10 Of The Fastest Honda Cars Ever Made, Ranked By Top Speed

Honda is known for a lot of things. Their cars are some of the most reliable around, and Honda has some of the most fuel-efficient vehicles on the market. It's also one of the increasingly few automakers that'll still sell you a car over a truck or an SUV, although Honda's SUVs are quite popular. Another thing Honda is known for is going fast. A souped-up Honda Civic driven by Vin Diesel was the first car you saw in the original "The Fast and Furious" movie. The film didn't start the street race movement, but it definitely got the major players right, and Honda was one of them.

There are a few nameplates that are associated with going fast in the Honda lineup. The dearly departed S2000 was among them, along with the NSX and, of course, the Civic. Honda has also built cars specifically to go fast. The Honda Civic Type R is one such example and has been the Honda's high-performance option for enthusiasts for a long time. Honda also has plenty of famous fans of its fast cars, including John Cena and Chris Pine.

While most of the fastest Hondas come from stock cars that have been heavily modified, Honda has been known to put together the occasional speedster all on its own. Granted, it's only a couple of nameplates that will hit the top lists, such as the aforementioned Civic Type R and NSX. However, those cars can go wicked fast, and Honda deserves credit for making them as consistently fast as they have. 

The first-generation Honda NSX was a special car in Honda's history. It was sold as the Honda NSX in Japan but was sold under the Acura nameplate in North America. It was the first production car to feature an all-aluminum body that saved the car over 200 pounds when compared to a similarly sized car with a steel frame. Honda built this thing to go fast and even collaborated with Formula 1 drivers Satoru Nakajima to get things right. Unlike most cars, this one stashes the engine behind the driver, which is why the back end is so long. 

So, how fast did this early '90s sportscar go? At its best, it could go 168 MPH. It accomplished this with a six-cylinder engine that output 270 horsepower and 210 lb.-ft of torque. It was also fairly quick, completing a zero to 60 MPH run in about 5.7 seconds and a quarter mile in 14.2 seconds when left stock. The car equals or pales in comparison to later models, but the fact that Honda came out swinging with this car and it's still one of the fastest that the automaker ever made is a testament to how well Honda can build a car. 

The first-generation NSX was built for an astounding 14 years, and Honda made tons of improvements along the way that we'll talk about more about later. 

The 1995 Honda NSX-T was a refinement of the existing NSX and still part of the first generation. You may also know this car as the Acura NSX-T as it was sold that way in North America. In fact, other than special edition options, the NSX-T was the de facto NSX sold in both Japan and North America after 1995. Despite the new name, much of the NSX-T was similar to its predecessor, including its looks and engine, among other things. Most of the changes were cosmetic, including a removable Targo-style roof that was introduced in 1995. 

Since most of the car was the same, the top speed was the same at 168 MPH. It could still pull to 60 MPH in 5.7 seconds and sported the same six-cylinder, 270 horsepower engine that made 209 lb.-ft of torque. It could be technically rolled into the 1991 variant as being mostly the same vehicle. Honda had been tinkering around with the name for years, having previously sold the NSX-R from 1992 to 1995. 

It wouldn't be the only change Honda made to the NSX in the '90s. Honda would sell this variant of the NSX-T for two years before making more changes in 1997, but again, we'll talk more about that later. The 1995 NSX-T was another special car from Honda that you can still find on the used market if you're lucky. Older NSX models can go for quite a lot of money.

For now, let's switch gears to something a little more modern. Honda had been making the Civic Type R since the late 1990s, but modern variants are some the fastest cars ever to come out of Honda. The 2016 Honda Civic Type R is one such example. It would be another year before Honda sold the Type R in the U.S., so this version was for Europe and Japan only. Thus, it's not an easy model to get your hands on if you want one. (Fortunately, the 2017 model would be every bit as quick as its predecessor.)

The 2016 Honda Civic Type R has a top speed of 168 MPH. It seems to be Honda's magic number, although some reports state that the car can get up to 176 MPH. We'll go with the official numbers for this one, though, making it one of Honda's fastest cars and tied with many other cars from Honda's lineup. The car is powered by a turbocharge 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine that outputs 306 horsepower and 295 lb.-ft of torque. Considering the Civic's smaller size, that's more than enough engine to get this thing going. It does the zero to 60 MPH sprint in 5.2 seconds and the quarter mile jaunt in a respectable 13.6 seconds. That's not bad for the sports version of a car where the best feature on it is getting over 30 MPG combined.

