The Juke Nismo with front-wheel drive and a 6-speed manual transmission or an all-wheel drive with a CVT will be offered in the U.S.
Nissan Motor at a dedication of its refurbished Nismo facility in Yokohama, Japan said that the first performance car coming from the new center will be a Juke, followed by the 2014 model 370Z. A new GT-R Nismo is also in the works. Nissan said more Nismo models will appear, at least one every year.
All of the cars that the performance versions will be built from so far represent small volumes in the U.S., selling in January 2,400 Juke, 331 370Z and 48 GT-R models. The Nismo versions will be built in the same plants as the standard models.
The Juke Nismo is already on sale in Europe and Japan and launches in the United States in the spring. Nissan’s most popular sports car, 370Z Nismo, is now in its second generation in the U.S., with a revised 2014 370Z Nismo set for sale this summer.
“Nismo will democratize performance and bring new excitement to the Nissan portfolio with a broader range of affordable and innovative performance models for more markets and more people,” said Carlos Ghosn, CEO.
Nissan has invested in a new facility for Nismo’s operations, redeveloping a former production site to give it the resources for expanding beyond motorsports engineering to encompass performance car development. The new headquarters allows the Nismo team to be co-located in one place, bringing together the functional areas for key activities and technical and competition expertise under one roof.
The 180-member team is now located inside Nissan’s Powertrain Engineering complex. The workshop, engine shop, rooms for fabrication, grinding and carbon composite processes are consolidated into the same floor space along with a parts warehouse. A new larger showroom allows up to eight vehicles to be displayed, while the retail area is now almost twice the size of the previous store in the Omori factory.
Nismo is perhaps best known by millions through the virtual world of driving simulation games. In fact, the first opportunity to drive a Nissan Juke Nismo was provided virtually through Gameloft’s Asphalt 7: Heat. Last year alone, more than 500 million virtual miles were driven in Nissan vehicles on Gran Turismo5 for PlayStation3, Nissan claims.
