EXCLUSIVE: AutoMiddleEast.com interviews Nissan Juke-R Product Manager

AutoMiddleEast.com had an exclusive conversation with Gareth Dunsmore, Juke Product Manager and found out a thing or two about the Nissan Juke-R, the concept crossover that has gone viral on the net, the past few months.

AutoMiddleEast: Good Afternoon Gareth! Why the Juke and not anything else form Nissan?

Gareth: To be honest, I love the Juke. It is amongst the most innovative and newest of concepts to hit Europe. We have had success with the Qashqai, Patrol and the X-trail, they are phenomenal vehicles but we believe the Juke will drive our brand forward. The design intention was to be a true crossover, a mix of a sports car and a 4×4, not the toned down 4x4s like what the competition offers.

AME: How much of a challenge has it been?

Gareth: The first real challenge was getting this project signed off. How do you convince the traditional community to do this? Two brand principles we want to get across to people are ‘innovative’ and ‘exciting’ and we need to prove that by doing stuff. This is not a marketing message, this is what we do. This is us. We build products like 370Z and GT-R, they are niche products, they are up there but we need to do that to a car that sells 150,000 to 200,000 cars a year across the world.

The other challenge was the engineering bit. Physically, a GT-R is massive and packaging that enormous engine and the gearbox in a small crossover like the Juke was a task. It would look like the engine does not fit in the bay by any shape or form but we managed  position the engine in the right places such that it does not affect the engine’s performance. Pop the hood and you would see that the engine bay is all engine. Add to that we had to keep the core essence of Juke, a design we love. We just have accommodated the GTR inside the Juke. It’s almost as if it’s eaten it, in a fun way.

AME: So did your have inputs from Nismo?

Gareth: It was a very European based project. We worked closely with Nissan Technical Centre, Europe and Nissan Design Europe, London. In certain stages of the project we checked back with them to ensure everything was working well. After the concept and chassis was sorted, we got NTC to approve it. We came back and fitted it all together and had to get it tuned aerodynamically to match a Lamborghini, Ferrari or even the GT-R, but look and design of the Juke had been maintained. Thanks to the support from Nissan Design Europe (NDE).

AME: Is there a production version in the pipeline?

Gareth: In a way that’s kind of what we are doing here and that’s why we went to Tokyo. We are finding out what people are saying. We have such an agile team around Juke-R, we get the latest consumer feedback and planted the best technology in this car. If it’s all positive, I’d be a sad man if it doesn’t get launched. But it’s going to depend on a million different factors, mainly consumer opinion.

AME: The 2012 GT-R is out, are you going to update this as well?

Gareth: We are going to hold onto it for a while. But what we have done is built a fantastically flexible car. It’s going to have a life cycle that is incredible. So every 3 months we are going find updates to this product

AME: The GT-R takes 3.5 to a 100 and has a 316 km/h top speed. What are the claimed performance figures for the Nissan Juke-R?

Gareth: 3.7 seconds to a 100 on a wet track in the UK. I need to get my tech sheet to speak top speed figures. {257 km/h as per their website}

AME: Thank you Gareth for your time and enthusiasm.

Gareth: Thank you for your interest.