Specialty High Performance Sport Utility Vehicles - Road Testament

MIKE SPINELLI: How do you guys usually
start this Road Testament?
Nissan Juke R. What do you think?
MALE SPEAKER 1: I have to tell you.
The way you look at this car is by just not looking at it.
I've never been a fan of the Juke, its design element.
But I love the way it drove, initially.
And I think that the GTR drivetrain in this makes it
cool, though I still hate looking at it.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, no, I happen to really
like the Juke a lot.
I just like it.
It's fun to drive.
It's got a CBT that's not terrible, right?
And manual, it's great.
I think it's ugly hot.
They did this 3.7 seconds, 0 to 60, drives like a GTR.
I think that's totally badass.
And the reason why I brought my cue cards is because there
are other-- this is a promotional vehicle--
there are other predecessors to this thing that kind of
have relevance looking at this right now.
Eventually, they might build this, which
would be totally cool.
What do you think?
MALE SPEAKER 2: I think it's freaking awesome.
I think it's a finger to the auto industry
saying, you know what?
We can do anything.
Ugly is cool.
Fast is awesome.
It's making a statement .
I love a statement car.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, I'm totally with that.
It's ugly and ugly is cool.
MALE SPEAKER 2: And we've all dated that girl.
MIKE SPINELLI: Exactly.

As a promotional vehicle, though, it has a predecessor,
a French one.
And that is Renault Espace.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Keep it in the family.
Renault and Nissan.
MIKE SPINELLI: That's absolutely true.
So way before the Juke was a gleam in Carlos Ghosn's eye.
MALE SPEAKER 1: I'm too young to actually remember
when this came out.
What was the response?
How did people think of this?
MIKE SPINELLI: There was no internet.
That's the problem.
No, you read about it in Car and Driver, Road and Track and
you went, oh my God they put a V10--
MALE SPEAKER 2: Renault F1 engine.
They put Alain Prost in the driver's seat.
They gave people rides.
And they basically said, here's our aerodynamic van,
and here's our F1 technology.
MALE SPEAKER 1: That's aerodynamic?
That's a brick.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Well, no.
Back in the day that was not.
Back in the day that was not a brick compared
to the other vans.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Oh, because it has a wing, right?
MALE SPEAKER 2: No.
Because it was aero in the nose.
Most vans at the time were flat.
That's [INAUDIBLE].
MIKE SPINELLI: No, but the point of this thing was to
introduce a new vehicle, was the Espace.
The high box, whatever they call it.
So it's a minivan that got attention for a car that's
nothing like it.
And really was boring to look at anyway.
MALE SPEAKER 2: And it was pushing Renault technology.
And before they had two-seat F1 cars to give everyone
rides, this was a way to give someone a
ride in an F1 engine.
MIKE SPINELLI: That's very true too.
MALE SPEAKER 1: What's next on your list?
MIKE SPINELLI: What's next is the Ford Supervan.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Very cool.
MIKE SPINELLI: Another promotional vehicle taking a
Ford transit and putting Ford Gt 40 chassis and Le Mans
engine, right?
V8.
MALE SPEAKER 2: And by the way, I have no idea why they
did this other than to get attention.
MIKE SPINELLI: To get attention.
I mean before the internet, right, they had to get
attention somehow.
MALE SPEAKER 1: I love how the whole van is torquing.
You could put a whole other wheel in that wheel gap.
MALE SPEAKER 2: GT40 chassis and it still tilts.
MIKE SPINELLI: Totally Yeah, they totally hacked this.
This is such a hack job it's amazing.
And look.
No aero on it.
It's amazing.
And then the next version they did was in the '80s.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Now we're getting more serious.
MALE SPEAKER 1: A little more serious.
Aero, giant intake.
MALE SPEAKER 1: And the last one?
MIKE SPINELLI: And the last one is the '90s.
MALE SPEAKER 1: So much cooler because it has the Cosworth.
MIKE SPINELLI: It has the Cossi.
No, it actually had the Cosworth.
The other one was the whatever--
MALE SPEAKER 2: DVF.
MIKE SPINELLI: DVF.
MALE SPEAKER 2: DFV.
MIKE SPINELLI: DFV.
This one is the next one, HB or whatever was after this.
MALE SPEAKER 2: OK, so Ford pushed these
pushed these cars.
MIKE SPINELLI: Ford pushed these.
And it got a lot of attention.
But obviously not that much in this country but you know.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Yeah, but Juke is closer to a road car.
This is just psycho.
This is like pee into the cup.
What are you thinking?
It is pee into the cup what are you thinking but then
speaking of road cars there is a precedent a little
bit for a road car.
Or not a little bit, probably a lot.
So that would be the GMC Cyclone.
MALE SPEAKER 2: When money meant nothing to GM.
MIKE SPINELLI: And this thing was freaking fast.
I think Car and Driver did 4.3.
The official was 4.6 to 60 in 1991.
The only thing that came near this thing was the GNX .
MALE SPEAKER 2: Turbo, all wheel drive.
And pickup trucks usually sold on GVW payload.
The spec sheet said who gives a shit.
MALE SPEAKER 1: You want to know something?
They could rebuild that car today exactly the same and I
think it would sell.
MIKE SPINELLI: What if Mitsubishi did
that with the Evo?
They take the Evo chassis and put a pickup truck on it just
to beat some sort of rec--
MALE SPEAKER 1: But this was a production car.
MIKE SPINELLI: This was a production car.
They made like more than 1,000 of these.
Probably more than that.
And then, GMC did the Typhoon.
I don't know why I had to look at that.
It says Typhoon right here.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Because it was the New Jersey [INAUDIBLE]
MALE SPEAKER 1: It's the GMC New Jersey.

