For A Few Short Years, You Could Get A 215-Horsepower Manual Nissan Juke With Recaro Seats

Can you believe it’s been 14 years since Nissan unveiled the Juke? What was once a target of vitriol has now faded into the roadscape thanks to weirder and weirder-looking crossovers being launched over the past few years. We even gave this little crossover its own redemption piece, because man, people were way too hard on it. Not only did it have some funky stuff going on, it even spawned a manual high-performance variant that promises to be an underrated hot hatch for truly reasonable money.

In North America, even the regular Nissan Juke wasn’t exactly dowdy in the mechanicals department. It came standard with a 188-horsepower 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, and you could even get it with a six-speed manual transmission. You don’t have to rub many brain cells together to wonder what would happen if someone turned up the wick at least a touch to create one seriously weird hot hatch.

That’s where Nismo comes into play. The same skunkworks branch of Nissan previously known for seam-welding 350Zs and building insane Skyline GT-Rs took one look at this weird little crossover and instantly saw its potential. It started with the Nismo version, a hotted-up Juke with a body kit, sports suspension, new wheels, red accents everywhere, and a power boost to 197 horsepower. However, this wasn’t all that Nismo could do. If you were a particular type of lunatic, starting for the 2014 model year, you could buy a Nissan Juke Nismo RS.

To justify adding two little letters to the end of the model name, Nismo threw some more power at it, elevating output to 215 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 210 lb.-ft. of torque from 3,600 rpm to 4,800 rpm — squarely in hot-hatch territory. Stronger connecting rods boosted longevity and a reworked exhaust system added a hot hatch soundtrack too. This was more than just slapping a different tune on an ECU, Nismo really did make some small but key upgrades to make the hottest regular production Juke punch harder than people expected.

Of course, power is nothing without control, so on models equipped with the six-speed manual transmission, Nismo threw in a helical limited-slip front differential to really get the power down to the ground. Speaking of that six-speed manual transmission, it was a close-ratio unit, with shorter gears in first through third, and it gained a stronger clutch cover to handle a little drivetrain abuse. You could also get the Nismo RS with a CVT and all-wheel-drive, but the manual is where it’s at.

Since this is Nismo we’re talking about, the Juke Nismo RS also got a whole bunch of body stiffening over the regular Juke, along with beefier spring rates, re-tuned KYB dampers, vented rear discs, front discs nearly an inch bigger than the ones on the standard Nismo, and re-tuned electric power steering. Decent stuff, but the real centerpiece was in the cabin.

One of the best performance upgrades you can do to just about any car is ensuring the driver stays comfortable and supported, even in high-performance driving. Believe me, I’ve tracked cars that had me falling out of the seat. To solve this, Nismo went straight to Recaro and installed a pair of gorgeous, supportive, and undeniably expensive Sportster seats.

The result was a hot crossover with a shockingly reasonable curb weight of 2,951 pounds that dashed from zero-to-60 mph in 6.4 seconds during Motor Trend instrumented testing. The result was a car that drove like a proper old-school hot hatch, as Motor Trend attests:

Although the 2015 Nissan Juke NISMO RS offers great performance, it’s also fun to drive. It has an abundance of torque steer, and if you’re not careful, you could end up in the next lane. But when needing that extra power off the line, the Juke NISMO RS delivers with ease. Getting up to speed is quick, with a 0-60 mph time of 6.4 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 14.9 seconds at 94.8 mph. Weaving in and out of traffic was a breeze thanks to smaller proportions and good pickup. When accelerating out of a corner, that limited-slip differential allows the Juke NISMO RS to power through and stick to the road.

We may not be the biggest fan of the 2015 Nissan Juke NISMO RS in terms of its looks, but the drive alone is enough to make up for this polarizing model’s design flaws. We would ask for slightly less bolstered seats and a bit less of the Alcantara, but the Juke NISMO RS shines on the road. A bigger cargo area would go a ways toward boosting this model’s appeal, but we’ll just have to be happy with a zippy model that sips fuel despite its strong performance numbers.

If that doesn’t sound like a bundle of weird fun, I don’t know what does. Nissan managed to make a business case for these things in America from model years 2014 through 2017, when the plug was pulled, ending the marque’s stateside hot hatch run. It’s a run most people forgot about, which means that once you factor in the polarizing looks, you can pick up a Juke Nismo RS for seriously sensible coin.

Take this 2014 Juke Nismo RS manual, for example. Sure, it has more than 122,000 miles on the clock and a hit on its vehicle history report, but it’s also listed for sale in Washington for $8,995. That’s a four-figure price and it doesn’t even look roached. The black paint still gleams, the Recaro seats are still present, and even the sueded material on the steering wheel ought to come back nicely with a little detailing.

Alright, let’s say you’re really into the vibe of this thing and want a creampuff example. Well, good news, because even the cream of the Juke Nismo RS crop probably won’t burst your budget. This manual 2016 Juke Nismo RS has just 70,018 miles on the clock, and although it has a minor claim on the Carfax from when it was pretty much new, its history out of the rust belt means it should be pretty clean underneath. It’s currently up for sale in Oregon at an asking price of $15,138, and that’s not bad considering the overall car market.

So, if you’re looking for a quick, fun, and left-field hot hatchback, why not consider a Nissan Juke Nismo RS? It’s the right kind of wacky to brighten up the roadscape, and ripping gears in a turbocharged terror is always a riot.

(Photo credits: Nissan, Autotrader sellers)

Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.

• The Hyundai Genesis 5.0 R-Spec Is A Luxurious V8 Sleeper That Can Keep Up With A Camaro SS

• For Five Short Years, You Could Buy A Demure Volvo S80 With A 4.4-Liter V8

• The Acura TL SH-AWD Manual Is The Stick-Shift All-Weather Sports Sedan You Forgot Existed

• The Cadillac STS-V Is The 469-HP Supercharged V8 Cadillac You Forgot About

• The Forgotten Audi A3 3.2 Quattro Is A Golf R32 In Disguise For Thousands Of Dollars Less

Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage.