Toyota Supra vs Nissan Skyline GT-R vs Honda S2000: fast, furious and fantastic

By Charlie Calderwood

| 5 Aug 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Toyota Supra vs Nissan Skyline GT-R vs Honda S2000: fast, furious and fantastic

Dom Toretto’s 1970 Dodge Charger might well be the single most famous car of the 10-film juggernaut that is the Fast & Furious franchise, but it is the modified Japanese ‘tuners’ that both inspired the films in the first place, and became their great legacy.

The Honda S2000, Nissan Skyline GT-R and, most of all, the Toyota Supra MkIV were at the leading edge of that phenomenon.

The production team was inspired to make the first movie by a 1998 Vibe magazine article called ‘Racer X’ that followed New York City’s illegal street races.

This Toyota Supra 3.0i Turbo still has its simple, stock wheels

In contrast to previous American car cultures that brought to mind good ol’ boys, these racers represented the full range of New York’s famous melting pot, and their taste in metal was different, too.

It wasn’t V8-powered Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros racing the Hudson Highway, but what in the 1990s most locals still referred to simply as ‘imports’.

The idea that a car from Japan was anything but an economy grocery-getter was laughable to many Americans.

Derisory terms we wince at today were still commonplace enough that Vibe had no qualms about printing ‘rice-burners’ without qualification in 1998.

The curvy MkIV took the Toyota Supra into near supercar territory

But the cars journalist Kenneth Li saw on the New York streets were a Nissan 300ZX, Mitsubishi Starion and, in most detail, ‘the fastest Honda on the East Coast’ – a turbocharged EG-series Civic posting quarter-mile times of just over 11 secs.

The Fast and the Furious (2001) wasted no time in paying homage to this inspiration, opening with three modified Civics taking part in the hijacking of a truckload of electronics.

Craig Lieberman, technical advisor and car co-ordinator for the first two films, had grander ideas for the hero cars.

He’d been turned on to Japanese sports cars after a Supra had shown him a clean pair of heels, and it was his own Toyota that served as wheels for undercover cop Brian (Paul Walker) after the Mitsubishi Eclipse in which he is introduced is destroyed.

The Toyota Supra’s wraparound dashboard adds a flourish to its resolutely black interior

There was an initial idea to use a Mitsubishi 3000GT, but the availability of the Supra, and the advantages of its targa-style top – helpful for both for camera angles and stunts – sealed the deal for the Toyota.

That fairly incidental decision has no doubt added significant value to MkIV Supras everywhere since.

Brian builds the Toyota with Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew as he fulfils a debt of a “10-second car” for the quarter-mile, having bet the Eclipse in a race for pink slips before it was crashed.

The central arc of the film becomes their tense friendship as Brian bonds with his surveillance targets and is eventually forced to reveal his identity.

The Toyota Supra 3.0i Turbo’s standard rear spoiler was replaced by a full bodykit, plus bold graphics, for 2001 film The Fast and the Furious

The final race between Brian’s Supra and Dom’s Charger is a draw, and the messaging is clear: Japanese tuners are just as good as the traditional drag racers of heartland America.

That climactic showdown establishes the Toyota as the star.

It’s the last car standing, and an orange, targa-top Supra will forever be the most iconic version of the Toyota coupé.

The race also laid out the Fast & Furious formula: two cars with genuine modifications do real stunt driving, complete with practical effects in front of the camera, but it is then embellished and exaggerated with computer-generated imagery (CGI) and traditional cinema trickery.

The Toyota Supra became an icon of the first Fast & Furious film

Though we’ve been told the cars can do the quarter-mile in less than 11 secs, the race lasts nearly two minutes.

There are close-ups of fingers pushing nitrous-oxide buttons and inexplicable gearshifts, and countless looks back and forth between drivers, as well as CGI cutaways of the engines.

This all culminates in a perfectly timed near-miss with a train over a level crossing, just before a stupendous crash that Dom miraculously walks away from.

After 10 (soon to be 11) films, which have had to crank up the ham factor each time, these elements have become more than just tropes, they are the subject of internet memes and ridicule.

Toyota’s legendary 2JZ ‘six’ is highly tunable

Yet they breathed new life into the traditional car movie at the time, and have continued to do big business at the box office.

Now that first film is more than 20 years old, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the Toyota Supra was quite long in the tooth by the time of its big silver-screen role – though the star car’s initial beaten-up appearance was intended to make it clear this was a racer that had already been around the block.

American sales of the A80 Supra ended in 1998, though a trickle of cars continued being built in Japan until 2002.

Launched in 1993, the Toyota was part of a golden generation of Japanese GTs whose development began before the collapse of the country’s bubble economy.

‘The messaging is clear: these Japanese cars are just as good as the traditional drag racers of heartland America’

Budgets had been almost limitless, and every local brand entered the segment with machines that pushed ahead technologically from even the European luxury marques.

