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Did the automakers stick to this agreement? On paper, yes. Until about 2004, vehicles from Japan topped out at 280 hp. The Skyline GT-R? 280 hp. The Honda NSX? 280 hp. The Toyota Supra? You guessed it, "only" 280 hp. This handshake deal lasted until the early 2000's when the brave Honda/Acura Legend quietly broke the non-binding agreement and opened it up for the other manufacturers to quit pretending. Plus by this point, improved vehicle safety equipment had proven its value. Vehicles got safer, and fewer folks died as a result of car wrecks. Hooray!

That clears the way for us to have our very own horsepower war. Here are seven of the most powerful JDM internal combustion engines ever put into production, plus one honorable mention. It was tricky getting real numbers and impossible to know every JDM engine out there, so let us know what we missed. Also if an engine had a high horsepower brethren in the same engine family that could have made the list, we showcased the most powerful engine of the fam in order to make the list not just Toyota and Nissan.

Nissan VR38DETT — 600 horsepower

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"With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound" sang Blue Oyster Cult on their 1977 hit Godzilla. While this song really has nothing to do with Nissan or the GT-R, it does pop into the head of car enthusiasts of a certain age when they think about the word "Godzilla." We're speaking, obviously, of the Nissan GT-R and the VR38DETT that makes this monster growl. The VR38DETT is a twin-turbocharged Dual-Overhead Camshaft (DOHC) 3.9-liter V6 engine that powers the legendary Nissan R35 GT-R. Starting in 2007, a small team of "Takumi," or master builders, hand-built these engines.. In the "normal" GT-R they pushed out a respectable 565 hp and 467 pound-feet of torque. For the NISMO version, it cranked out 600 hp at 6,800 rpm and 481 lb-ft of torque. Go go, indeed.

While the GT-R is the only production vehicle the engine made it into, over the years it had a cameo in a couple wild concepts, notably the bonkers Juke-R, which went on sale for $600,000. The engine lasted a solid 19 years before it and the GT-R were officially retired from production in 2024.

Toyota 1LR‑GUE — 552 hp

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Toyota chairman, Akio Toyoda had dreams of being a racecar driver. He was able to secretly pursue this under the moniker Morizo and race at the Nürburgring, but there was a problem: at that time, Toyota didn't make any cars that were competitive, so he got passed often. This frustrated Morizo and started him on the path to make cars that could compete. The peak of this goal was the Lexus LFA, which was built to be a supercar to rival the best in the world.

To be the best, the LFA needed an amazing engine, and in 2009 the 1LR-GUE was born. Developed in cooperation with Yamaha, this powerhouse is a 552-560 hp liquid-cooled 4-stroke DOHC 4.8-liter V10 that sits at a 72-degree V-angle. Built to be incredibly high revving, it goes from idle to its 9000 rpm redline in just 0.6 seconds—so fast that an analog tachometer couldn't keep up, so they had to go digital. This shot the LFA from 0-60 mph in a scant 3.6 seconds, maxing out at a 202 mph top speed.These specs demonstrate how quick the car is, but it doesn't capture how fantastic it sounds doing it. Some call it "the roar of an angel," MotorTrend calls it "by far one of the most beautiful-sounding cars ever built." Yamaha specifically engineered the engine to achieve that rich, screaming, F1-like sound. The LFA had a short 2-year production run, with just 500 units built before it was discontinued in 2012.

Toyota 2UR‑GSE — 472 hp

While the LFA was winning over the hearts, minds, and ears of enthusiasts everywhere, it was only the beginning of the story. The Lexus F line of high-performance vehicles spread out the awesome sauce across the product line. The heart of the F line is the 2UR-GSE, a naturally aspirated DOHC 5-liter V8. Output varied across its lifespan and application, but at its peak it put out 472 hp and 395 lb-ft of torque.

Similar to the LFA's 1LR-GUE, the 2UR-GSE was developed in conjunction with Yamaha and also enjoys the high rev life with a 7,300 rpm redline. It is the most potent in the UR line of engines and was introduced in 2008 in the Lexus IS F. It made its way into the rest of the F line, namely the RC F, GS F, and LC 500. It's also the last of the naturally aspirated V8s from Toyota and was officially retired in August 2026 with the discontinuation of the LC 500.

The 2UR-GSE wasn't the only high-horsepower engine in the UR lineup. The 3UR-FE, a 382-hp naturally aspirated DOHC 5.7-liter V8, was used in the beloved 200 series Land Cruiser as well as the Tundra, Sequoia, and Lexus LX 570. We might just see more about this engine variant in a bit, wink wink.

