big heist in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Mia performs a set of fast maneuvers and stunts to help topple the transport bus that Dom is in, with the NSX proving to be a crucial cog in his escape. We just wish we saw more of it across the movies!
9 Letty’s Nissan 240SX
Another car which features briefly, but stamps a lasting memory of its superb performance. Letty is a strong personality, and the dark brown 1997 Nissan 240SX she uses as her personal car in the maiden film captures that brilliantly in the Fast and Furious Race Wars scene. Nitrous Oxide plays a huge role here, but Letty’s timing and the 240’s large rev range means she can pull firmly away from her rival’s RX-7.
It’s such a cool car, and we’ve even seen some owners take their versions up another notch. A 2JZ-swapped AWD Nissan 240SX is just one of them, with countless other drift builds stealing the JDM scene during the 90s and 2000s. If it’s good enough for Letty, it’s more than good enough to be on this list.
8 Brian’s Subaru Impreza WRX STi GH
A vastly underrated JDM car in the Fast and Furious franchise is Brian’s WRX STI from the fourth installment in the series. In its big sequence, Brian was tasked with ferrying his hostage, cartel leader Braga, to a safe location to hand him over to the authorities. The little Subie flexed its off-road capabilities here as it effortlessly absorbed immense pressure from bogey vehicles.
We think gearheads should consider buying a used Subaru Impreza WRX STI Hatchback, not just because of what it managed to do in this movie, but because it was an accurate portrayal of how good it is for all-action purposes. Given that 2014 Subaru Impreza WRX Limited 5-speed examples are attainable for under $20k, it’s a car well worth considering.
7 Johnny’s Honda S2000
There were two versions we could’ve gone for here, but while Suki’s gorgeous pink S2000 in 2 Fast 2 Furious was great, Johnny Tran’s murdered out alternative in the first movie really ruffled feathers. When Jesse Races Tran in Fast and Furious (2001), it disposes of Jesse’s Jetta without even breaking a sweat, and would’ve given any of the movie’s lead cars a run for their money.
It’s very telling that Brian, a hugely confident driver, was trying hard to convince Jesse to pull out of the race, well in the knowledge that Johnny Tran would have “over 100 grand under the hood of that car”. The real story behind Johnny Tran’s Honda S2000 from the Fast and the Furious is worth reading if you want to know more about this Japanese monster.
6 Dominic’s Mazda RX-7
Dominic Toretto’s proper introduction as a racer came in the scene where he rolled into a huge car meet, and proceeded to let his RX-7’s rotary engine put on a show of dominance with an obnoxiously loud scream. Adopting a Veilside USA Aero body kit, the standard 1.3-liter twin-turbocharged rotary was further upgraded with ported apex seals, custom inlet pipes and a Blitz NUR Spec exhaust, among the many other changes.
The Mazda RX-7 is one of the Fast and Furious’ most underrated JDMs, it certainly received the attention it deserved, but not the technical praise it should’ve. The A80 Supra and R34 Skyline are thought by many to be the superior cars, but let’s not forget the shame Dom’s RX-7 put to its rivals during the Fast and Furious street race scene. The fact that he didn’t need to deploy his four-bottle NOS system until the latter stages of the race says everything you need to know.
5 Brian’s Toyota Supra MK-4
The “10-second car” that the audience were waiting for in the Fast and Furious. Brian found the ruined remains of an abandoned MK4 Supra that, somehow, had its 2JZ inline-six engine mostly intact. Dom and his crew duly helped to rebuild it to get him back on the street, and in the Supra vs Ferrari test drive, our hero decimates an F355 in a straight-line.
Given the F355 has a 0-60 mph time of 4.8 seconds and a quarter-mile best of 12.8 seconds, the sheer distance by which Brian won should satisfy the notion that this is indeed a 10-second car. Its orange paint and vinyl combo have become legendary among the car community since, and while the 1993-1998 Toyota Supra A80 may be quite expensive these days, its street cred may more than justify the outlay.
4 Takashi’s Nissan 350Z
Rarely has a villain’s car drawn as many admiring glances as DK’s Veilside 350Z did in Tokyo Drift. It was the perfect car for the antihero to use, and paired with his incredibly high-risk, high-reward driving style, became a real bully throughout the movie. This was most evident during the Tokyo Drift final race, where the raw pace from its tuned 3.5-liter DOHC V6 very nearly overcame Sean’s Mustang.
Upgrades include APS stainless headers, Magnaflow performance mufflers and a turbo exhaust, all of which contributed to a claimed 430 hp output. That’s a huge amount for a car that was purely intended for drifting, but explains just why no matter how far behind DK was, he always had enough punch to close in. For anyone keen on building a JDM car from scratch, a used Nissan 350Z is a great bargain sports car to start with.
3 Sean’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX
Sean crashing Han’s Nissan Silvia ‘Mona Lisa edition’ was foreseeable, long before he even strapped himself into the car. Han then rewarding him with a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX seemed strange: this guy just crashed your car, and you’re giving him a completely modified JDM machine in return? What was even more strange was Sean was expected to learn how to drift in this four-wheel-drive car.
However, the front driveshafts were disconnected to practically make it rear-wheel-drive, with the steering knuckles also modified to allow it to get more angle on a drift. It retained the 2.0-liter turbocharged DOHC block, and meant that Sean was mastering the drift in no time before winning races against the best of them.
2 Han’s Mazda RX-7
Traditionally, we don’t like to feature the same car twice on a list, but how could we not when it’s the RX-7? In Tokyo Drift, there are so many jaw-dropping scenes to choose from that highlight just why Han’s Veilside RX-7 is a driver’s dream. It had such an influence in one film alone that it has been accredited with making Japan’s Veilside popular in the tuner scene.
Capable of intricate drifts and proving to be the ultimate showstopper in the scene where it circled around a Nissan R33 GT-R effortlessly. Its rotary was also upgraded with an Apexera Power FC engine management system, a HKS turbocharger, a V-mounted intercooler and NKG racing spark plugs. This upturn in pace was perfectly demonstrated in the ‘Skyline vs RX-7 police drive by’ scene. What a machine.
1 Brian’s Nissan Skyline R34
Brian and the R34 are a match made in heaven. They just look right together, and discovering the truth about how Paul Walker got the R34 Nissan GT-R in 2 Fast 2 Furious makes the pairing even more captivating. He has, of course, used multiple versions of the R34 across different movies, but the silver and blue example from the second movie is the one that sticks.
It starts with the 2 Fast 2 Furious Turbo Charged Prelude, where Brian gets hold of an R34 that eventually wins him multiple races and gets him to Miami to meet up with Tej (Ludacris). There, the R34 gets its finest moment, winning a four-way race in which he beats an RX-7, Supra and S2000 in a closed street circuit race, hilariously overtaking the Supra from above as both cars jump between two ends of a bridge. Surely Brian’s R34 has to be the coolest, fastest and most iconic JDM from the Fast and Furious franchise.