Take a moment to click through the images above. A Baja racer with the blue and gold livery of Subaru’s classic Impreza rally cars? Yep, we can pretty much guarantee that this is the coolest thing you’ll see today.

Its full title is the Subaru Crosstrek Desert Racer – not to be confused with the Crosstrek SUV that’s sold in the US of course. This is a joint project between Subaru Motorsports USA, Crawford Performance and Grabowski Brothers Racing. However, the comet cluster isn’t the only Subaru icon that has been deployed.

That’s right. This thing is running a 2.5-litre naturally-aspirated boxer engine that kicks out 300bhp – a substantial amount given that the Desert Crosstrek presumably weighs about as much as a shoe.

Check out that suspension setup too. It looks like an angry spider.

In its old livery the Crosstrek took a Class 5 Unlimited win at the 550-mile Vegas to Reno off-road race, as well as a second-place finish at the Baja 500. Surely those colours are worth an extra few seconds though right?

We’ll find out this season when Subaru takes it to both the Baja 500 and 1000. For now, just carry on ogling…