It sounds like Brian O’Conner will be making a much-debated return to the Fast & Furious franchise when Fast X: Part 2 eventually hits cinemas.
So far, the undercover FBI agent-turned-wanted-fugitive-street-racer-turned-undercover-agent-again-turned-dad has made seven on-screen appearances, with the character remaining omnipresent off-camera since Paul Walker’s untimely passing. So yeah, all that considered, he has been behind the wheel of a lot of different cars.
So many, that it’s easy to lose track of everything he’s driven outside of the really iconic stuff. Fortunately for you, we’ve dug deep to pick out each of his cars in the franchise to date and boldly ranked them. Feel free to argue with us on socials, but forget about us changing them, cuh.
23. Chrysler Town & Country – Fast & Furious 7
Even the great Brian O’Conner had to give up the sports cars for a minivan when a kid came along. There’s no hope for any of us, and the passage of time is an inevitable beast. Enjoy it while it lasts.
22. Dodge Stealth – Turbo-Charged Prelude
Turbo-Charged Prelude is a brief film that bridges the gap between The Fast and The Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious. It’s not essential viewing, but it does shed light on the fact that Brian briefly held the keys to a hideous Dodge Stealth. Fortunately, it’s impounded, and one O’Conner seemingly forgot about from then on in.
Fun fact for the error-spotting fans out there: we get one shot of the Stealth’s gauge cluster in a drag race. Only, we don’t, because instead a clip of the R34 he buys later in the six-minute film is shown instead.
21. Alfa Romeo Giulietta – Fast & Furious 6
The Alfa Giulietta makes the briefest of appearances in Fast & Furious 6, having been driven out of the back of Shaw’s jet in that runway scene. Brian’s drive is incredibly short, and it’s arguably better handled by Mia when O’Conner bails to try and bring the jet down.
20. Dodge Charger PPV – Fast Five
Despite being a cop, then an ex-cop, briefly a cop again and then once again an ex-cop, we don’t actually see much of Brian in police cars throughout the Fast franchise. The brief time we do see him in a liveried car, it’s a stolen Mexican police Charger. Little more to say about it, really, as it’s not even the best Charger that Brian drives in Fast Five.
19. Nissan GT-R R35 – Fast Five
We’re no strangers to seeing Brian in a GT-R, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with his Fast Five R35. It only appears for one short scene at the end, though, and is a pretty boring spec within the context of the franchise. Although we do approve.
18. BMW M5 E60 – Fast & Furious 6
A fleet of BMW E60 M5s as chase cars provided by the Diplomatic Security Service is a cool thing. Less cool is Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs, claiming each has “twin-turbo V8s spitting out 560 ponies.”
17. Subaru Impreza WRX STI GH – Fast & Furious 7
The GH-gen Imprezas may be some of the most unloved of the lot, but they do have some memorable appearances throughout the Fast franchise. Seeing Brian drive one out of the plane in Fast & Furious 7 is perhaps the most ridiculous Subaru cameo of all.
16. Nissan GT-R R35 – Fast & Furious 7
Visually, the R35 Brian drives in the seventh film doesn’t really stand out, but it does have a particular party trick up its sleeve that gives it some kudos. That being a hydraulic suspension system, allowing the car to be lowered enough to duck underneath a truck.
15. Nissan GT-R R35 Bensopra – Fast & Furious 6
We see the Bensopra-bodykitted GT-R for all of a few seconds in Fast & Furious 6, but its Bayside Blue paint makes the best R35 of all that appear in the franchise in our opinion.
14. Ford F-150 SVT Lightning – The Fast and The Furious
“I like the tuna here.”
13. Dodge Charger SRT-8 – Fast Five
The second Charger that Brian drives is much more memorable than the first, being one of the cars used as he and Dom deploy them to steal the police station vault in the climactic heist scene in Fast Five. Unlike Dom’s, which ends up in the ocean, Brian’s SRT-8 survives the escapade.
12. Subaru Impreza WRX STI GH – Fast & Furious
The GH Impreza hatch makes another appearance, but its showing in Fast & Furious is memorable for one sort of wholesome moment between Brian and Dom.
“You know, I’ve been thinking, when you blew up your car, that means you blew up mine too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, so now you owe me a ten-second car.”
11. Yenko Camaro SYC – 2 Fast 2 Furious
Seeing Brian driving anything old-school muscle feels as wrong as Dom Toretto wearing a baggy t-shirt and Jordans. However, the one film in the franchise devoid of Vin Diesel sees O’Conner wheel a rather tasty Yenko Camaro.
Having earlier won the Chevy in a pink slips race, it becomes pivotal to the plot as Brian escapes in the scramble scene and later jumps the Camaro onto Verone’s yacht to rescue Monica. Like Dukes of Hazzard if the Duke boys made a move away from Hemi power.
10. Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 – Fast & Furious 9
Following Paul Walker’s passing, we’ve yet to see Brian make a full return to Fast & Furious after the seventh film. However, O’Conner is still alive in the universe, and at the end of the ninth film, we see an empty seat at the table, with Mia quipping, “he is on the way”. Handily, a Bayside Blue Skyline pulls into the driveway. Many in the audience shed a tear that day.
