Friday 11th October 2013

Juke NISMO RS set for LA debut

Nissan preparing its hot hatch flagship, PH cautiously optimistic about the outcome

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Nissan's fresh approach to hot hatching with the Juke NISMO appears to have paid off; our recent Blood Brothers revealed that the quirky crossover is outselling the Renault Clio RS it shares so much with by three to one.

Juke RS is intriguing, this even more so

At next month's LA show, Nissan will unveil the Juke NISMO RS, a harder-edged Juke that should make the little oddball rather more appealing to us automotive troglodytes. It's part of NISMO's two-pronged approach to performance cars, where the standard NISMO model will tread a slightly less focused path than the flagship RS cars.

The NISMO RS has been previewed by the Juke RC. Our colleagues at Autocar briefly drove the 220hp prototype and came back with plenty positive to say.

No official details have yet been released, but the production Juke NISMO RS is likely to make around 220/230hp from the 1.6-litre turbo. A firmer, lower suspension set-up (it'll be down to normal hatch levels soon) and some uprated brakes are probably on the cards also.

Whilst this is all encouraging news, there is of course an even more promising subtext here. Surely a faster Juke means a similarly enhanced Renaultsport Clio is feasible too? We've already heard rumours of a Gordini, and it would certainly answer some criticisms that the latest RS200 Turbo lacks some edge in its standard form. Let's wait and see!

[Source: WCF/Autocar]

[keiran]

Seen lots of Ford fiesta st's on the road, and a few juke nismo's, but no clio rs's yet...

[LuS1fer]

keiran said:

Seen lots of Ford fiesta st's on the road, and a few juke nismo's, but no clio rs's yet...

Same here but then the local Renault dealer doesn't even seem to have one whereas the Nismo Juke is right in your face in the Nissan dealers.

[Twincharge]

Let's see some accessible and affordable Juke GTR's instead - sigh.

[s m]

Twincharge said:

Let's see some accessible and affordable Juke GTR's instead - sigh.

Watched the Jason Plato review of it on 5th Gear - I don't think he was that impressed.
Did enjoy the video comparison with the GT2 RS though that Jethro Bovingdon did

[tram50]

Renault dealers are slow at getting demonstrators in. Having had a Clio 182 and 200 I still wouldn't buy without a try.

A 4WD Juke with 230BHP would be a great cross country car and would do away with any torque steer. 4WD would stunt the performance a bit though

Does anyone make an affordable performance 4WD car anymore (ignoring German repmobiles that is...)?

[Cyder]

Twincharge said:

Let's see some accessible and affordable Juke GTR's instead - sigh.

Would take some seriously creative accounting let alone design work to make a Juke GTR in anyway shape or form accesible and affordable!

[anonymous-user]

Should be a bit of a riot.

As others have mentioned, I've also seen plenty of Fiesta ST's and Nismos rolling about. Not a single Clio RS turbo though. Saying that, not spotted a Pug 208 GTi either.

[Amirhussain]

I really hated the Juke when it came out, not the car, just the looks, but fk knows why, I really want the NISMO Juke.

[Ved]

They do look sharp, I'll give them that, but they're just luke warm with that amount of grunt. NISMO are not famous for making warm cars and certainly not with CVT boxes attached.

Edited by Ved on Friday 11th October 12:26

[Richair]

It's still fat and ugly and always will be IMO. A car more markinging than engineering. Move on, nothing to see here sir...

However, with the amount I've seen on the road recently my views on the Juke are clearly outnumbered!

[s m]

Cyder said:

Twincharge said:

Let's see some accessible and affordable Juke GTR's instead - sigh.

Would take some seriously creative accounting let alone design work to make a Juke GTR in anyway shape or form accesible and affordable!

Was quite interesting in the 5th Gear clip about the Juke R to see the work that goes in to shorten the car etc! It's up on Youtube if you're interested

[JamesD1]

how much i like this car will purely be on the pricing. i personally like the way to the juke looks (missus looking into buying Nismo juke early next year). i think that being the main point (the missus bit) it is a woman's car in my eyes and being reasonably tall i dont understand keep adding more power or trying to compensate when they already have the clio? maybe its the silly idea of taking away choice of manual?

anywho if the price isn't much greater than the well price nismo juke (iro £20,000) then it may well be worth a sniff round other than that its just another unnecessary car being built.

[hill79]

The Juke GTR was a bit of a laugh, but honestly the car (for me) just doesn't hit the hot-hatch mark. I can't see people getting nostalgic over these in 20 years time as they do with 205 GTIs and MK2 Golfs.

As a side note, what are these small displacement, high power turbo engines like to drive? I have visions of boost lag or horrible torque curves but I expect technology has moved on beyond my understanding to solve those issues.

[David87]

I literally cannot wait not buy this car.

[JADCampbell]

You're literally going to have to.

[pstruck]

Looks even more of a dogs dinner than the basic Puke Juke (IMO).

[The Vambo]

I'm not even sure that I would know a Clio 200T if I saw one, anyway i'm waiting for the RWD Twingo.

[Pete66]

I'll definitely be taking a test drive. If it's priced right I'll consider upgrading my current Juke Nismo. And if they make a manual four wheel drive it's a done deal.

[LuS1fer]

I have a theory that blokes get talked into a Juke by the nagging earache and then find there is a Nismo version and manage to fool the other half into thinking they just bought a boring old Juke. No such luck with a Clio RS.

[Captainawesome]

wingman0401 said:

Should be a bit of a riot.

As others have mentioned, I've also seen plenty of Fiesta ST's and Nismos rolling about. Not a single Clio RS turbo though. Saying that, not spotted a Pug 208 GTi either.

I have seen both in Banbury and it must be said the Clio RS looked a lot better in the metal then the pics. Looked very nice. GTI not so much, not special enough.