Shooting Brakes are excellent: here's why

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Published on Monday, 18 December 2017 13:17

New Tesla conversion has reminded us how much we like shooting brakes

 

A company called RemetzCar is working on a Tesla Model S Shooting Brake (pictured above), and it looks very, very promising. More so, it has reminded us just how much we like shooting brakes, which are nearly as old as the car itself (though they’ve changed a bit since their inception in the early twentieth century). Originally conceived for hunting game, shooting brakes were described by Commercial Motor magazine as having “seats for eight persons as well as the driver, whilst four guns and a large supply of cartridges, provisions baskets and a good ‘bag’ can be carried” in 1908.

Nowadays, they’ve morphed into a sort of cross between an estate and a coupe. Sports car panache. Estate car space. And, more often than not, a soupcon of knee-trembling suave.

Here are some of our favourites…

 

1972 Volvo 1800ES

The all-glass rear hatch earned it the nickname Schneewittchensarg (Snow White’s coffin) in Germany, but that didn’t stop Volvo using the outline as inspiration for the 480 and C30.

Only 8,077 were built, and while it lacked the table-rattling hotness of the coupe, around 50 examples remain on Britain’s roads.

 

1968 Reliant Scimitar

Hey, did you know Princess Anne had one? Probably. But then again, who didn’t have one?

The Scimitar’s production run stretched from 1968 to 1990.

 

1999 BMW Z3M Coupe

Is it a Shooting Brake? Possibly, though a small one.

It remains one of the better driving things in the history of the automobile, and the divisive styling’s matured well. We’ll take two.

 

2011 Ferrari FF

Yep, it’s the GTC4Lusso’s forebear, complete with less clunky (though less history-inspired) name.

Basics? 6.3-litre V12, mad grinning face, Ferrari’s first ever four-wheel drive system, and up to 800 litres of luggage space.

 

2011 Fisker Surf

Ill-fated luxo plug-in hybrid carmaker, Fisker, brought this variant of the Karma to Frankfurt in 2011.

It was only 35kg heavier than the base car, but with 821 litres of boot space, had 620 litres more than the saloon.

 

2013 Mercedes CLS63 Shooting Brake

The boot floor is made from trees, the seats are made from cows, and under the bonnet there is a 557bhp lump of very clever German metal.

OK, so it has four doors, which sort of disqualifies it from Shooting Brake status, but we don’t care. Just look at it. LOOK AT IT.

 

2013 Jaguar XF Sport Brake

Another four-door, but this one’s got a big-cat badge and a whole new name.

Jag calls it the Sportbrake, and we rather like it. But a luxe Brit estate without a coupe-ish roofline? Who wouldn’t.

 

1992 Aston Martin Virage Shooting Brake

A mess of older Astons were transformed into shooting brakes by bodyfiller sculptors in the sixties, but this one’s the real deal.

Only four were made by the company’s Works Service and it cost £165,000 back in 1992. Equivalent to £290,000 in today’s money. Crikey.

 

2005 Audi Shooting Brake concept

Unveiled at the 2005 Tokyo motor show, this design study was based on the second-gen TT and had a 3.2-litre VR6 engine hiding behind the LEDs.

It didn’t make it to production, but as Audi’s range expands to fill every conceivable niche, it’s surely only a matter of time…

 

2013 Callaway AeroWagon

It costs £9,100 on top of a new Corvette, it doesn’t hold much more stuff, you don’t get more seats or headroom, and there’s no performance benefit.

But hot diggidy, we still want a poor man’s FF quite a lot.

 

1972 Ferrari 365 GTB 4 Shooting Brake

The thing about Ferraris these days is they’re far too common; any old millionaire can have one. Far better, then, to go for something like this – a one-off 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB 4 Shooting brake, one of the most outrageous ‘brakes ever built. Starting life as the 805th Daytona off the line, it was fully rebodied by Panther Westwards in Surrey, England and has more than whiff of hearse about it.

But who cares about looking like the world’s fastest funeral carriage when you have a 352bhp 4.4-litre V12 to wring out, and enough boot space to move house?

 

2016 Toyota GT86 Shooting Brake

Oh yes. As if Toyota’s wee rear-wheel-drive coupe wasn’t fun and funky enough, an Australian design team (hence the backdrop) has stretched it out a little, improving the rear space and practicality while also making us swoon a little bit.

“It is a fully functioning, driveable vehicle that has been put through its paces on Toyota test tracks,” explains Tetsuya Tada, GT86 chief engineer. “The GT86’s nicely weighted and direct steering ensures the car retains the coupe’s involving driving experience with a slightly more neutral feel in tight corners.”

 

2016 Ferrari GTC4Lusso

Yep, the same shape as the old FF. But lots is new. The styling has had a big update while there’s a gamut of new tech, including four-wheel steering, plus an additional 30bhp, and a 208mph top speed. Yikes.

New too is the V8 Lusso T, which does without all-wheel drive and has a turbo’d V8 instead of the big V12. It’s barely any slower and looks exactly the same, but promises to be a fair bit cheaper… Click here to read our review of the V12, and here for more information on the new V8.

 

STORY TopGear.com