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- As skunkworks projects go, there aren't many that have been quite as successful as Nissan's Juke R.
- No one at Nissan knew just how successful the project would be when one bright spark came up with the idea of shoehorning a Lamborghini-slaying GT-R's engine and powertrain into the little Juke. In fact the car's success is still surprising the team behind the project, even now.
- "When Vauxhall made the Zafira VXR it was panned by the press because they didn't understand the need for it – the last thing we wanted was for that to happen to the Juke too."
- When the decision was made to go with a GT-R set-up the team first tried to elongate a Juke shell to fit the larger GT-R platform. However this distorted the looks too far from the road car which wasn't ideal, so the team went back to the drawing board.
- The fact Nissan has sold three road cars off the back of it – at a cost of £460,000 each – comes as somewhat of a bonus.
- When the car was in Dubai, a wealthy sheik offered £3m for the car on display – and it was that ridiculous offer that saw the manufacturer decide to put it into low-volume production.
- Eventually the engineers at race team RML – bussed in to make the cars a reality – worked on cutting down the powertrain to fit the Juke body. The prop shaft was shortened and the bulkhead moved closer to the driver so the 3.8-litre V6 twin turbo engine would fit.
- The results were incredible. The four-wheel drive system from the GT-R remained in place giving the Juke awesome grip and the lightweight matt black monster could hit 160mph and crack 60mph in just 3.8 seconds. That's what 485bhp does for you.