It might be as ugly as an old bulldog, but the Nissan Juke can learn tricks. Recently, the Nismo division taught it how to be a race dog, the Juke Nismo RS, which packs a 218 horsepower turbocharged 1.6-liter engine.
That doesn't seem as impressive until you see what the little crossover can do with that much oomph, especially after you install a set of snow tracks.
Ken Block made snow tracks famous a couple of years ago by replacing the wheels on his STI race car and Ford Raptor with these devices. However, this project comes from Scandinavia, not Gymkhana.
The Juke Nismo RSnow, as it's called, was put together by a Finnish company and used to promote winter sports activities.
In between events, the Scandinavians had time to do what they do best and organized a race between the car and a dog sled pulled by huskies. They don't tell us who won, but it's pretty clear the animals have the upper hand because they know the terrain better.
Juke models with an automatic CVT gearbox are FWD-only, so in order to get the most of these tracks, they had to use a manual model. Unfortunately, the standard car wasn't big enough for the tracks, which meant that some recesses had to be cut into the bumpers in order for the tracks to clear.
The steering system also had to be limited so that the tracks don't jam up, and the car cannot exceed a top speed of 40 miles per hour. Otherwise, the whole thing might fall apart. That's a shame, considering the Juke Nismo RS is among the fastest cars ever powered by a 1.6-liter engine and explains why the huskies appear to have won the race.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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