It goes without saying, the safari-style sports car is so hot right now. While independent builders have been lifting Porsche 911s for ages, we’ve recently seen dirt-slinging coupes from the likes of Porsche and Lamborghini, and everyone’s taken notice. After all, sports car agility with crazy high-performance all-terrain tires and raised ride heights capable of shrugging off decaying North American infrastructure open more doors to enjoyment. While the Nissan Safari Rally Z Tribute isn’t a car you can buy, it lays a great blueprint for those craving a Safari 911 on a more reasonable budget.
Yes, the Nissan Safari Rally Z Tribute is a show car, specifically one meat for exhibition at the annual SEMA show of aftermarket wizardry. To build this centerpiece for Nissan’s stand, the Japanese automaker contracted Tommy Pike Customs, the same North Carolinian company that put a Leaf powertrain in a Nissan Sunny pickup truck for last year’s SEMA show. However, while that truck got low, this Z goes high and pays tribute to a rallying legend in the process.
In the beginning, there was the 1971 Datsun 240Z rally car, which won the 1971 East African Safari Rally in the hands of Edgar Hermann and Hans Schuller. This little rally-prepped coupe leaped past Ford Escorts, Porsches, and even a Pontiac GTO to claim victory over 3,100 miles of grueling terrain. Even crazier? A similarly-prepped 240Z driven by Shekar Mehta and Mike Doughty placed second overall, securing glory for Nissan’s sports car. These days, the winning car enjoys semi-retirement in Nissan’s collection, and with the new Z borrowing a few styling cues from the original, it feels like the perfect time to recreate that rally look.
This show-ready Z gets a two-inch lift in ground clearance partially thanks to one-off KW coilovers and some NISMO suspension arms to correct for geometry changes. Remember, the Z uses double wishbones up front and a multi-link setup out back, both of which gain camber under compression and lose camber under extension. Raising the ride height may cause positive camber, so the NISMO arms fix that.
The Z can already accommodate a ton of tire in stock form, and a little extra ride height allows this Safari Rally Z Tribute concept to run 225/65R17 Yokohama Geolandar M/T G003 tires some 1.8 inches larger in diameter than the factory spec. While these new meats certainly seem narrow, the original Infiniti G35 sedan, which ran on the same platform as the current Z, came with 215/55R17 tires, and these Geolandars certainly have the load rating to keep Nissan’s retro coupe stable. Of course, these new tires won’t fit the factory wheels, so NISMO made a set of special throwback wheels exclusively for this project. In addition, the Akebono calipers found on the Performance trim Z aren’t known for clearing 17-inch wheels, so this Safari car rocks a custom brake setup.
Aside from the radical suspension setup, modifications for this Safari-style Nissan Z are remarkably light. In the power department, it gets an AMS tune, a NISMO cold air intake kit, a NISMO cat-back exhaust, and an upgraded heat exchanger. Sure, there’s also a twin-disc clutch on deck, but aside from that, we’re talking basic powertrain bolt-ons.
A wicked set of Recaro Pole Position seats amp up the retro vibes, although the four-point harnesses looped through the seats are a bit sketchy from a safety standpoint, due to the possibility of submarining under the harness and ending up with abdominal injuries. I’m just saying, the Sports Car Club of America time trial safety rules state that “All drivers shall utilize either a 5-, 6- or 7-point restraint harness” for a reason. I’m also not onboard with having a harness bar without a proper roll bar, but this is a SEMA car, not a competition vehicle.
Remember, the Nissan Safari Rally Z Tribute is all about retro good looks, and it has those in spades. From the satin black hood to the bevy of round LED driving lights, this thing looks the business. You just can’t help but want to rip it around a dry lake bed, or fire it down the nearest unmaintained forest road.
There’s every chance the safari treatment just makes the Nissan Z better, so let’s hope that aftermarket companies take notice. Safari cars have understandably limited to extremely high-margin, low-volume cars like the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato. The Safari Rally Z Tribute asks: Does it have to be that way?
The answer should be “no.”
(Photo credits: Nissan)
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I know that this is a SEMA build and not a serious rally build but those mud terrains are a really stupid choice for this car.
Yeah sure it looks cool but each of those Geolander M/Ts weigh up to *10 pounds* more than the Advan Sports that the Z Sport comes with from the factory, as well as only having a 99 mph Q speed rating. Driving this would feel like ass.
Falken, Nitto, and Yokohama themselves all have mild crossover all terrain tires that weigh the same if not less than the factory tires do and have a higher speed rating to top it off, meaning you can have that rally look that you want while still maintaining most of the sporty handling that Z was designed to have.
Unsprung weight matters. /end rant
I’m solidly a fan of safari all of the things. Sure it is a compromise on road. But every vehicle is a compromise in some respect. Most Z’s will never hit the track or the trail, so why not offer both flavors for people to drool over. We’ve got to have some fun before we all return to the dirt that this car aspires to kick up.
