Nissan is taunting us with this rally-spec Juke concept

This is the Nissan Juke Rally Tribute Concept, and the petition to turn it from render to reality starts here…

What a fantastic looking thing this is. Turns out the Juke suits knobbly tyres, lightbars and spotlights – although then again, what car doesn’t?

The renders have been knocked up by Nissan to commemorate 50 years since the glorious 240Z took victory in the East Africa Rally, and they’ve been released today to coincide with the first day of Safari Rally Kenya, which is back on the WRC calendar after 19 years away. Wonderful stuff. 

The Rally Tribute Concept gets an almost exact replica of the 240Z’s livery, as well as chunky wheelarches and two spare wheels poking out of the non-existent rear window. Nissan also says it’d get a hybrid powertrain (if it were real), which is slightly disappointing when you realise the 240Z that Edgar Herrmann drove back in 1971 deployed a 2.4-litre straight-six that sent its power to the rear wheels alone.

Still, we wouldn’t be complaining if Nissan decided to build one or two real-life examples of the Juke Rally Tribute. It does have previous with madcap Jukes, of course, having built a number of GT-R-engined crossovers in the past few decades.

Let’s make this happen, folks.