The Nissan Juke-R is the ultimate, factory-operated automotive Frankenstein project of our time. For anyone who may have forgotten, the Juke-R is a unlikely and utterly unholy marriage of the funkomatic Juke crossover and the hair-on-fire GT-R supercar; we reviewed the original version three years ago. Each one is hand-built with a racing roll cage, wild body work, and the GT-R’s 545-hp twin-turbocharged V-6 engine and all-wheel drive. Oh yeah, and a price tag in the neighborhood of $590,000. Six have been built so far, and sadly, none have come to America. Now we have learned that Nissan will continue selling the Juke-R—but following the template of the “Juke-R 2.0 concept” that was shown in June at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
-As with lesser Juke models, the newer R examples will get updated head- and taillamps, a new grille, a new hood, and mirrors with integrated turn signals. It also gets heavily reworked front and rear carbon-fiber fascias, tweaked side sills, carbon-fiber fender flares, and wheels from the latest GT-R models. Better yet, the 3.8-liter turbocharged V-6 engine has been upgraded to the GT-R NISMO’s 600-hp, 481-lb-ft state of tune.
-At the time of its introduction, Nissan announced that up to 23 total Juke-Rs would be built. Why 23? According to Nissan spokesman Dan Passe, 23 is the official number of Nissan. (23 = “Ni” “San” in Japanese. Now you know.) This means that up to 17 of the latest version could be built.
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- Comparison Test: Nissan GT-R NISMO vs. 2015 Corvette Z06, Porsche 911 Turbo S
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- Nissan GT-R NISMO at Lightning Lap: Point and Shoot and Repeat
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- Nissan Juke-R Driven! We Ride the Frog-Faced Godzilla Lightning
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Your humble author is one of the lucky mortals to have actually driven a Juke-R. It was the first one ever assembled, affectionately named “Lilly.” Our time together was brief—only a few laps of an autocross—but Lilly made a man out of me. But however overjoyed we are to report that Nissan will continue to offer the Juke-R, and a faster ones at that, we’re sad to report that the Juke-R will remain unavailable through U.S. Nissan dealers. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that we’ll get the Juke-R 3.0, if and when that ever appears.
-from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1KSYsys
via Agya