I can attest that the Nissan FM platform can swallow huge tires. I put 225/65/R17 snow tires on the stock G35x rims without any modifications and 235/75/R15 ATX tires with only slight fender mods. My personal opinion is that ALL cars should have a safari option given that state of our infrastructure.
I dig it. I finally saw a new Z in person a couple months ago, and I really liked it. I’d love to bomb around in the snow in one of these. I’ve been driving 2wd trucks through Chicago winters for 22 years now, so I’m fine with a RWD car on good tires too.
My thoughts too. This looks good, and like it could be a lot of fun.
I suppose with the current craze of Jeepish type vehicles, AWD sports machines with no aero bumpers and tall sidewall rubber would do quite nicely. If it means we can keep a Corvette or Challenger around in Manual trans low to the ground versions by selling to the mall crawler crowd, then I suppose ok. but honestly with the Urus and Cayene and various other SUV’s from these marks, you kind of have to wonder how many people would actually go to 2 doors, no back seats and high sticker price?
Exactly. But I don’t know the “take rate” of Z buyers who would spring for the extra costs involved, except for those with a shit ton of money.
Probably too low to justify the expense of production.
Contrarian hot-take: Cool concept, looks cool at cars and coffee, stupid as a production car. As cool as these are I don’t get who actually buys or builds these “safari” cars? Is it all folks in the desert southwest where there seems to be a fair amount of smooth-ish dirt roads and trails? I DD a Porsche Cayenne (essentially a safari build lol) and I get into the mountains a fair amount with it and rarely do I come across a dirt road that is actually fun to rally on. I love WRC and rally cars and if you actually have spots to hoon your car on dirt it’s a ton of fun-but honestly where do you actually drive your safari build?
Actually I think that safarying sports- and supercars could be improvement when driving in snowy conditions especially if lift makes possible to have proper snow tires, but I doubt many safari’d 911s ever see snow.
Interesting point on the tires, initially I was going to say I still dont’ see it, having DD’ed a lowered e30 through several Montana winters but you’re right a lot of the modern performance cars literally don’t have snow tires made in their size. My brother ran into this with his Audi RS3.
In the foothills of Appalachia, I play on Forest Service and fire roads. Not Safari builds, but I’d run the stock suspension adjustment in my 80s Subaru 4wd wagons all the way up & put WinterForce snow tires on to cosplay as a WRC driver.
Sounds super fun! Me and a buddy bought a rolled ’85 Subaru GL back in college to try to turn into a rally car on the Montana back roads but it was just too slow and the roads too wide open-I imagine it’s more fun out east. Maybe my opinion is skewed, in Montana and now Washington all the fire roads are either too well maintained i.e. travelled or they’re rocky disasters that is more appropriate for crawling in a jeep than rallying, I imagine Appalachia has more smooth dirt that is more fun to drift around on?
Yeah, the EA81s & -2s weren’t speed machines by any stretch of the imagination! Fire roads here have been degrading as budgets get cut: a great one off the Blue Ridge Parkway we used to take a 80(?) 280ZX up in the mid & late 80s is now a bit rough in my Bugeye WRX even with taller snow tires. I spend a fair amount of time on Google Maps looking for candidates, then just go check them out. I play at relatively low speeds—and always mindful there could be a hunter of hiker around that next bend. Helps keep me from being a menace on paved roadways
Personally I’m over safari builds. They’re just a compromise, rarely go offroad and are still really limited there, and a massive drawback everywhere else.
I would imagine they wouldn’t put this into production purely for warranty issues. Think of how most Nissan owners drive. Now give them something that looks like this and I guarantee there would be a ton of warranty claims as nissan owners will think it’s an actual rally car.
Agreed, looks cool but they’re pointless to actually own. I don’t know where anyone realistically finds the right kind of dirt roads to regularly rally these things. Could be where I’ve lived IDK but most forest service roads are too rough and rocky and the smooth ones usually have too many other people driving on them to be doing wild powerslides. Maybe in CA and AZ where there’s a lot of desert trails and OHV areas?
You can drive the Forzberg 370z in Forza Horizon 5:
https://youtu.be/Yb-hcRGE9NM?si=mCXMkGXknakPjKxL
Almost as fun as the real thing!
Without the hood mounted lights, that’d look pretty awesome tbh.
Man, seeing the original next to Chunk-o-saurus Rex makes me sad.
I’m all for cars having more ground clearance.
I’m sorry, but I don’t find this any wild nor I can see single spade of retro good looks. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but I guess it has to do something how the lift highlights the bulkiness of the lower part of the body (compare that to the airiness and flow of the 240Z’s body in similar area) and also tire – wheel well fitting doesn’t seem right even if I’m really not into any over the top stance stuff. Also this is just such a lame and boring execution now when all the safari stuff is basically old news.
I actually like the looks of the basic 400Z and of course the 240Z, so not any hater mentality here.
At first sight, I thought this was gonna be a Forsberg built Nissan, just like his 370z safari tribute