RideLust

Nissan's Juke R concept. Image: Nissan

I’ll let you down up front: Nissan isn’t bringing it’s Juke R uber-crossover to market, and you won’t be able to buy one any time soon. In fact, Nissan is only building two, one in left hand drive and one in right hand drive, and we seriously doubt that anyone outside of Nissan will have an opportunity to take one for a spin.

So what’s the point of building a one-off tease like the Juke R? First, it raises awareness of the Juke as a sporty-but-practical alternative to conventional crossovers, and it gauges public reaction to the idea of a seriously sporting version of the Juke. The Juke R as seen here would have an astronomically high price tag, but a more moderately powered Juke could dial up the right combination of performance and cost. No one would buy a $75k Juke,even if it did pack a 500+ horsepower V-6 under the hood. On the other hand, a $30k Juke with 300+ horsepower may be… interesting.

The Juke R is a collaboration between Nissan Europe and RML, a race car builder and fabricator who’s built project cars for Nissan in the past. Currently under construction, the Nissan Juke R is expected to complete initial shakedown testing before the end of November. Look for it on the major auto show circuit in 2012, and you can follow its progress on the Nissan Juke Facebook page.