Mitsubishi 4B11T – 440 hp

Let's welcome our first four-banger to the list! This one makes a hell of an entrance as it packs more horsepower per liter than most supercars out there. In 2015 Mitsubishi released a very limited edition Evolution X FQ-440 MR to celebrate 40 years of Lancers in the UK. What made it special is the 4B11T, a turbo charged, DOHC inline-4 making 440 hp and 412 lb-ft of torque. Only 40 units of the FQ-440 MR were produced and they sold out in a couple of hours. You might be wondering what the FQ in that alphabet soup stands for: well Mitsubishi won't say, but it's taken to mean "f'ing quick." Well, quick is right. All those horsies motivated this Evo from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds and gave it a top speed of 157 mph.

If you weren't one of the lucky ones to jump on the FQ-440 MR, the 4B11T was also available in the FQ-400 which, you guessed it, put out a respectable 400 hp. These are only for the UK peeps. On this side of the pond, the strongest Evo we got was the Final Edition which allowed the 4B11 to push out a mere 303 hp.

Nissan VK56VD — 428 hp

We've already seen what a Nissan V6 can do, so let's see what it has in the V8 category. The VK line of engines from Nissan is home to their most powerful V8s, which seem to fly under the radar. The VK56VD is a naturally aspirated, DOHC 5.6-liter V8, which is the most powerful iteration of the VK. In peak form, it was good for 420 hp and 417 lb-ft of torque.

This engine wasn't built for a racetrack–it was built to work. From 2010 to 2024, it was the power behind Nissan and Infiniti's truck and SUV range. The Nissan Patrol– which the U.S. gets as the Infiniti QX80–and Nissan Titan all got 400 hp variants, while the Nissan Patrol Nismo got the full 428 hp. But you might have to go to the Middle East to take one for a drive. Also unlike the other engines on this list, these engines are actually affordable. QX80s topped our list of vehicles that have depreciated fast, so they might be the cheapest way to get into big horsepower.

Subaru EJ257 S209 – 341 hp

That Subaru made the list likely shocks no one, as the WRX and WRX STI have long been the choice for fast all-wheel-drive excitement, all thanks to the EJ family of engines.

The EJ engines were first introduced in 1989 and have been powering basically every Subaru in the lineup since. EJ varieties range from 94 hp to an astonishing 341 hp, with the EJ257 being at the top end of the lineup, power-wise. All EJ257s are turbocharged 2.5-liter DOHC horizontally opposed flat-four boxer engines. The base EJ247s will get you to 210-310 hp and 260-300 lb-ft of torque. To get peak numbers, you need the EJ257 S209 set up, which delivers 341 hp and 330 lb-ft of torque.

The aforementioned configuration only came in the 2019 Subaru STI S209, with the S-line being the top tier of the STI tuned models. Slightly less badass versions of the EJ257 were powering the Forester XT and the Outback XT from 2004-2006, and were in the WRX STIs until 2021

Honda K20C1 – 316 hp

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We're getting close to the point in the horsepower war where the Japanese Gentlemen's Agreement mentioned earlier comes into play–as a lot of vehicles were stated to be 280 hp when they were obviously more powerful. There are several to choose from in this ballpark, but we'll squeeze Honda in here because the Honda K is having a moment right now.

The K family of engines from Honda, introduced in 2015, are well known to the tuner and swapping community for good reason. They are reliable and compact and you can boost them quite high. For our purposes, let's talk about the version that got the most power straight from the factory: the K20C1.

The K20C1 is a 2.0L turbocharged inline-4 that produces up to 315 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque and is used to motivate the Honda Civic Type R and, allegedly, the Arial Atom in the North America market. Both are known to be a VTEC load of fun. The K20C1 is the only engine on the list that you can still pick up at your local dealership. It's been in the Civic Type R since 2015 and is still heating up one of hottest hot hatches on the market.

Honorable Mention: Toyota 3UR-FE+ – 2000 hp

As you know from an earlier slide, the 3UR-FE is a 382-hp naturally aspirated DOHC 5.7-liter V8 that was used in the 200 series Land Cruiser. What you may not know is that Toyota had a hankering for the "World's Fastest SUV" record, which had been set at 211 mph by a Brabus tuned Mercedes-Benz GLK pushing out 740 horsepower.

To achieve their goal, Toyota took a stock Land Cruiser and reworked the innards of the 3UR-FE with stouter pistons and rods so it could handle "a pair of volleyball-sized Garrett turbochargers," which put out 55 PSI of boost and 2000-freaking-horsepower. Yowsa.

This was no longer a normal Land Cruiser, so with a new attitude it got a new name: the Land Speed Cruiser. Out at Mojave Air & Space Port in the Mojave desert, it hit 230 mph on a 2-mile straightaway to earn the title of "World's Fastest SUV." Honestly, it looked like it could have gone faster with more runway. Incredible.