MALE SPEAKER 2: When Tony Soprano was a
kid he drove this.
MIKE SPINELLI: This is a little bit slower but same
basic principal.
MALE SPEAKER 2: It's a Juke.
MIKE SPINELLI: It's a Juke.
MALE SPEAKER 2: It's a Juke.
MALE SPEAKER 1: I don't like using the word Juke, though to
define something.
MALE SPEAKER 2: I'm saying Juke for you
denominational people.

MIKE SPINELLI: When you look at the Juke, when you look at
its design-- this looks badass.
The Juke just doesn't have that badass feel to it.
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, wait a minute.
MALE SPEAKER 2: That's an emphatic--
MALE SPEAKER 1: But what I'm saying is these cars were--
like the vans, they were badass to begin with--
MIKE SPINELLI: But this a brick.
You put this in a wind tunnel--
I mean, obviously the Juke has been aerodynamically tweaked
and massaged.
This thing was just a square thing.
And you want to talk about safe?
MALE SPEAKER 1: That's what makes it more badass.
And it looks cool.
MIKE SPINELLI: And it's totally unsafe.
Probably the most unsafe vehicle ever built.
MALE SPEAKER 2: The Juke reminds me of a Lancia rally
car from the '80s or '90s.
They were ugly but you thought they were cool.
So Juke.
MIKE SPINELLI: The Juke a really divisive thing.
Anyway, people hate it--
MALE SPEAKER 2: Which is is perfect.
MIKE SPINELLI: Who cares, right?
I like it.
It sort of reminds me of another vehicle.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Now Dodge is just off the deep end here.
MIKE SPINELLI: Now, OK.
So this doesn't make as much sense.
But Dodge built this--
MALE SPEAKER 1: Did you get the Express--
MIKE SPINELLI: The little red Express truck.
This is a later version that came out in like '78, I want
to say. '77, '78.
MALE SPEAKER 2: And the point is it's not a truck.
MIKE SPINELLI: The point is they got around the emissions
regulations by putting a truck 360 in and
making it really fast.
You know it had--
MALE SPEAKER 2: Because truck emissions were
less than car emissions.
Supercars were gone.
MIKE SPINELLI: So this was a supercar
for the Malaise Decade.
MALE SPEAKER 1: What's next?
MIKE SPINELLI: Pretty cool.

MALE SPEAKER 2: So Dodge was inspired by their own history.
MIKE SPINELLI: Exactly.
So now trucks, we want to talk about trucks.
Maybe the most popular racing truck pre 19-whatever.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Before drifting
there was drag racing.
MALE SPEAKER 1: That's a great way to think of it.
Holy crap, with the young kids.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Seems like my age is counting for something.
Keep going.
MIKE SPINELLI: This is Bill uh, wait a minute--
That was Bill Maverick Golden.
The wheelstand or Little Red Wagon, awesome car.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Mid-engine truck.
MALE SPEAKER 1: But now back to the production days.

