It’s been far too long in the making –let alone the endless teasing– but here it is in the flesh: Nissan’s outrageous Juke-R project car that blends the eccentrically styled body of its small crossover with the proven mechanical hardware of the almighty GT-R sports car.
The result is a vehicle that defies logic and proves once again that Nissan has the guts and the will to experiment with crazy ideas. And judging by the Murano Convertible, we wouldn’t be one bit surprised if someone at Nissan gave the green light for a limited production version down the road.
However, for the time being, Nissan Europe and its technical partner RML, are saying that the Juke-R is a special, road legal concept car, of which only two examples will be built, one in left-hand-drive and the other in right-hand-drive.
The new images and videos give us our first detailed look at the Juke R. On the outside, Nissan’s designers applied a matte black finish to the small crossover before adding a host of aero components, the styling of which was inspired of course by the GT-R.
The car’s bad-boy looks with the flared wheel arches that cover the GT-R-sourced 20-inch RAYS forged alloy wheels, widened front bumper with large air vents, sculpted side skirts, prominent rear bumper with a diffuser and the split rear wing, leave little doubt that this ain’t your ordinary Juke.
Same goes for the interior where Nissan’s engineers ditched the rear seat bench and added a race-spec roll cage. The crossover also gained a pair of race seats up front along with GT-R-sourced steering wheel, pedals, dials and 7-inch touch-screen display.
But the most amazing changes take place under the skin where the Juke adopts the GT-R’s 3.8-liter bi-turbocharged V6 engine with 480-horses as well as its all-wheel drive system, gearbox and suspension, all of which were modified appropriately. Nissan has not yet announced performance figures.
The company said that the project cars will enter testing in late November before “they are unleashed on the world to take on the urban playground”.
Until then, hop over the jump to check out the pictures and watch the three videos on the Juke-R.
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