It didn’t last, though, and the Supra, along with rivals such as the Mitsubishi 3000GT, Nissan 300ZX, Subaru SVX, Honda NSX and Mazda RX-7 (FD), launched into a depressed Japanese economy sliding into deflation; none received direct replacements as a result.

Toyota joined the domestic manufacturers’ ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ to limit advertised horsepower outputs to 276bhp, though many suspected the actual figures were far higher.

The legendary GT-R badge returned for the R33-generation Nissan Skyline in 1995

Such limits weren’t needed on crucial export cars, and altered turbos and larger injectors provided an easy boost to 320bhp.

Japan’s well-developed tuning aftermarket soon discovered that the 2JZ unit was capable of standing up to much higher outputs, however: it was so over-engineered that it appeared Toyota was giving tacit approval for modification.

A sequential twin-turbocharged, twin-cam straight-six, the 2JZ is known to reach 500-600bhp with relative ease, while more heavily modified motors have reached ludicrous (and presumably pretty undrivable) outputs.

Namechecked in the film in a dramatic bonnet reveal, it has become the most famous Japanese engine of all time.

The Nissan Skyline GT-R has endured for six generations and is a recurring theme in the Fast & Furious films

From behind the wheel, the Toyota feels a generation older than the other two cars here.

Vibrations are transmitted to the cabin, in the form of rattles and shakes, in a way the other two resist.

But it also makes clear just how far Toyota was closing in on the territory of the supercar with the MkIV Supra.

Its dash wraps around the driver, with a button to remotely adjust the front spoiler.

This car, a JDM import and one of the few Supras in the UK that is still close to standard condition, is an auto, but even tempered by that transmission the acceleration is impressive.

The Nissan Skyline GT-R’s race-style seats

There is a discernible switch from one turbocharger to the next, which helps to give it a relentless surge of power typically only found in large-capacity exotics.

With not insignificant weight and size to haul around, this is not an out-and-out sports car.

Cornering capabilities are high, but it doesn’t fizz through the bends in the manner of its smaller Toyota MR2 stablemate.

Think instead of a German coupé, somewhere between an E36 BMW M3 and a Mercedes-Benz CL.

This Nissan Skyline GT-R’s non-standard dashboard trim lifts the cabin and matches the car’s Midnight Purple paintwork

Another car initially considered for the role as Brian’s car was the Nissan Skyline GT-R, an even more capable vehicle thanks to its four-wheel drive and one Paul Walker had fallen in love with when Universal Pictures held an automotive casting call.

Never officially sold in the USA, the R34 generation of the GT-R had only just been released when the film’s production began and none had yet entered the country.

Even its predecessor, the R33 built from 1995-’98, was still very rare.

The Nissan Skyline GT-R’s RB-series ‘six’ is a tuning legend

The ability to use cheap and plentiful naturally aspirated Supras for doubles swung things in the Toyota’s favour, but Lieberman was still keen to have a GT-R in the film and sourced one of the few R33s in the USA for crew member Leon’s ride.

Under the bonnet, the Skyline is a mirror image of the Supra, Toyota having been inspired by the success of Nissan’s RB26DETT to create the 2JZ.

Designed as the motorsport-focused six-cylinder in the firm’s portfolio, as opposed to the passenger-car ambitions of the V6, the RB was similarly over-engineered for its street output, making it another darling of the tuning community.

The Nissan Skyline GT-R’s clever 4WD set-up gives vast grip on the road

Power was again quoted at 276bhp, but closer to 320bhp in reality. The major difference is in their power delivery.

Using parallel rather than sequential turbos, the GT-R provides a more traditional punch than the Supra, though it is far from the all-or-nothing blowers of the 1980s, in part thanks to trick individual throttle bodies that provide low-down drivability.

Sharing an engine and drivetrain with its R32 predecessor, along with its proportions, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was just a subtle rebody, but the R33 is larger in every dimension, including the wheelbase.

‘Honda, which always majored on drivability, had created one of the edgiest, most oversteer-biased cars in a generation’

The target with the new R33 was increased refinement and composure, and it shows in every sense, feeling remarkably stable in the way it goes about its business.

The steering is tight, the interior rattle-free and, while its primary ride is relatively firm, the secondary ride is actually very comfortable, resisting the transmission of pockmarked surfaces to the cabin.

All of this just gives further confidence to the driver, egging you on to seek out further grip and higher cornering speeds.

The Honda S2000’s high-tech, high-revving ‘four’, with variable valve timing

Nissan Skyline GT-Rs are not particularly flamboyant to drive, simply because their limits are so high.

Instead, it’s a tool that allows any normal driver to transmit their will to the Tarmac with minimal fuss – you would have to be an exceptional driver, or an idiot, to unstick a GT-R on the road.

The Honda S2000, meanwhile, is the absolute opposite.

Driven by the antagonist of The Fast and the Furious, Johnny Tran, the S2000 was fresh out of the Tokyo motor show when production of the movie began.

The sharply styled Honda S2000 had several revisions over its life in an effort to tame wayward handling

Details of its F20C engine created a fever around the car: here was Honda, not Ferrari or Lamborghini, producing the world’s highest specific output from a naturally aspirated motor – and a four-pot at that.

