Meet the 200mph Nissan Qashqai

Are you sitting comfortably? Good. This is a modified Nissan Qashqai that will out-accelerate a McLaren P1 and top out at over 200mph.

We'll give you a moment to let that sink in.

It's called the SVM Qashqai R, and has been built by an engineering company in Telford called Severnvalley Motorsport. Why? Because why the hell not. Also, SVM wanted to one-up Nissan's own GT-R-engined Juke (remember that?) and build a ‘Qashqai supercar'.

So, they started with a Qashqai+2 and a GT-R. They stripped the Qashqai to its bare shell, cut the body from the GT-R, and lowered the shell onto the complete floorplan from the R35 GT-R. This of course, meant the complete running gear from the GT-R could be used for the Qashqai R.

Then, once the two bodies were matched, the GT-R's 3.8-litre-twin turbo engine was stripped and rebuilt by SVM to produce an absurd 1100bhp. Absurd when you consider the application.

There's also a new exhaust, bigger, beefier brakes and wheels, custom built front and rear bumpers, bespoke R35 bonnet vents and even a subtle ‘R' badge on the boot, amongst many, many other mods. Inside it's all GT-R too (because of that floorplan), though the Qashqai's dash has been modified to accommodate the R35's various gauges and instruments.

All in, the engineering took ten months and many swear words to get it into the shape you see before you. And it's quite some shape: 0-62mph takes 2.7 seconds (quicker than a P1), 0-124mph takes just 7.5 seconds (0.3s off a Porsche 918 Spyder), and it'll cover a quarter mile in just 9.9 seconds at 144mph. That's mad. Actually, certifiably mad.

Top speed? Somewhere not far north of 200mph. Kevan Kemp, SVM founder and boss, said: "Nissan built a special Juke and it was getting a lot of attention so we thought we'd do something similar with the next model up.

"We wanted to build a Qashqai supercar and we have," he added. "It can be driven to the shops or it can be driven on a dragstrip against the world's most exotic vehicles. It looks like a standard Qashqai but goes like a supercar. We're really happy with the result."

Top Gear is happy things like this exist in the world. Though if you think it was a cheap fix, think again: the whole project cost £275,000. Ouch.

Pics via SWNS.com