The end of the Nissan Juke-R build has come and gone. The vehicle is done. Only a lucky few were there when the 485-horsepower twin-turbo V6 borrowed from a Nissan GT-R cleared its throat for the first time. The thrills and high-fives, that wave of adrenaline that buoys dog-tired men, and the long minutes of standing around and grinning at your project as it burbles away is a private moment that only the builders can fully appreciate.

Respecting the space of the Juke-R build team doesn’t mean we don’t want to examine this evil little mutant closely. Nissan UK knows this, and has thrown us all a bone with 11 new pictures and three videos of the Juke-R, one with audio of the revving engine. The ultimate payoff will be the figures from performance testing, which we expect to see soon.

Using an online performance-stat calculator, we first plugged the stats of a normal Juke, deciding to go with the heaviest curb weight of 3,200 lbs, and the numbers it spat back, 7.6 seconds from zero to 60 mph and a 15.93-second quarter mile, dovetail pretty well with what car magazines have gotten, though the glossy print guys are a bit faster.

Taking that same 3,200 lb weight (though we don’t know whether the Juke-R is lighter or heavier than a standard Juke) and going for 485 hp returns a predicted 3.6 second 0-60 run and a quarter mile that gets scorched in 11.44 seconds with a 124 mph trap speed. We could live with that. We’ve added the new images to our gallery, and you can check out the videos posted after the jump.

Continue reading Nissan Juke-R clears its throat for the first time

Nissan Juke-R clears its throat for the first time originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The crack team of engineers that Nissan put to task on building the Juke-R prototype worked hard on their assignment, and have taken us along every step of the way.

Fitting the mechanical bits from a GT-R into the tiny Juke crossover, it turns out, has been no easy task. So with the engine and drivetrain in place, it’s time to start re-fitting the interior.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, with the engine pushed that far back into what was the Juke’s cabin, the boffins had to rethink everything, and make sure the controls were within easy reach for the lucky son of a gun (or poor soul) who’d be driving this beast. Follow the jump to see how they managed, and scope out the updated gallery of high-res still images.

Continue reading Nissan Juke-R web build soldiers on with interior fittings

Nissan Juke-R web build soldiers on with interior fittings originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The unveiling of the Nissan Juke-R prototype has been as slow and painstaking as the car’s actual build. First we received initial details, a rendering and video of the project under way. Over the course of the following few weeks, Nissan continued keeping us on our toes with a series of videos showing the project coming together. Now that the vehicle has finally reached completion, the Japanese automaker has released a solitary image of the finished product.

Those unfamiliar ought to be impressed: Nissan took the drivetrain from its top-of-the-line GT-R – including its advanced all-wheel-drive system, twin-clutch transmission and 3.8-liter twin-turbo 480-horsepower V6 – and shoehorned it into one of its smallest vehicles, the Juke crossover. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as all that, as the Juke had to be completely gutted down to its frame and rebuilt from the ground up to accommodate an engine more than twice the size of what it was designed for.

In the end, Nissan will build two of these prototypes: one in right-hand drive (for its own roads back in Japan and those where it was built in England) and one in left-hand drive (for the rest of the civilized world). The release of this solitary photo follows a surprise unveiling in front of members of the press at a demo event in Spain.

Continue reading Nissan releases first photo of completed Juke-R

Nissan releases first photo of completed Juke-R originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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