The Nissan GT-R had been designed and engineered with one target in mind; to outrun the Porsche 911 in every single way. Although such ambition was considered crazy by some, they had managed to create a twin-turbo monster that had startled more than just the Stuttgart sports car maker. But what if you take the heart and contents of a GT-R and stuff it into a crossover, let’s say, the Juke. Will it still be able to retain the fear factor that the GT-R had?
Car and Driver European correspondent Jethro Bovingdon takes on this call and put the 485-horsepower Juke-R to the test against one of the meanest Porsche in the 911 family, the GT2 RS. In a simple power comparison, the GT2 RS sounds much more superior with its 611 horses, a manual transmission, rear-wheel drive and a stripped down interior. But the GTR-derived all-wheel drive system is nothing to be fooled around with, and the twin-turbo has no problem in taking the Juke-R to the same level as the GT2 RS.
Although the sensation of being in the Juke-R, as described by Bovingdon himself, gives the sight and touch of being in a GT-R, it is much more exciting since it is in a Juke and it its two feet higher. The extra weight carried by the Juke-R might be a bit of an issue during high-speed runs, but it nevertheless injects a serious dosage of fun to the driver in negotiating the bends.
But the driving sensation is just a speck of what Bovingdon had done in this test as he had also included a lap time comparison and a head-to-head drag race. Head on to the video and find out if the Juke-R could give out the same blow as the GT-R did to the Porsche GT2 RS.
