Nissan Upgrades the Juke-R

Nissan Juke-R 2.0 (Credit: Nissan)

In all honesty, the Nissan Juke is a weird vehicle, from its platypus-like exterior styling to the whole persona that enshrouds it. Despite its quirks, or maybe because of them, it’s attracted a nice little following. Then there’s the Juke-R, a vehicle that takes Godzilla’s heart and makes the little crossover breathe fire. Now, Nissan has announced that it’s made a 2.0-version of the performance model, and it sounds pretty compelling.

To start off, here is the one detail you should definitely take away: it puts out 600 horsepower. 600 horsepower! Out of a Juke! 600 horsepower is a lot for any vehicle, but having that thunder out of a Juke is probably a completely frightening and totally exhilarating experience. It also proves that Nissan has completely lost it in all the good ways.

Nissan Juke-R 2.0 (Credit: Nissan )

The Juke-R 2.0 comes with a whole list of changes. If you didn’t notice, the engine output matches what the Nissan GT-R Nismo pushes out. The headliner was switched to black, which was on the only interior change. Quite a few changes were applied to the crossover’s body, like using a different design for the side sills and making them from carbon fiber. The rear bumper is another component made entirely of carbon fiber, plus it features a diffuser that’s not painted and exhaust cowlings that are made from high temperature carbon for durability. Nissan used the same hood as what’s on the 2015 Juke, but added bare carbon fiber cooling ducts.

Nissan Juke-R 2.0 (Credit: Nissan)

The first Juke-R packed a lot of power, but was found lacking when it came to handling. That’s the nature of the best with a crossover which as a higher center of gravity than the GT-R. it’s likely that 2.0 will suffer from that weakness, but some people might not even notice as they scream forward in a straight line, glued to the seats.