Depending on the market, you got 237-247bhp out of your screaming 2-litre.

Perhaps just as surprising was that Honda, a company that had only produced a handful of rear-drive models in its history and had always majored on drivability, had created one of the edgiest and most oversteer-biased cars in a generation.

While you need to be unhinged to get a GT-R sliding around, you have to drive like a priest to prevent an S2000’s rear from stepping out. It was the perfect car for a villain.

The Honda S2000’s snug cabin has red-leather upholstery

So hot off the press was it that just one Honda S2000 was used in the first film, the personal car of actor RJ de Vera, who briefly appears in a few scenes as a minor character.

Many of the interior driving shots were actually done in one of the Civics from the opening sequence.

The S2000 is completely stock in the film, needing no further power to dispatch the Volkswagen Jetta it defeats on screen, though the same car returned for 2 Fast 2 Furious having benefited from a supercharger and a hot-pink paintjob.

With its 9000rpm redline and aggressive, direct manners, the S2000 was always destined to be an enthusiast favourite, but its Fast & Furious appearances played into Honda’s hands in its quest to be seen as a more serious performance brand than simply a builder of fast Civics.

This Honda S2000 is the run-out GT Edition, finished in Grand Prix White

The effect of these three in The Fast and the Furious was quickly seen not just in enthusiasm for the cars themselves, but even more with the move into the mainstream of the film’s style of modifications.

Retailers, from America’s Autozone to Britain’s Halfords, shifted from offering repair and service items to stocking ‘tuner’ parts such as neon lights, aftermarket wheels and advanced in-car entertainment.

Vinyl stickers, side skirts and wild spoilers proliferated on new online marketplaces, too.

Not all of this can be attributed to Fast & Furious, but the era of bodykits, big wheels, neons and custom graphics was directly influenced by the films – as was the later backlash and move towards authenticity and genuine JDM parts.

This S2000 has Mugen wheels

There’s no greater measure of the impact of the franchise than the way the Toyota Supra has ballooned in value and continues to grab the attention.

From a pure enthusiast perspective, it is the least exceptional car here, yet when members of the public walk past the trio during our photoshoot, it’s the Toyota with which a gang of youths – all of them younger than the first film – asks for a selfie.

All three are legends among fans of Japanese cars, but it’s the Supra that truly set the scene 24 years ago.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Ian Eygelsheim, Grant Willmer and Blackstone Motors

The Toyota Supra is the real Fast & Furious hero car

Factfiles

Toyota Supra 3.0i Turbo (A80)

Sold/number built 1993-2002/45,230
Construction steel monocoque
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, dohc, 24v 2997cc straight-six, sequential twin turbochargers, Toyota multi-point fuel injection
Max power 276bhp @ 5600rpm
Max torque 318lb ft @ 4800rpm
Transmission six-speed manual or four-speed automatic, RWD
Suspension independent, at front by double wishbones rear multi-link; coil-over spring/damper units, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering hydraulically assisted rack and pinion
Brakes vented discs, with servo and ABS
Length 14ft 10in (4515mm)
Width 5ft 11in (1810mm)
Height 4ft 2in (1275mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 3in (2550mm)
Weight 3560lb (1615kg)
0-60mph 5.1 secs
Top speed 155mph
Mpg 27
Price new £41,327 (1995)
Price now £30-100,000*

Nissan Skyline GT-R (R33)

Sold/number built 1995-’98/16,668
Construction steel monocoque
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, dohc, 24v 2568cc straight-six, parallel twin turbochargers, ECCS multi-point fuel injection
Max power 276bhp @ 6800rpm
Max torque 260lb ft @ 4400rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, 4WD
Suspension independent, by multi-link, coil-over spring/damper units, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering hydraulically assisted rack and pinion
Brakes vented discs, with servo and ABS
Length 15ft 3in (4670mm)
Width 5ft 10in (1780mm)
Height 4ft 6in (1360mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 11in (2720mm)
Weight 3373lb (1530kg)
0-60mph 5 secs
Top speed 157mph
Mpg 24
Price new c£50,000 (1996)
Price now £40-150,000*

Honda S2000

Sold/number built 1999-2009/110,673
Construction steel monocoque
Engine all-alloy, dohc, 16v 1997cc ‘four’, Honda PGM-FI electronic fuel injection
Max power 237bhp @ 8300rpm
Max torque 153lb ft @ 7500rpm
Transmission six-speed manual, RWD
Suspension independent, by double wishbones, coil-over spring/damper units, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering electrically assisted rack and pinion
Brakes vented front, solid rear discs, with servo and ABS
Length 13ft 7in (4135mm)
Width 5ft 9in (1750mm)
Height 4ft 3in (1285mm)
Wheelbase 7ft 10in (2400mm)
Weight 2910lb (1320kg)
0-60mph 6.2 secs
Top speed 149mph
Mpg 28
Price new £27,995 (1999)
Price now £8-25,000*