Prices for the Nissan Juke Nismo RS have been announced today – and it’s going to have more power than a VW Golf GTI for £5k less.
Nissan will sell the Juke Nismo RS for £21,995. UK deliveries start this week, making it the eighth new model launched by the brand in 2014.
Background: the go-faster Juke
The Juke has been given a typical Nissan Motorsport makeover: peak power from the 1.6 petrol climbs to 215bhp, thanks to a hefty dose of good old-fashioned turbo boost.
The DIG-T engine comes in two states of tune. Front-wheel drive Juke Nismo RS models produce 207lb ft of torque, while the four-wheel drive transmission can’t cope with all that grunt so torque is capped at 184lb ft.
Front-wheel drive Juke Nismo RS models come with a manual gearbox and a mechanical limited-slip differential to tame furious wheelspin that could result; 4wd models use Nissan’s torque vectoring system and Xtronic auto ‘box with paddle shifts.
Click here for a review of the regular Nissan Juke Nismo.
Nissan Juke Nismo RS: the spec
Upgrades for your £21,995 include a stiffer body shell, more powerful brakes and revised spring and damper rates to ensure that the go-faster Juke handles, steers and stops better than regular models.
And 2wd Jukes now have 40% more bootspace. That’s a pretty substantial increase made possible by reshaping the boot floor – but also a reminder of how poxy the Juke’s boot is.
Options include Recaro sports seats, lane-departure warning systems, panoramic 360deg cameras and Moving Object Detection to spot hazards ahead.
Does it seem contradictory to foist high-performance garb on to a compact 4×4?
Many readers will doubtless think so. But car manufacturers are seeing soaraway sales – the Juke was the tenth best-selling car in the first 10 months of 2014 – and applying age-old go-faster logic to create a hero model.
The Nissan Juke Nismo RS is the result. Click here to find out why there’ll be a Qashqai Nismo too.