Automotive

Nissan's JUKE-R: Heart of a lion, body of a soccer mum

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Nissan's JUKE-R concept
The interior of the JUKE-R
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: brembo brakes
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: lifting the body off the Juke
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: the gutted donor Juke
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: interior
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - build process
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - working on the interior
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: roll cage
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: carbon fiber panelling
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: the GT-R engine in place
Nissan's GT-R
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: interior design
Nissan's GT-R
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: roll cage
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: fitting the bodywork
Nissan's GT-R - showing the engine and drivetrain used in the JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: in progress
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: bodywork development
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept: in progress
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - packing in the 480bhp GT-R engine
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - massive radiator is required to pack such huge performance into a small engine bay
The slightly sporty Juke Nismo
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - in progress
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - interior, including the motorcycle dash
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - in progress
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - in progress
Nissan's JUKE-R concept
Nissan's JUKE-R concept - high performance Brembo brakes
The standard 2011 Juke
View gallery - 55 images

Happy times must be returning to the world economy when a car company can put its cash toward a concept like this. Nissan has fulfilled the wet dreams of hot hatch lovers all over the world by cramming the engine, drivetrain, suspension, electronics and sheer maniacal giggle factor of its monstrous GT-R supercar into the compact dimensions of the funky Juke city car. The Nissan Juke R (which can really only be pronounced as "Jew car") is an outstanding example of what happens when you give your best engineers the freedom to build what's in their hearts - in this case, a 480-horsepower, 4WD mega-mini-SUV that handles like a racer and should eat Ferraris for breakfast on the way to pick up the kids from soccer. Awesome.

Here is a 2011 Nissan Juke:

The standard 2011 Juke

And here is a 2011 Nissan GT-R.

Nissan's GT-R

The two cars don't have an awful lot in common; the Juke is a fairly successful new mini-crossover city car designed to appeal to urban mums who like the feel of an SUV but aren't too keen on driving something as big as a tank. The GT-R is Nissan's flagship performance machine, a "budget" supercar that punches well above its price category.

But Nissan's engineers saw some sporty potential in the Juke's body shape, and thus embarked on an ambitious 22-week project to create what might be the world's first mini-SUV supercar.

Nissan's JUKE-R concept

At its heart, the Juke R is far more GT-R than Juke. In fact, it's a GT-R in just about every way that's important - the Juke body is more or less completely gutted to make way for a twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 supercar engine, the GT-R's paddle-shift transmission, midship AWD drivetrain, wheels, brakes and suspension.

Nissan's JUKE-R concept: the GT-R engine in place

It's fitted with racing seats and the body is strengthened with a rollcage. The steering column, paddle shift and vast onboard computer systems of the GT-R have all been crammed in - including traction control, stability control and torque vectoring - and the touchscreen dash has all the goodies of its donor car, including the G-meter to measure just how hard you're cornering.

Nissan's JUKE-R concept - interior, including the motorcycle dash

The Juke body shape has more or less been lowered on top of the GT-R platform, albeit with the entire floor section cut away and rebuilt. The wheelbase is some 25 cm (9.8 in) shorter than the GT-R's, necessitating custom built drive shafts. And the entire driver's cabin ends up starting about 10 cm (3.9 in) further toward the rear than in a standard Juke, due to the difficulty of cramming 3.8 liters worth of testosterone into an engine bay designed for 1.6 liters of estrogen.

Nissan's JUKE-R concept: fitting the bodywork

With the engine, chassis, drivetrain, interior and body complete, the last thing to update was the exterior - this was achieved with a custom built carbon bodykit replacing the bumpers and enhancing the side panels. A nifty looking twin spoiler adorns the rear.

Nissan's JUKE-R concept

In foreboding matte black, this thing looks every bit the part of a supercar eater - and the raging performance beast within should make it a spectacular driver's car. Nissan is building two for now - one each of right and left hand drive - and since the seats and rollcage are clearly designed to meet racetrack regulations, we may well see the Juke R in some form of competition.

I just hope they remember its roots, and race it with a kiddy seat and five bags of shopping in the back.

Nissan's JUKE-R concept

Enjoy our massive image gallery by clicking through on any of the photos above, and check out Nissan's 8-part short video series on the making of the Juke R below. Oh, and try not to hear "Jew car" every time they say its name. That would be really distracting.

View gallery - 55 images
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9 comments
robinyatesuk2003
this concept will be built! This is the hottest Hatch ever , by far, awesome in everyway
Michael Simpson
I want one!!!
onearth1hominid
Could have the same appeal as the 2000 Suzuki Grand Vitara did. I hope they make more than two.
johnweythek
all i saw were pictures of a juke next to pictures of a GTR. anyone else worried about nissan? anyone know where i can get a gtr? how do people think the juke is NOT the ugliest car on the road. its only saving grace is i\'ve seen all of two on the road, ever. (i\'m in america, that doesn\'t mean i AM america, i just live here because canada is cold and mexico is sunny with a chance of homicide.) but BOOOOO jukes.
54yelnats
I agree with johnweythek. Another ugly duckling from Nissan. Nissan should sack their design team and start from scratch.
Calson
Gotta love it. A car that barely holds 4 medium sized adults and a couple bags of groceries that will get 10mpg. Better than a 15mpg PT Cruiser but my Chevy Tahoe that seats 5 adults and has a 4x4 foot rear cargo space and will pull an 8,000 lb. trailer gets 16-17mpg on average.
Does it not seem like these engineers need more adult supervision? Or maybe just time away from their CAD systems and more time out in the real world.
phydeaux
\"...Mexico is sunny with a chance of homicide...\" The funniest thing I\'ve heard in long time.
As for the Nissan Juke... Now I know where the Aztek designer ended up after being fired from Pontiac.
alcalde
Aztecs were awesome and created a new product class. The Juke is UNIQUE looking... you can see one on the road and instantly know it\'s a Juke. Most cars today are so alike you can\'t tell them apart if you can\'t see the badge. The Juke looks like a dune buggy on steroids. How is that ugly? Do you want it to be a Toyota Camry clone or something?
I hope they put this car into production. Putting a Corvette engine and performance parts into a CTS to create the CTS-V worked for Cadillac, and this could work for Nissan. Sports car performance, sedan convenience, Cadillac luxury for the CTS-V, crossover capacity and GT-R performance for the Juke.
Gargamoth
Honestly, Nissan should stick to the Z class models. Leaf might be interesting if they can pull off a fast electric ride like tesla, right, who knows?