- Nissan has released illustrations of a Rally Tribute concept that turn the second-generation Juke into an off-road warrior.
- The livery matches the one found on the 1971 240Z piloted to victory by Edgar Herrmann at the East African Safari Rally.
- The concept features larger tires, wheel-arch extensions, two spare tires, redesigned bumpers, and plenty of auxiliary lighting—but it may never see actual production.
You probably remember the original Nissan Juke. Introduced back in 2010, it featured a polarizing yet trendsetting design, splitting the headlights in two with thin daytime running lights up top and the main units lower down on the fascia. It ended up looking like the face you make when you bite into something sour, and sales had tailed off by 2017. However, Europe received a second-generation Juke in 2019; Nissan straightened out the styling and turned it into a sharp little crossover. Now Nissan’s European branch has turned the wick up on the Juke to create an epic performance-oriented concept, the Juke Rally Tribute.
Nissan cooked up these wild images to commemorate the start of the Safari Rally Kenya, which is returning to the World Rally Championship schedule for the first time in 19 years. The Juke has been fully prepared to launch an attack down a rally stage, sporting beefy off-road tires under wide wheel-arch extensions. A light bar with rectangular LEDs is integrated into the roof rack, and Nissan also added circular lamps on the hood for that classic rally look. Other visual alterations include a brawnier skid plate, a redesigned rear bumper and exhaust, and two spare tires jutting out of the trunk where the rear windshield should be.
The Juke Rally Tribute pays homage to a 1971 240Z that won the East African Safari Rally that year thanks to driver Edgar Herrmann and navigator Hans Schüller. The Juke is adorned in an identical livery to that 240Z, from the huge number 11 to the retro Shell branding, and mirrors the 240Z’s black hood and wheels.
Since the concept only exists in illustration form, Nissan simply says that the Rally Tribute would feature a hybrid powertrain. For 2022, Nissan is bringing Europe a version of Qashqai crossover featuring the e-Power hybrid powertrain, which uses a 1.5-liter gas engine to charge the battery, which then powers the wheels through an electric motor. However, the combined power output of that setup is just 190 horsepower, so we’d hope the theoretical rally powertrain would gain some extra horses.
Unfortunately, the Rally Tribute will probably never see production, much less be built in the real world. Nissan did once construct the Juke-R, a limited-run version of the frumpy first generation propelled by the 545-hp turbocharged V-6 from the GT-R, so maybe there is still hope for the Rally Tribute. The Juke Rally Tribute was displayed alongside the rally-winning 240Z, which underwent a full restoration in 2013 and lives in Nissan’s heritage collection in Zama, Japan.
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Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
