JDM Cars in CSR2: Every Japanese Car Ranked by Records

Japanese performance cars have a special place in CSR2. The Supra, the GT-R, the RX-7, the NSX and the Civic Type R are the cars a lot of players grew up wanting, and the game has dozens of them. But are JDM cars actually competitive, or are they a nostalgia pick?

We went through our CSR2 world records sheet and pulled out every Japanese car: Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Acura, Lexus, Infiniti and Datsun. That's 158 records across all five tiers. The answer depends a lot on the tier, and it's more interesting than “good” or “bad”.

JDM cars tier by tier

Tier	Japanese records	Typical JDM rank	Typical rank, all cars	JDM in the top 50
Tier 5	71 of 890	557th	446th	2
Tier 4	65 of 232	74th	117th	21
Tier 3	14 of 81	21st	41st	10
Tier 2	4 of 32	23rd	17th	–
Tier 1	4 of 16	9th	9th	–

“Typical” is the median rank. Tiers 1 and 2 have fewer than 50 cars, so the last column doesn't apply to them. From our sheet at the time of writing.

The pattern is clear. In Tiers 3 and 4, the typical Japanese car ranks far better than the typical car overall. In Tier 5 it's the other way round: the typical JDM car sits below the middle of the tier, and only two of 71 make the top 100. If you love JDM and race the middle tiers, you're in luck. At the top of Tier 5, you'll need to be choosy.

Tier 5: one monster and a long tail

Car	Record	Tier 5 rank
Honda Hoonigan Indy Truck	6.511	2
Subaru RCM WRX ‘Gobstopper II’	6.652	25
Nissan Silvia Spec R (S15) (E.C. Level 35)	6.801	110
Honda Civic Type R (E.C. Level 35)	6.807	111
Mazda Furai	6.853	144
Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	6.853	145
Toyota Supra (E.C. Level 35)	6.856	151

The Hoonigan Indy Truck is the outlier of the whole game: a Honda-badged truck with the second-fastest Tier 5 record of all 890 cars. After it, the gap is big. The Subaru “Gobstopper II” is 25th, and then nothing Japanese until the Silvia S15 at 110th. Notice how many of the strong Tier 5 JDM records carry an Elite Customs level: the Silvia, the Civic Type R and the Supra all rely on it. We measured how much those levels are worth in our Elite Customs analysis.

Tier 4: where JDM shines

Car	Record	Tier 4 rank
Honda NSX-R (E.C. Level 50)	9.466	3
Lexus LC 500 (E.C. Level 35)	9.482	4
Lexus LC 500 Convertible	9.599	15
Mazda RX-7 Rocket Bunny (E.C. Level 50)	9.659	19
Honda LB Works NSX-R	9.710	21

Tier 4 is JDM's best tier. Twenty-one Japanese records are in the top 50, and 37 are in the top 100. Lexus stands out in particular: only four Lexus records in the tier, but the typical one ranks 17th. Mazda's typical Tier 4 car ranks 34th, and Subaru's 43rd. If you're building a Tier 4 garage, Japanese cars should be near the top of your list. It's the opposite of American cars, which lead Tier 5 but fall behind here, as our ranking of CSR2 muscle cars shows.

Tier 3: four of the top ten

Car	Record	Tier 3 rank
Toyota GR Yaris (purple star)	7.109	2
Toyota GR Yaris (gold star)	7.148	4
Honda 2023 Civic Type R (purple star)	7.218	8
Honda 2023 Civic Type R (gold star)	7.268	10
Honda 2017 Varis Civic Type R (E.C. Level 50)	7.368	13
Subaru 2024 BRZ tS	7.502	18

Tier 3 is the home of the Japanese hot hatch. The GR Yaris and the latest Civic Type R take four of the top ten places between them, and the only car ahead of the GR Yaris is the Audi RS 3. Ten of the 14 Japanese records in Tier 3 are in the top 50. The Nissan Z Proto is 21st, too.

Tiers 1 and 2

Japanese cars are few but strong at the bottom of the game. In Tier 2, the Mazda Rocket Bunny MX-5 Miata holds the fourth-fastest record. In Tier 1, the Honda Civic 1.5 VTEC is third and Angel's Civic sixth.

The legends, ranked

Here's where the best version of each famous JDM name lands:

Family	Best record on the sheet	Where it ranks
Civic	2023 Civic Type R	8th in Tier 3
NSX	NSX-R (E.C. Level 50)	3rd in Tier 4
RX-7	RX-7 Rocket Bunny (E.C. Level 50)	19th in Tier 4
WRX / Impreza	RCM WRX ‘Gobstopper II’	25th in Tier 5
Skyline / GT-R	Pandem Skyline GT-R (BCNR33)	38th in Tier 4
Lancer Evolution	Evolution Final Edition (E.C. Level 35)	46th in Tier 4
Silvia	Silvia Spec R (S15) (E.C. Level 35)	110th in Tier 5
Supra	Supra (E.C. Level 35)	151st in Tier 5
S2000	Varis S2000 ‘Dark Panther’	594th in Tier 5

Two surprises. The Supra, probably the most famous JDM car of all, has 12 Tier 5 records, and the best ranks 151st. And the RX-7, so strong in Tier 4, has no Tier 5 version in the top 600: its best there is Han's Veilside Fortune at 608th. Some legends are built for one tier and not the next.

Best car for each Japanese brand

• Honda: the Hoonigan Indy Truck in Tier 5 (2nd), the NSX-R in Tier 4 (3rd), the Civic Type R in Tier 3 (8th).
• Toyota: the GR Yaris in Tier 3 (2nd). In Tier 5, Toyota has the best typical rank of any Japanese brand, around 289th.
• Subaru: the RCM WRX ‘Gobstopper II’ in Tier 5 (25th).
• Mazda: the RX-7 Rocket Bunny in Tier 4 (19th), and the Furai in Tier 5 (144th).
• Nissan: the most JDM records of any brand (46), led by the Silvia S15 in Tier 5 and the Pandem Skyline in Tier 4.
• Lexus: the LC 500 in Tier 4 (4th); the LFA ranks 424th in Tier 5.

Many of the most famous JDM cars also appear as character cars in the films. We ranked those separately in our list of CSR2 Fast and Furious cars.

Building a JDM garage

• Race Tiers 3 and 4. That's where Japanese cars are strongest. The GR Yaris, Civic Type R, NSX-R and LC 500 are all top-ten records.
• Watch the Elite Customs level. Many of the best JDM records rely on a high level. The same car at Level 0 can be far slower.
• In Tier 5, be selective. The Indy Truck and the Gobstopper are genuine contenders; most other JDM cars there are mid-table or lower.
• Start from the record tune. Our best tune analysis shows how Tier 3 and 4 tunes differ from Tier 5.

Every Japanese car in our car collection can be delivered stock or fully maxed, Elite Customs versions included if you ask in chat first.

Built for the middle tiers

Japanese cars are some of the best in CSR2, as long as you race them in the right tier. In Tier 4, 21 sit in the top 50; in Tier 3, four of the top ten are JDM. In Tier 5, apart from the Hoonigan Indy Truck and the Gobstopper, they're mid-table. Build your Supra or GT-R for the love of it, and your NSX-R or GR Yaris to win.