Despite being only one year newer, Honda was just a tad more liberal with this car's speed. It was the first variant ever released in the U.S., so for many enthusiasts, this was their first taste of the Civic Type R despite it being 20 years old by 2017. Honda dressed for the occasion with some choice upgrades over the 2016 model year to make the best possible impression with North American shoppers. 

It topped out at 169 MPH, making it slightly faster than the prior year. This was mostly due to a stronger engine, which had been upgraded to 316 horsepower over the prior year's 302 horsepower. It got to 60 MPH in 5.5 seconds and did the quarter mile in around 13.6 seconds. This model year also won some awards and set some records, including the fastest lap for a front-wheel drive car at the Nürburgring, which broke the record by seven seconds. It also set records at a host of other racetracks, including Magny-Cours, Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Estoril, Hungaroring, and Mount Panorama. When it came to facing down challenges, the 2017 Civic Type R was very successful at all of them.

Honda didn't update the car a lot in the next few years, but the 2020 Honda Civic Type R is still ever so slightly faster than its predecessors. This model year of the Civic Type R is in the same generation as the 2017 model, so most of the tech is still the same. However, Honda did refresh the model to include things like its Honda Sensing driver assistance tech along with improved adaptive dampers. There were also additional refinements made to the internals of the car, but the big stuff — like the engine — remained the same. 

Despite a light refresh, the car was able to go a little bit faster. Depending on who you ask, the car's top speed was either 169 MPH or 170 MPH. The refinements also helped in other ways, including making the car sprint to 60 MPH in 5.1 seconds, and it took the quarter mile in 13.5 seconds. Both of those are faster than prior years, although not by a whole bunch. By the late 2010s and early 2020s, Honda was playing a game of inches with the Civic Type R, and as of this writing, there is only one variant that is faster than this one. 

Honda would keep the same Civic for two more years before another refresh in 2023, but we'll talk more about that in just a moment.

The 2023 Civic Type R is the final Civic on our list for now. Honda refreshed the car for the 2023 model year, and it's still the version they are selling as of this writing. This was a larger refresh than in 2020 with a lighter, more rigid body designed for better high-speed stability. The 2023 Civic Type R is also wider, lower, and longer than the outgoing model, which Honda says helps with aerodynamics, and of course, the interior matches the newer generation Civic, which has gone over well with reviewers. 

At its best, the car is rated for 171 MPH. Powering the Civic is an updated 2.0-liter turbo that outputs 324 horsepower and 310 lb.-ft of torque, which is an improvement over prior engines in the series. The car gets to 60 MPH in about 5.2 seconds and does the quarter mile in 13.7 seconds. Those times are slightly lower than the outgoing model, but we're here for top speed and not drag race results. In terms of raw speed, the 2023 Civic Type R is the fastest one developed by Honda so far. Honda is still making these models as of the 2025 model year, but the 2025 variant seems to be limited to 169 MPH, which is still very fast.

There's no doubt that the next generation of the Civic has the potential to be even faster, especially considering that the Type R isn't the fastest car that Honda has ever made. That honor goes to our next several cars.

We have returned to the first-generation Honda NSX for our next entrant. The first generation underwent plenty of changes over its 14-year life span, and by 2002, it was as good as it was ever going to get. Over the years, Honda improved myriad things about the car, including fixed-fire xenon headlamps, some body work, wider rear tires, and a revised suspension setup. Plus, Honda began integrating carbon fiber throughout the body to help reduce weight. You likely won't see a ton of these on the road because they were only sold in the Japanese market. 

The official top speed for the 2002 Honda NSX is Honda's magic number of 168 MPH. However, enthusiasts who actually drove the car were able to eek out 174 MPH or even 175 MPH on multiple occasions. The car's inline-6 had been improved by this point to 290 horsepower and 224 lb.-ft of torque, which, along with the internal and external changes, helped make the car faster than its predecessors. In fact, this is the fastest car Honda made for over a decade since it was already faster than all of the Civic Type R models that existed at the time. 

Unfortunately, Honda discontinued the NSX after the 2005 model year due to declining sales. It would be 10 years before Honda would bring it back. Since no other cars competed with the NSX in terms of top speed, this was Honda's fastest car for a decade, and they weren't even making them anymore. 

