Best CSR2 Cars by Tier: What the World Records Show

“Best car” lists for CSR2 are mostly opinion, and they go out of date the moment a new car drops. Record times are different: they are what a car actually ran with a full build, a good tune and a strong driver. This guide uses our CSR2 world records sheet, which ranks more than 1,300 cars across all five tiers, to show the fastest cars in each tier and, more usefully, the patterns behind them.

A note on the numbers. Every time below is a record from our sheet at the time of writing. Records get broken, so check the live sheet for the current order. The patterns hold much longer than the individual positions.

How to read the tables

• Record ET is the fastest known time for that car in its tier’s race. Only compare times within a tier; each tier races a different event.
• PP is the car’s performance rating with the record build.
• Stars are the car’s star level. A purple star marks the premium version of a car.
• E.C. Level in a name means the record was set with that car’s Elite Customs level, which changes how it performs.

Tier 5

Car	Record ET	PP	Stars
BTTF Part III ‘Time Machine’	6.505	713	5, purple
Honda Hoonigan Indy Truck	6.511	713	5, purple
Apollo S	6.521	713	5, purple
Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 (E.C. Level 36)	6.528	713	5, purple
Lamborghini SC63 “IMSA Version”	6.537	713	5, purple

Tier 5 is the most crowded and the most uniform tier in the game. There are close to 900 timed cars on the sheet, and at the top they converge: every one of the 20 fastest records is a purple-star car at 713 PP, and the top ten are separated by less than a tenth of a second. The McLaren Solus GT at 6.555 is just outside the five above. It's also the clear pick among McLarens, as our ranking of the best McLaren in CSR2 shows.

What that means in practice: in Tier 5, which elite car you pick matters less than whether it is fully built and well driven. A fully upgraded purple-star car you can launch consistently is competitive. The spread across the whole tier is large, though. The slowest timed Tier 5 cars sit around twelve seconds, so the choice still matters a great deal once you leave the top of the list.

Tier 4

Car	Record ET	PP	Stars
Ford Mustang Dark Horse (gearbox Stage 5)	9.352	669	5, purple
Hyundai IONIQ 6 N	9.445	673	5, purple
Honda NSX-R (E.C. Level 50)	9.466	673	5
Lexus LC 500 (E.C. Level 35)	9.482	673	5, purple
Hyundai IONIQ 5 N	9.490	673	5, purple

The headline here is the Mustang Dark Horse. Its record is almost a tenth clear of the next car, and it was set with the gearbox one stage short of maximum, at 669 PP, while everything behind it runs 673. More PP did not mean more speed. The Hyundai N cars are the other story of this tier, with both the IONIQ 6 N and IONIQ 5 N in the top five (we looked at every electric car in CSR2 separately); the Audi RS 6 Avant GT follows close behind at 9.497.

Tier 4 is also where tunes start to vary widely. The top five run final drives from 2.01 to 2.82, which is why our tuning guide says to tune for the car in front of you, not the tier.

Tier 3

Car	Record ET	PP	Stars
Audi RS 3 performance edition	7.077	581	4, purple
Toyota GR Yaris	7.109	581	5, purple
Audi RS 3 Sportback performance edition	7.166	581	4, purple
Pontiac GTO “The Judge” (E.C. Level 50)	7.170	582	4
Honda 2023 Civic Type R	7.218	581	4, purple

Tier 3 belongs to compact performance cars. Both Audi RS 3 variants and the GR Yaris appear twice in the top ten, as purple-star and gold-star versions, which makes this tier a clean test of what the purple star is worth (more on that below). Note that a four-star car holds the top record over a five-star one. Star level is not a ranking on its own.

The Pontiac GTO “The Judge” is the outlier. Its record race is well over a second faster than its dyno time, the largest gap of any top-ten car on the sheet, so its paper numbers badly undersell it.

Tier 2

Car	Record ET	PP	Stars
Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé (E.C. Level 50)	8.273	481	3
Ferrari 250 GTO (E.C. Level 50)	8.315	481	3
Mini John Cooper Works GP	8.409	483	3
Mazda Rocket Bunny MX-5 Miata	8.438	484	3
Porsche 718 Boxster S (stock engine, gearbox Stage 5)	8.501	459	1

Tier 2 is where Elite Customs shows its value most clearly. Eight of the twenty fastest records here are Elite Customs cars, and the sheet lists some of them at both Level 0 and Level 50, which makes a direct comparison possible. The Ferrari 250 GTO at Level 50 is about a quarter of a second faster than at Level 0; the 300 SL is about three tenths faster. In a tier where the top five fit inside a quarter of a second, that gap decides races.

