If you thought that the Nissan Juke’s design was pushing the envelope a wee bit too far, wait until you see what the Japanese carmaker’s engineers are readying. Meet the Nissan Juke-R, one of the craziest ideas we have heard in a long, long while. And yes, the ‘R’ in the name is what you think it is: the heart and soul of the…Godzilla!
A team over at Nissan Europe came up with the bright idea of fitting the Juke small crossover with the engine and drivetrain of the latest GT-R. The street legal prototype is currently being developed by Nissan and built by motorsports outfit RML with input from Nissan Technology Centre for Europe (NTC-E).
Lying under the hood is the GT-R’s 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, which in standard form generates 530-horses at 6,400 rpm and 612Nm (451.4 lb-ft) of peak torque between 3,200 and 6,000rpm.
Nissan’s engineers mounted the Godzilla’s six-speed transaxle under the boot while the front and rear ends are joined by a modified GT-R 4WD driveline and prop shaft.
The Japanese company plans to modify the exterior with a wide body carbon-fiber aero kit that includes several GT-R-style touches such as the hood vents and rear wing, while the Juke-R will ride on 20-inch RAYS forged alloy rims wrapped around high-performance ties.
On board, the standard Juke’s dashboard has been modified to accommodate the gauges, dials and 7-inch customizable LCD display from the GT-R. The driver and the passenger get race-seats with five-point harnesses while the rear seats have been stripped out in order to place a FIA specification racing roll cage.
“Juke lends itself perfectly to a sports derivative and Juke-R explores that territory,” said Paul Willcox, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Nissan in Europe.
“Equally at home on road and track, Juke-R showcases two of the most exciting cars in our range and highlights the technical innovation that drives Nissan. This car will more than live up to the dynamic driving experience we engineer into all our cars,” he added.
Nissan said it is going to build two examples of the Juke-R, one in left-hand-drive and the other in right-hand-drive. While there are no current plans for production, we wouldn’t be surprised if Nissan went ahead and built a limited production series if there is enough interest from the public.
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