Nissan Juke-R: Insane Super Crossover with 530HP GT-R Powertrain! [Video]

If you thought that the Nissan Juke's design was pushing the envelope a wee bit too far, wait until you see what the Japanese carmaker's engineers are readying. Meet the Nissan Juke-R, one of the craziest ideas we have heard in a long, long while. And yes, the 'R' in the name is what you think it is: the heart and soul of the…Godzilla!

A team over at Nissan Europe came up with the bright idea of fitting the Juke small crossover with the engine and drivetrain of the latest GT-R. The street legal prototype is currently being developed by Nissan and built by motorsports outfit RML with input from Nissan Technology Centre for Europe (NTC-E).

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Tuned Nissan GT-R Embarrasses Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 on the Drag Strip

As they say, more equals less, or to put it into context, the more horsepower a car has, the less time it will need to cover a defined distance.

And while the new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 with its 6.5-liter V12 engine pushing out a hefty 700-horses for a factory 0 to 100km/h (62mph) sprint time of 2.9 seconds is by no means a slouch, 700HP is significantly less than around 1000HP.

That was the case with the R35 that went up against the white Aventador in the drag strip race you're about to watch after the break. According to the YouTube poster, this wasn't your run-of-the-mill Nissan GT-R but a heavily tuned R35 packing close to 1,000-horses under its hood.

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Nissan GT-R Smacks Ferrari 458 on the Highway, But Fails Miserably on a Twisty Road

The Nissan GT-R is something like a poor-man's supercar – and there is nothing wrong with that in our book. It has beaten/embarrassed vehicles costing several times as much on more occasions that we can care to remember.

However, sometimes we tend to forget that being fast is as much about the car as it is about the driver. Case in point, a friendly road race between an SP Engineering-prepped Nissan GT-R and a Ferrari 458 Italia.

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Nissan GT-R Takes on the Bugatti Veyron and the Porsche 911 Turbo S in Straight Line Duel

Not to leave Motor Trend's recent speed challenge unanswered, rivaling car magazine Road and Track brought the 2012 Nissan GT-R on the race track to see if it qualifies to enter the so-called "Two Second Club" which refers to vehicles that are able to break the 0-60mph (96km/h) sprint in under 3 seconds.

As pointed out by the magazine, few standard production cars can manage this feat - even the Corvette ZR1 fails to do so with a sprint time of 3.5 seconds, while the exotic Ferrari 458 Italia comes close, but does not make the cut at 3.0 seconds flat.

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Rumors: 2013 Nissan GT-R May get up to 570HP and Updates to the Transmission and Suspension

[2012MY Nissan GT-R pictured above]

Like Porsche, when it comes to its sports cars, Nissan's engineers follow a process of steady and constant evolution. We've seen this approach in the past with the older Skyline GT-R models, and we're seeing it now with the new GT-R.

Ever since Nissan presented the new global GT-R in 2007, the Japanese firm has been constantly refining its flagship model on an annual basis.

Now, following last year's model changes, which among other things, lifted the 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine's output from 485HP to 530HP, the team over at NAGTROC forums is reporting that Nissan is already working on the 2013MY GT-R.

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The Flying Dutchman: Nissan GT-R Lands into a Water Ditch

There's something about sports cars and…water sports this week. Following the story on the Ferrari Enzo that took a quick dip into the Atlantic Ocean a couple of days ago, we now have a Nissan GT-R that was flogged into a water ditch in Amsterdam, Holland.

According to press reports from The Netherlands, the driver of the Nissan GT-R was returning from a close-by race track event when he lost control of the vehicle for unknown reasons, sending it straight into the swamp-like ditch.

A messy situation indeed, but fortunately, nobody was injured. Hop over the break to wash...err..watch the aftermath in the two video clips.

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Nissan GT-R Pwns Competition in Mega Drag Race with 11 Sports Cars [Video]

The latest Nissan GT-R has put another victory under its belt, this time in a drag race against ten of some of the world's most wanted sports cars at an empty airstrip.

The quarter-mile duel was organized by Motor Trend magazine. The eleven cars assembled were worth more than $1.5 million, and featured a combined 82 cylinders delivering over 5,000 horsepower and 4,000 lb-ft of torque.

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Nissan presents its new-generation VQ 2.5 & 3.5 litre V6 Engines - the all new Skyline will get them first in autumn

Twelve years and 5.5 million units after its introduction in 1994, Nissan announced that its award winning VQ engine is heading for retirement. But don't you Nissan fans get all worried as the Renault's brother-in-arms simultaneously presented it's VQ successor that will be available in 2.5 & 3.5 litre forms.

Although Nissan doesn't give us any information on the engines output, it is expected that the VQ35 will produce over 300 Hp. The 3.5L VQ35HR and 2.5L VQ25HR engines will be built at Nissan's Iwaki Plant in Fukushima Prefecture and will equipped the all-new Skyline to be released this autumn in Japan, as well as the US where the model is sold as the Infiniti G35. Later the engines will find their place in other Infiniti and Nissan models such as the 350Z, the Murano, the FX etc.

Featuring newly designed engine blocks and other key components, the engines promise to offer smooth transition to top-in-class level engine speed of 7.500 rpm. According to Nissan, the new VQ engines achieve a 10% improvement in fuel efficiency compared to vehicles equipped with the existing VQ engine and top-in-class Super Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle level emissions. SU-LEVs have 75% or less nitrogen oxide (NOx) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions than those stipulated by Japan's 2005 exhaust emission standards.

Press Release

Main specifications of the VQ35HR and VQ25HR engines:

Smooth transition to top-in-class level engine speed of 7.500 rpm

• Reduction of weight and friction through adoption of asymetrical piston skirt configuration
• Reduction of piston-side force through lengthening of con rod
• Addition of rudder frame, newly-designed cylinder block with significantly improved rigidity

Thrilling revving sound and top-in-class output

• Adoption of perfectly symmetrical intake system
• Adoption of continuously variable valve timing control (CVTC) for intake side and electromagnetic valve timing control (e-VTC) for exhaust side
• Reduction of intake resistance through adoption of symmetrical twin intake system and straight intake port
• Adoption of isometric exhaust manifold and perfectly symmetrical exhaust system

Improvement of fuel-efficiency and emission cleanliness

• Reduction of friction through adoption of world's first hydrogen-free, diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating
• Adoption of catalyst substrate with ultra-low heat mass, super-ignition iridium spark plug and fast light-off O2 sensor control