This is the Mini Beachcomber concept, due to be revealed at the Detroit show next month.
"The Mini Beachcomber Concept," says Mini, "projects the principle of the Mini Moke into the 21st century. The rustic (we like that) appearance of the car and its consistent concept of consciously reducing the body components and interior to a minimum clearly follow the tradition of the radically open Mini Moke back in the 1960s".
Unlike the rugged but determinedly two-wheel-drive 1964 Moke, the Beachcomber Concept is four-wheel drive. It's fitted with Mini's new ALL4 4x4 system, making it the first 'official' all-wheel-drive Mini since Alec Issigonis came up with a twin-engined Mini Moke prototype in 1963 called the Twini.
That is the first clue to the real purpose of the Beachcomber. When you take away the wacky colours and trims, remove the knobbly tyres, and add a set of conventional doors to the sides and a roof, what you come up with is the best clue yet to the Mini SUV that's due towards the end of 2010.
That car is likely to be called the Countryman, and will be significantly chunkier than the Clubman, but still a good deal smaller than the current crop of 'compact' SUVs. Think of it as somewhere between a Ford Fusion and a Ford Kuga in size and you're probably somewhere close
Getting back to the Beachcomber concept, Mini says that reinforced A-pillars and equally strong D-pillars mean that the doorless and largely roofless car's rollover safety "meets the highest demands made of an open car, the stable frame on the passenger cell able to withstand even extreme situations".
Even so, don't expect the production version of the Mini SUV to incorporate Beachcomber-style removable doors; the high costs involved in getting such a structure to pass stringent crash tests would almost certainly prohibit that.