9. Porsche 911 996 GT3 RS – Fast Five
This 996 GT3 RS was the king of Avendida in Fast Five. That was until Dom Toretto in a Dodge Charger came along. Alexa, play Bandoleros on Spotify.
Brian was considering using the car for the Reyes heist, but unsurprisingly for a Weissach-built Porsche, it wasn’t ideal for drifting through hairpins while avoiding cameras.
8. Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 – Fast & Furious
Of all the Skylines in the franchise, the one used by Brian in the fourth film has the most screen time. It’s used in a street race to win the favour of Braga, equipped with turbos from an R35’s VR38, and then later to smuggle drugs from Mexico – and later ends up destroyed along with Dom’s Chevy Chevelle.
Don’t be too sad about the loss of a GT-R, though – the on-set cars used were based on less sought-after Skyline GT-Ts mocked up to look like the real thing.
7. Toyota Supra A80 – Fast & Furious 7
Fast & Furious rarely tugs on the heartstrings in all honesty, but there’s that one tear-jerking scene at the end of Fast & Furious 7.
We’re of course talking about the last drive with Dom in his black Dodge Charger and Brian in his white Toyota Supra parting ways, following the death of Paul Walker. Adding to the emotions a little, this particular Supra was one from Walker’s personal car collection.
6. Nissan Skyline KPGC10 – Fast Five
If we could pick any car on this list and give it more screen time, it’s the Hakosuka Skyline briefly driven by Brian in Fast Five. And we mean briefly, with its sole purpose to get Brian and Mia to Brazil from the US. There are probably more comfortable cars to do it in, but cooler? We think not.
5. Ford Escort RS1600 – Fast & Furious 6
By the sixth instalment, we’d become accustomed to Fast & Furious stunts going from unrealistic to completely absurd. Launching a rally-spec Mk1 Ford Escort RS1600 off a makeshift ramp from a collapsing bridge is quite something, though – even more so when it only takes a slight bit of visual damage on landing.
What a glorious sight to see its old-school blue and white livery gleaming through the air, though.
4. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII – 2 Fast 2 Furious
Would it be fair to say the Mitsubisu Evo VII Brian drives in 2 Fast 2 Furious is quite underrated? Especially considering the level of fame enjoyed by that other all-wheel-drive Japanese performance car we’ll soon get to.
We do think he makes the right call in taking the piss yellow Evo over the drop-top Eclipse when given the chance, even if both cars were just as effective in beating out a Challenger and Camaro.
Of all its screen time in 2 Fast 2 Furious, we’ll most fondly remember the Lancer for the no-look driving scene. Even if Roman indeed taught Brian that.
3. Mitsubishi Eclipse – The Fast and The Furious
Our very first meeting with Brian O’Conner is with him in the unmistakable green Eclipse, which would set the tone for all of his cars going forward in the franchise.
Despite seemingly struggling to get to grips with the car, Brian wheels the Mitsubishi impressively for the most part in his first street race – only for ill-use of the NOS to bring ‘Warning!!! Danger to manifold’ and a loss to Dom Toretto.
Though the car lives on long enough to get Brian and Dom away from the police, it meets an untimely end at the hand of Johnny Tran and his crew, triggering its explosion in a shootout.
2. Toyota Supra A80 – The Fast and The Furious
Listen carefully, and you may just hear the furious typing of angry social media users as you’re reading this. It was always going to be tough to place Brian’s Supra in second, but a decision had to be made.
The orange Toyota Supra from The Fast and The Furious is probably the most famous Supra in the world, and up there as one of the most famous film cars, period.
Starting out as a rusted shell, Jesse’s very 2001 rendering software gives us a taste of the plans for the Toyota, with the finished car first showcasing its talents against a Ferrari F355 Spider. Ironically, the retail on one of those is probably nothing compared to the value of the Targa A80 these days.
We never find out exactly what happens to the Supra following the final scene of The Fast and The Furious in which Brian repays his debt for a 10-second car to Dom and gives him the keys to make his escape. It’s implied in the Turbo-Charged Prelude that Dom later abandoned it, but it’s not known for sure. Although Vin Diesel’s trail of Instagram teasers for the next film suggests a glorious comeback could be on the cards.
1. Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 – 2 Fast 2 Furious
If it wasn’t going to be Brian’s Supra, it was going to be his 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline.
Of every car ever in cinema history, this R34 surely has to have the biggest screen time to cultural impact ratio. The iconic silver and blue iteration of Godzilla is only present for the early parts of the 2003 film (having been acquired in the Turbo-Charged Prelude), yet easily competes as the face of the whole franchise.
In fairness, its street race is probably the best of every single one through Fast & Furious history – no small part thanks to the drawbridge jumps. Sadly, an EMP harpoon brings the R34 to an untimely end.
Despite such a short appearance, you can partly blame the Skyline’s cameo in 2 Fast 2 Furious (and Gran Turismo for the rest) for the insane skyrocketing of GT-R prices in recent years.
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