Five Japanese cars exceed the C8 Corvette's 194 mph top speed, ranging from Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition at 202 mph to Aspark Owl at 256 mphList includes homologation specials like 1998 Nissan R390 (220 mph) and Toyota GT-One (230-236 mph) built for Le Mans competitionAspark Owl electric hypercar with 1,985 hp and 1.7-second 0-60 time tops the list but cost $3.2 million and barely sold We all love speed. As children, we aspired to the car with the most power, the quickest zero to sixty time, or crucially, the highest top speed. The 2025 Chevrolet Corvette is properly quick, with the Z51 package raising maximum velocity to 194 mph. It's not super expensive either, with the car and package coming in around $78,000, a steal if you only care about having the fastest car. There are some Japanese cars faster than the Corvette C8, though. Cars are a brilliant way for a nation to show their engineering prowess, and Japan has certainly delivered on that front. We love the tuning culture, angular designs, and rock-hard reliability of Japanese cars, but which ones beat the magical 194 mph number of America's homegrown supercar? Let's break them down, ranked slowest to fastest. 5. 2011 Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition: 202 mph Want a Lexus LFA but faster? Of course you do. The LFA Nürburgring Edition is an ultra-low run of special models given power and aerodynamic bumps. Costing almost half a million dollars, it was a hard pill to swallow, but it made up for the hole in your pocket with its incredible soundtrack. The V10 is one of the most legendary engines ever produced, and any car enthusiast melts at the sound of one.Akio Toyoda, Toyota's chairman, was one of the biggest supporters of the LFA's production and believed it could show what Toyota engineers and the Lexus brand were capable of. He even raced one himself during the 24 Hours of Nürburgring under a pseudonym, so involved was he in the project. A V10 was chosen for its ability to rev higher and didn't have the mass of a V12, spinning to 9,000 rpm with a soundtrack that could make angels weep. With its top speed of around 202 mph, the Nürburgring Edition is the fastest LFA ever made. Buyers were given lessons from Nürburgring instructors as well as a one-year pass to the circuit. Given how much development was done on the Green Hell, it's no surprise this car lapped it in seven minutes and 14 seconds on street tires. The 4.8-liter V10 produces 563 horsepower and 354 pound-feet through a six-speed automatic to the rear wheels. 4. 2024 Nissan GT-R Nismo: 205 mph If you utter the words "Japanese performance car," the Nissan GT-R naturally appears. After almost two decades in production, the R35 generation finally went off sale worldwide, and we're going to miss it dearly. With 600 horsepower and an aero kit, the Nismo was the ultimate performance-focused GT-R from the factory, and its red accents and black bonnet make it look perfectly suited to the track. While it was hanging on by the end, the GT-R did receive updates throughout its life, namely facelifts in 2010 and 2017. The Nismo was introduced in 2013 and focused on the all-important Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time. An early 2013 version did it in seven minutes and eight seconds, faster than the Corvette's time of around seven and a half minutes. Even though engineers knew production was ending, they kept fiddling with this 15-year-old design with the 2024 model, giving it revised suspension and two turbos straight from the GT3 race car. The 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 produces 600 horses and 481 pound-feet, reaching 205 mph. Nissan hasn't announced its replacement yet, but some say it may be all-electric, which would be properly disappointing. 3. 1998 Nissan R390: 220 mph (estimated) We're slightly cheating with this one, as the Nissan R390 is more Le Mans race car that was detuned for road usage. Built as part of homologation for the race, only one road car exists, now enshrined in the Nissan Heritage Center. The top speed was never properly verified, but most assume it was around 220 mph, making it one of the fastest road cars ever. It uses the same headlights as the Nissan 300ZX as rules required some mass-produced parts, and Nissan followed the Europeans in making it the lights. Although only one was made, the company said if it produced them, they'd cost a hefty one million dollars, which doesn't seem too farfetched nowadays. The 3.5-liter twin-turbo V8 produces 550 horsepower and 470 pound-feet through a six-speed manual to the rear wheels.Similar to the Mercedes CLK GTR and Porsche 996 GT1, the road car isn't well suited to public highways, but it shows the engineering prowess of the manufacturer behind it. Zero to sixty takes only 3.9 seconds, and the quarter mile is over after just 11.9 seconds. That's seriously quick, though the modern C8 can reach it in 11.2 seconds with its automatic gearbox, more advanced computer systems, and modern tires. 2. 1998 Toyota GT-One: 230-236 mph (estimated) Straight after the R390, we get the Toyota GT-One, which follows a similar route. There are apparently two models, one in Germany and another in a museum in Japan. Powered by a twin-turbo V8, the race car version took second place in 1999 after a late tire failure, heartbreaking for a car that only debuted the year previously. The team wouldn't continue into 2000 given its new involvement in Formula One.The body is sculpted in the wind tunnel for maximum aerodynamics, and behind the passenger is a race-derived engine that was slightly detuned for road use, though nobody really knows exactly how much power it makes. Estimates suggest around 600 horsepower from the 3.6-liter twin-turbo V8. Despite the massive size, it still weighed under a ton. The driver can see the front wheels through a cut-out in the body as this helps cool them down. Rules in 1998 stated cars must retain some resemblance to road cars, meaning having a trunk you can put a small suitcase in. Some decided they didn't need a hatch for the trunk, which helped with aerodynamics, but Toyota challenged the rules even more. They convinced scrutineers that an empty fuel tank would hold a suitcase, meaning the car was legal. Surprisingly, they bought it and let Toyota race. Brilliant cheating, really. 1. 2020 Aspark Owl: 256 mph If you want an all-out Japanese hypercar, the Aspark Owl has you covered. With a quad-motor setup, it has just under 2,000 horsepower to propel it to a mind-bending 256 mph top speed. That's not as impressive as the zero to sixty time, rated at just 1.7 seconds. That would seem insane to people ten years ago, and still seems slightly impossible now. Aspark isn't typically a car manufacturer, with the company focused on engineering services. This meant partnering with Italian automotive manufacturer MAT, or Manifattura Automobili Torino, to produce this ultra-exclusive vehicle. MAT is known for partnering with Glickenhaus to create the SCG 003 and the Apollo Intensa Emozione, so it knows a thing or two about extreme vehicles. When it came out, the Owl was offered at $3.2 million, which is definitely more than a Corvette in Japan. In terms of cars faster than a Corvette, this low-slung machine would run rings around it. It's meant to compete with the Rimac Nevera R and the Pininfarina Battista, but with a huge price tag, it never really caught on. The company has also built a convertible version, which is an engineering feat in itself given the weight and rigidity challenges of combining open-top motoring and electric power. The 1,985 horsepower and 1,475 pound-feet are deployed through four motors and all-wheel drive. So there we have it. Five Japanese cars faster than the C8 Corvette, ranging from a legendary V10 Lexus to homologation specials that barely qualify as road cars to an electric hypercar that costs more than most people's houses and sold approximately none. Japan has proven it can build properly quick machinery when motivated, even if some of these examples stretch the definition of "production car" rather generously. The Corvette remains brilliant value at $78,000, but if you want ultimate bragging rights at Japanese car meets, these five will do the job nicely.
