Nissan unveils super Juke (From The Northern Echo)

Nissan unveils super Juke

12:06pm Tuesday 4th October 2011 in News

IF this were April, I'd swear the announcement of a Juke GT-R was Nissan's idea of a joke.

The Juke has sold by the boat-load since it arrived. More importantly, it has kept thousands of people in work at Nissan's UK plant near Sunderland.

Flushed with success, Nissan's engineers have cooked up a plan to mate the Juke to the GT-R, thereby creating the world's first supercar crossover.

Sounds good? Just look at the first picture - a pumped up body,lowered suspension, massive alloys and twin roof-mounted wings turn the Juke into a serious head-turner.

Sadly, the car is not for production and is a one-off, road legal concept car, developed by Nissan and built by leading motorsports outfit RML with input from Nissan Technology Centre for Europe (NTC-E).

Under the bonnet is a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 engine adopted directly from Nissan's flagship supercar. Under the boot floor hides the GT-R's six-speed transaxle, with the front and rear ends joined by a modified GT-R 4WD driveline and prop shaft, while chunky 20-inch RAYS forged alloy rims fill each wheel arch.

The interior merges crossover and supercar with finesse, as the Juke's dashboard has been transformed to accommodate the gauges, dials and 7-inch customisable LCD display from the GT-R. The Juke's iconic centre console, inspired by the fuel tank of a motorcycle, remains while the rest of the interior has the look of a machine bred for the track. Twin race-seats with five-point harnesses sit inside a visible roll cage that gives FIA safety standards as well as enhanced rigidity to provide the ultimate performance.

"Nissan Juke is one of the most exciting cars on the market today. Its bold crossover design has captured the imagination of car buyers all over Europe; after just a year on sale we are celebrating sales of more than 100,000 units," said Paul Willcox, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Nissan in Europe.

"Juke lends itself perfectly to a sports derivative and Juke-R explores that territory. 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.”

So why not put it into production?