When Honda brought back the NSX in the mid-2010s, it left the first generation in the dust. It came with a more modern design and a stronger engine, and it was just better overall. Per the norm, Honda only sold the NSX in Japan under the Honda badge while North America got the Acura NSX. They were functionally the same car with the same specs but with different badges. The first generation of the NSX was a powerful car and one of the fastest that Honda ever made. The second generation made the first generation look like a joke. 

The top speed of the second-generation NSX is a bit hard to pin down. Officially, it was 191 MPH, although you can find reports of it going faster than that. Powering the second-generation NSX was a gnarly twin-turbo V6 that pumped out 573 horsepower and 476 lb.-ft of torque. It propelled the car to 60 MPH in 2.8 seconds and the quarter mile in 11.2 seconds. That means that the second-generation NSX was the fastest car Honda ever made in every conceivable metric. This thing was wicked fast and competed on the same playing field as supercars from all around the world. 

You paid for the privilege, though, as the NSX sold for £149,950, which was north of $200,000 back in those days. Honda didn't build this car to sell in large volumes. It built the car to compete, and that's exactly what it did. 

Honda once again discontinued the NSX, but not before the brand built the final NSX. It took a bit for Honda to actually sell them, but that's a story for another day. The final variant was known as the NSX Type S Mk II, and it was a pretty sweet car. It didn't change much from earlier iterations, but there were some notable differences. Much like the first generation, Honda refreshed and changed stuff almost every year. In 2019, Honda added larger front and rear stabilizer bars, modified the chassis, changed the tires, made software tuning adjustments, and a bunch of other stuff. In 2022, only a few hundred NSX cars were made, and they were selling for well over $200,000.

So how fast was this monster? It was almost identically fast to its predecessor. Under the hood, Honda was now putting a twin-turbo V6 mated to three electric motors, making this the fastest hybrid that Honda ever made. At the time of its release, its 2.7-second zero to 60 MPH time was the seventh fastest street-legal car in existence, which is pretty good when your peers include Ferrari, Porsche, and Lamborghini. At top speed, it was rated at 191 MPH. Much like the 2016 model year, you can find examples of it going faster than that. 

Since Honda has discontinued the NSX for the second time, it's unlikely we'll see a faster car for a little while. While EVs are quick to 60 MPH and through quarter-mile runs, few can reach the 200 MPH max speed of the Tesla Model S Plaid. 

Modifying Hondas has been popular for decades and is something you often see in movies about street racing. The reason is because you can make a Honda fly with the right tune and performance parts. One notable example is a Honda S2000 modified by the AutoTopNL YouTube channel. It runs on its original engine outputting more than double its original horsepower. As a result, it does zero to 60 in 6.2 seconds and has a top speed of 171 miles per hour. That's with comparatively light modifications, and it would naturally make this list as the slowest stock car included is 168 MPH. 

However, things get more impressive the deeper you go. The fastest Honda S2000 we could find completes the quarter mile in 6.7 seconds at 203 MPH. By the time it finishes the quarter mile, it's faster than any stock Honda in existence, and it's not even topped out yet. A modified Honda Civic we saw can do the quarter mile in seven seconds flat at a top speed of 215 MPH. That Civic put down 2,000 horsepower on a four-cylinder engine, meaning just one of its cylinders makes more horsepower than both of the cars in my driveway combined. 

In short, modified Hondas are easily the fastest Hondas in the world by a fairly wide margin in some cases. It speaks to Honda's ability to make cars that people can mod in crazy ways that generates tons of power.

For this list, we went with the metric as promised in the article's headline. Top speed is the name of the game here, and only the fastest Hondas in existence made the cut. As mentioned earlier, that means only a couple of nameplates were included on the list as Honda doesn't have a huge stock of superfast cars in its arsenal. This is a list of NSX and Civic Type R cars with one Acura thrown in for good measure. For the most part, we went with cars that Honda made and sold to the public.

However, we didn't want the list to be that boring, so we also made sure to include at least one list item dedicated to the craft of modifying Hondas. Hondas are, in general, pretty friendly to a tune, and third-party performance part makers support tons of Honda vehicles. For some, modifying their Honda is half the fun of owning one, so it wouldn't feel right to talk about them at least a little bit. 

Tracking top speed isn't the fairest metric for speed since many of Honda's speedsters come with governors that limit top speed that otherwise precludes them from the list. With that said, there is a difference between quick and fast, and this list is for fast cars, not quick cars.