The Porsche 718 Boxster S is the other lesson. With a stock engine, a one-star rating and only 459 PP, it holds a top-five record ahead of cars rated in the 480s. Light, well-balanced cars with the right tune punch far above their rating in the lower tiers. The Alpine A110, just behind at 8.518, makes the same point.

Tier 1

Car	Record ET	PP	Stars
Ford Mustang Boss 302 (E.C. Level 50)	11.551	349	3
Sneak’s Ford Focus TrackSTer	11.590	354	3, purple
Honda Civic 1.5 VTEC	11.776	354	2
Volkswagen Golf GTI	11.792	349	1
Ford Fiesta ST	11.800	349	1

Tier 1 is small, with sixteen timed cars on the sheet, and the most spread out: the top ten cover more than four tenths. That makes it the tier where car choice matters most and where tuning varies most. The record Fiesta ST, Focus TrackSTer and Civic each use a different tyre setting and very different final drives. Two of the top five are one-star cars, so at this level a good chassis matters more than a rare one.

Five patterns that matter more than any single car

1. The higher the tier, the less the car choice matters at the top

The gap between first and tenth on our sheet shrinks as you go up: more than four tenths in Tier 1, about half a second in Tier 2, under two tenths in Tiers 3 and 4, and under a tenth in Tier 5. At the top of Tier 5, nearly any fully built elite car is in the hunt. In Tiers 1 and 2, picking the right car is half the battle.

2. The purple star is worth a few hundredths

Where a car has both versions on the sheet, the purple-star record is consistently a little faster: the GR Yaris by 0.039 seconds, the RS 3 performance edition by 0.037 and the IONIQ 6 N by 0.048. It is a real advantage, but a small one. It will not rescue a badly tuned or badly driven car. We measured it across all 226 cars that have both versions in our purple star vs gold star comparison.

3. Elite Customs levels are a big deal in classic and lower-tier cars

In Tier 2 the Level 50 builds of the 300 SL and 250 GTO run roughly 0.25 to 0.3 seconds faster than the Level 0 cars. That is more than the purple star gives on almost any car, and on some classics the gap is well over a second. Our Elite Customs analysis has the full numbers.

4. PP is a guide, not a result

The fastest Tier 4 record runs 669 PP against a field at 673. A 459 PP Porsche sits in Tier 2’s top five. If you are pushing a car’s PP for its own sake, you may be making it slower, and in events with a PP limit you may be pushing it out of the bracket altogether. Our upgrade order guide covers building to a bracket, and CSR2 PP explained shows how little PP predicts on its own.

5. Records are driven, not simulated

Almost every record on the sheet beats the car’s own dyno time, typically by a tenth in Tier 5 and three tenths in Tier 1. The best car in the tier, driven badly, loses to a decent car launched and shifted well. Our analysis of perfect launches and shifting across 1,246 records breaks down exactly how much.

How to choose a car worth building

A record list tells you which cars can win. Whether a car is the right one for you depends on a few things the list cannot see.

• What you are racing. A car built for a specific event or bracket beats a tier-topper built for nothing in particular. Decide the race first.
• What you already own. A car you have half finished is often a better investment than starting the tier’s best car from stock. Check how far your car is from its record on the world records sheet before abandoning it.
• How many rare parts it needs. Stage 6 and fusion parts come from crates. Committing them to one strong car is worth far more than spreading them across five.
• Whether you can drive it. Some cars are fast but unforgiving at the launch. If you cannot get close to a car’s dyno time in real races, a slightly slower but easier car may win you more.

Using this list of the best CSR2 cars

If you choose cars by badge rather than by tier, our ranking of the fastest CSR2 car from every brand covers the same records from the other direction.

Pick your tier, find the cars near the top that you own or can get, and look up their record tune on the sheet. Build one of them fully, tune it with the method in our CSR2 tuning guide, and practise until your race times sit under the dyno.

If you would rather skip the crate grind, every car in our CSR2 car collection can be delivered stock or fully maxed with Stage 6 and fusion parts, and you can browse by brand, such as Ford, Hyundai or Audi. If you are new to ordering, the CSR2 mod service guide explains what happens after you pay. The data above is useful whether you buy anything or not.