Remember the Nissan Juke-R, the frog-eyed SUV that had the underpinnings and tasty bits of a Nissan GT-R implanted, creating a 545hp all-wheel-drive psychopath? Of course you do…if you don’t, here’s the short end of the story: Nissan Europe parked a Juke next to a GT-R, somebody scratched their chin and went “Hmmm…y’know what?” and before Nissan’s Japan office knew what the hell happened, a lot of bad noises occurred and this chimera was born. The reviews were a riot. Car and Driver’s Sam Smith wrote, “Nitrous-powered bar stool? Sure. Chrysler Building with a Saturn 5 suppository? Why not? Loony doesn’t even begin to describe it. The chassis is neat, much like the Manhattan Project was neat. Who knew science could make such violence? There’s grinding understeer under throttle in slow corners, neutral drifts in fast ones, impossible grip, body roll out the wazoo. Go deep into the surprisingly soft brake pedal, the back end hops around. High-speed turn-in is abrupt enough to make your coccyx itch. Crosswinds, sneezes, and butterfly wing flaps in China make the Juke’s tall body twitch and bob.”
Ok, so the Juke-R, looks be damned, was a blast to drive. That was 2012. It’s halfway through 2015 now, and the twenty-something Juke-Rs that were built have been scooped up and crated off for future value speculation purposes. Now what? Apparently what was worth doing once is worth doing twice, because Nissan is building another version of their very own Kung-Fu Panda, complete with the running gear from the GT-R Nismo. That pushes the power number to at least 600 (possibly more if the minions within Nismo really get to play) and the aero tricks are getting ramped up as well. Nissan plans to unleash this wicked little mistake of nature upon the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which kicks off June 25th, 2015. Expect all sorts of expletives…in a British accent, of course.
Should have called it the Nissan Puke!
The ugliest car ever offered for sale in automotive history – now where’s the Juke bag…..
^ I think somebody forgot about the Pontiac Aztec……….
Walter White didn’t!
I applaud Nissan for the sheer silliness of building such a vehicle. There’s no good reason to build one, it’s just crazy and funny
The Juke is like the Edsel of the 21st century! Fugly is too kind of word!