This 2,000-Horsepower, 237 MPH Nissan Qashqai Is the World’s Fastest SUV

Sayonara, Toyota Land Speed Cruiser.

byKyle Cheromcha|
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Oh, your world-record-holding Toyota Land Cruiser can do 230 mph? That's nice—we'll see you at the finish line in this 2,000-horsepower, 237.6-mph Nissan Qashqai (sold here in America as the Rogue Sport) that just became the new world's fastest SUV after a run at V-Max 200 in Britain.

V-Max 200 is an annual event held on the disused World War II airfields that litter the British countryside where supercar owners can try to reach the top speeds of their prized possessions. It's not exactly a competition, but there's always a fastest car, and this year the winner was a Koenigsegg Agera RS (no surprise there) with a staggering 242.43 mph blast up the runway.

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And right on its heels? Our heroic little Nissan Qashqai, built by UK-based Severn Valley Motorsport and clocking at nearly 238 mph on its second of three runs. Of course, this is no ordinary crossover. Underneath that workaday CUV body is the entire running gear—the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 engine, transmission, and chassis—from a Nissan GT-R. Combined with a monster turbo kit from Extreme Turbo Systems, a whole bunch of forged internal parts, and some in-house software tuning, the result is far, far more powerful than a production-line vehicle.

The 2,000-horsepower project began in 2012 when someone at SVM realized that the seven-passenger version of the Nissan Qashqai (never sold here in America) had the exact same wheelbase as the GT-R. After years of development and testing, the extreme crossover was finally ready for its close-up.

For every record set, there are always people who look for the asterisks. So we'll lay them all out for you: Yes, this is basically a GT-R with a crossover body. No, that 237 mph figure is not a Guinness World Record since it's not the average of two opposite runs. And yes, in stock form the Toyota Land Cruiser is an actual full-size SUV, while the Qashqai/Rogue Sport is...not.

But it's not like the Land Speed Cruiser went straight from an off-road expedition to set the previous record. That truck may have been running with the stock engine block, but entirely new internal bits plus a pair of giant turbochargers made it a different beast entirely. And don't forget that Toyota lowered the ride height for stability and narrowed the frame to fit wider tires.

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