The term
shooting brake is used variously to describe any number of body styles; typically combining
coupé and
station wagon elements. Descriptions of the body style associated with the term include: • "A sleek wagon with two doors and sports-car panache, its image entangled with European aristocracy, fox hunts, and baying hounds". • "A cross between an estate and a coupé". • "Essentially a two-door station wagon". • An interchangeable term for estate car (station wagon). • "The shooting brake, however, is a luxury coupe with a squared-off back." The 1912
Hudson Model 33 was described in England as a shooting brake, on the basis that "it was also used to carry the
beaters to and from the location of the shoot, and for bringing back the game shot". Early motorized safari vehicles were described as shooting brakes with no windows or doors. One such description read: "Instead roll-down canvas curtains were buttoned to the roof in the case of bad weather. These cars were heavy and comfortable in good weather and allowed quick and silent exit as no shooting was permitted from the vehicles." During the 1920s and 1930s, shooting brake vehicles were popular in England and were produced as shooting brakes from the factory or converted by coachbuilders. The term "estate car" began to be used instead of shooting brake, as the use of the vehicle expanded from just shooting parties to other domestic uses including ferrying guests and their luggage to and from railway stations.
1960s to 1990s During the 1960s and early 1970s, several high-end European manufacturers produced two-door shooting brake versions of their sports cars, including the 1960
Sunbeam Alpine Shooting Brake and 1966
Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake. The 1966 Sunbeam Alpine was a limited-production three-door variant of its two-door open sports car with leather interior and walnut trim, selling at a price double its open counterpart and marketed as a shooting brake. The
Aston Martin DB5,
DB6, and
DBS shooting brakes were custom manufactured by coachbuilder
Harold Radford from 1965 until 1967. A prototype DB5 shooting-brake was custom produced by the factory for
David Brown, an avid hunter and dog owner, and a further 11–12 coupés were custom modified for Aston Martin by independent
coachbuilder Harold Radford. In August 2019 a DB5 sold for a record $1.765m (£1.456m), making it the most valuable Shooting Brake bodied-car of any marque sold at auction. In 1992, Aston Martin manufactured in-house a limited production shooting brake variant of its
Virage/Vantage, including a four-door shooting brake. Other cars combining elements of a wagon and coupé have been described but were never formally marketed as shooting brakes, including the
Reliant Scimitar GTE (1968–1975), the
Volvo P1800 ES (1972–1973), and
the later 480 (1986–1995) – marketed as a coupé, and with a sporty, low nose featuring pop-up headlights, but with a distinctly estate-like rear body. The 1998
BMW Z3 Coupé (plus associated M Coupé model) is also typically referred to as a shooting brake. File:1961 Ferrari 250GT SWB Breadvan.jpg|
Ferrari 250 GT SWB "Breadvan" (1961) File:Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake.jpg|
Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake (1965–1971) File:Reliant Scimitar GTE SE5A 2994cc 1972.JPG|
Reliant Scimitar GTE (1968–1975) File:Spaeter-480.jpg|
Volvo 480 (1986–1995) File:BMW Z3 Coupé (E36.8).jpg|
BMW Z3 Coupé (1998-2002) File:1988 Honda Accord Aerodeck 2.0 EX (15243647990).jpg|
Honda Accord Aerodeck (1986-1989)
2000s to present Mostly dormant since the mid-1970s, the shooting brake term was used in 2004 to describe the
Chevrolet Nomad concept car. 2006
Renault Altica concept car, 2008
Mini Clubman, 2011
Fisker Surf concept car, and the 2011
Ferrari FF. The first production model of the 21st century marketed as a shooting brake was the 2012
Mercedes Benz CLS-Class Shooting Brake (X218), which was previewed as the Shooting Brake concept car at
Auto China. This model has four passenger doors, which is at odds with some definitions of a shooting brake as having two doors. In 2015, Mercedes-Benz added the smaller
CLA-Class four-door shooting brake to the model range. The 2018
Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo, along with the
Volkswagen Arteon despite the Arteon having five doors, are both described by their manufacturer as shooting brakes. The trend is to associate the shooting brake body style with "performance" while being "more practical" than a coupé. The marketing descriptions have been further blurred between variations of the terms with names such as sports tourer or sportback as a way to differentiate from SUVs and reposition ordinary body styles. BMW unveiled the
Concept Touring Coupé based on the Z4 at the
Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este in 2023. File:Audi Shooting Brake.jpg|2005 Audi Shooting Brake Concept File:Mercedes.Benz CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake (8083845395).jpg|
Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG (2012), a five-door station wagon that the manufacturer dubbed shooting brake File:Ferrari GTC4Lusso IMG 4354.jpg|
Ferrari GTC4Lusso File:Aston Martin Bertone Jet 2+2 Shooting Brake (2014) (19649403798) (cropped).jpg|
Aston Martin Rapide Bertone Jet 2+2 File:Volkswagen Arteon R Shooting Brake Auto Zuerich 2021 IMG 0206.jpg|
Volkswagen Arteon File:2019 Kia Proceed GT ISG S-A 1.6 Rear.jpg|
Kia Proceed == See also ==