MIKE SPINELLI: So this is what we have now.
BMW 5M6 .
MALE SPEAKER 1: X5M.
MIKE SPINELLI: Sorry, X5M.
X6M.
Porsche Cayenne, Turbo, that kind of stuff.
So the Juke, if they build that thing, it's sort of a
more accessible version of the really fast, quick, crazy,
physics defying SUV.
MALE SPEAKER 2: So the fundamental question is, can
an SUV slash CUV have a performance version?
MALE SPEAKER 1: Yes and no.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Good answer.
What do you mean?
MIKE SPINELLI: What if Honda did a CRV-NSX or something?
MALE SPEAKER 1: A one-off or production?
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, one-off and then put it into
production.
MALE SPEAKER 1: I think you either go completely overboard
with it or you don't do it at all.
So my example, when I go to the X6M or the X5M, they've
gone to the elements of making cars they know will sell and
depreciate very fast.
But they're not very good other than going very fast
around tracks.
They're nothing special.
They're just big wheels, big bricks, and big engines.
MIKE SPINELLI: With a high seating position that people
are into now.
That's the whole point.
Once you drive an SUV, if you're just a regular person,
you're not going to go back to a sedan.
MALE SPEAKER 1: We would know what this is on the road,
driving down the road.
We'll know what an X6M is, car guys will.
But the ordinary person won't.
When you look at the--
The Juke-R is a good example of you will notice that on the
street whether you're a car person or not.
MIKE SPINELLI: If they build it to look like that.
I honestly hope they do because it will be a precedent
setting vehicle.
It would be the first small SUV, CUV built for
performance.
But you know what?
That's not a cheap drivetrain.
So it's probably--
And what demographic would that be aimed towards?
MALE SPEAKER 2: Someone who doesn't live in Montana, that
doesn't have to drive off road to their horse farm, wants to
drive an SUV and look cool i the city doing it.
MALE SPEAKER 1: So a 20-something year-old New
Jersey, New York, Westchester County, or LA.
MALE SPEAKER 2: No, you stereotypical bastard you.
MIKE SPINELLI: But would the Juke-R be cool anyway if it
just had a regular V6, and not the twin turbo, not the GTR
drivetrain?
MALE SPEAKER 1: It's got to have some kind of GTR element
to make it cool.
MALE SPEAKER 2: No, Dan's point.
If you do it, it.
It's got to be over the top authentic.
If you do it half-assed it's another trim package, another
SS or RS edition Sonic--

If you're going to get pregnant--

MALE SPEAKER 1: All right.
What's next?
MIKE SPINELLI: OK.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Here's pregnant.

So you take the the Viper motor, and you put in a big
pickup truck.
It's kind of the same element--
MALE SPEAKER 1: Same formula across the board.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Now this is where I'm going to ask you, if
you say that MX's are a problem for BMW, what do you
think about this truck?
MALE SPEAKER 1: Dodge is always--
when you think of pickup trucks, I think of the Ford
F150, the F-series.
And I think of Dodge.

MALE SPEAKER 2: But that's not my question.
Why do you need a V10 Viper truck?
MALE SPEAKER 1: Because it's the American way.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Oh, great.
MALE SPEAKER 1: I don't think the Germans should have any
place in doing SUV's that have twin-turbo V8s and can only go
on road fast.
I look at the kind can go off-road.
X5 can go off-road.
The X5M can't.
Range Rovers, supercharged Range Rovers.
But good tires on them.
MALE SPEAKER 2: So what's your point?
MIKE SPINELLI: Don't forget this is old school.
This is already something that's a way.
Now this is like the old way to do it.
Is the Juke-R, if they were going to do the Juke-R the way
they're doing it now, is that the 2012, 2013 next generation
version of a fast truck that fits within our less
consumptive--
MALE SPEAKER 2: Can I turn this into a comment fest?
MIKE SPINELLI: Yes.
MALE SPEAKER 2: And we'll start with the table.
Who'd buy the Juke-R?
MIKE SPINELLI: Immediately.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Fuck no.
MIKE SPINELLI: How much, though?
Would you pay $50,000?
MALE SPEAKER 2: Details.
Details.
We can make it up in incentives.
MIKE SPINELLI: Would you pay $50,000 for a Juke-R?
MALE SPEAKER 2: It's got GTR inside?
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah, it's GTR insides.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Yeah, I'd go there.
MALE SPEAKER 1: You're an idiot.
MIKE SPINELLI: No, wait a minute.
I think it's--
MALE SPEAKER 1: You're both idiots.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Who would buy a Juke-R?
MIKE SPINELLI: There's the question.
Would you buy a $50,000 Juke-R?
MALE SPEAKER 1: When you brought that home to your
significant others they'd leave you in a heartbeat.
MALE SPEAKER 2: What?
MIKE SPINELLI: Why?

MALE SPEAKER 1: The car looks disgusting.
I could never.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Let me get this straight.
Your marketing plan is discount GTR?

MIKE SPINELLI: No, I'm just saying that you're getting
GTR-ness for a $20,000 or $30,000 discount.
MALE SPEAKER 2: My version is you're getting weird but
wonderful and you're being different.
MIKE SPINELLI: I agree with that.
I totally agree with that.
But I'm just asking is it enough to say well there's a
bargain GTR?

MALE SPEAKER 2: OK, you're on the bargain.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Waste your money.
Are we done?
MALE SPEAKER 2: Apparently we're done.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Thank god.