Shooting-brake (alternatively:shooting break[2]: 20, 146 ) is a term describing acar body style which originated in the 1890s as ahorse-drawn wagon for transporting shooting parties along with their equipment andgame.[3] The vehicles themselves were manufactured in the early 1900s in the United Kingdom by vehicle manufacturers or coachbuilders.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a "brake" (or "break") was a heavy, open carriage with a high driver's seat, used for training or "breaking" young horses. The termshooting break gave rise to the French termbreak de chasse, again referring to a type of wagon used for hunting.
After the originalshooting brake body style became mostly obsolete, that is, the carriage for hunters and their gear, the term itself was used with a succession of other body styles.
In England, during the 1920s and 1930s, the termshooting brake became interchangable withestate car (i.e., station wagon). In British English, the term gradually fell out of use,[4][5][6][7][8] though in French the termbreak became synonymous with the station wagon body style.
Since the 1960s, a definition for termshooting brake has remained open to interpretation. It began being used to describe a sporty combination ofstation wagon and two-doorcoupé body styles – [9] – i.e., a more practical variant of a less practical body style. During the 1960s and early 1970s, several high-end European manufacturers began using the termshooting brake to describe a sporty, two-door, wagon-like body style. Following a hiatus from the mid 1970s until the early 2010s, the termshooting-brake entered a resurgence.
A horse-drawn shooting brake was a variation of thebreak (also spelledbrake). Originally built as a simple but heavy frame for breaking in young horses todrive, over time it became a gentleman-driven vehicle and was popular forshooting parties. Taking the design from the rear-loading horse-drawn sporting vehicle, the body style became known as the "shooting brake".[10][7][2]
The termshooting brake is used variously to describe any number of body styles; typically combiningcoupé andstation wagon elements.[11][12][13] 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".[9]
An interchangeable term for estate car (station wagon).[6][5][7][16][4] In France, a station wagon is marketed as abreak, once having been called abreak de chasse, which translates as "hunting break".[17]
"The shooting brake, however, is a luxury coupe with a squared-off back."[9]
A vehicle "conceived to take gentlemen on the hunt with their firearms and dogs. While the name has been loosely applied to station wagons in general, the most famous shooting brakes had custom two-door bodies fitted to the chassis of pedigreed cars".[9]
In the early 1900s, the ScottishAlbion Motors began producing shooting brake models, described in the weekly magazineThe Commercial Motor 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."[18] The 1912Hudson Model 33 was described in England as a shooting brake, on the basis that "it was also used to carry thebeaters to and from the location of the shoot, and for bringing back the game shot".[19]
Early[when?] 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."[20] 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.[8]
During the 1960s and early 1970s, several high-end European manufacturers produced two-door shooting brake versions of their sports cars, including the 1960Sunbeam Alpine Shooting Brake and 1965Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake.[9][21][22] 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.[23][24][25] TheAston Martin DB5,DB6, andDBS shooting brakes were custom manufactured by coachbuilderHarold Radford from 1965 until 1967.[26]
A prototype DB5 shooting-brake was custom produced by the factory forDavid Brown, an avid hunter and dog owner, and a further 11–12 coupés were custom modified for Aston Martin by independentcoachbuilderHarold Radford.[27][28] In August 2019 a DB5 sold for a record $1.765m (£1.456m),[29] 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 itsVirage/Vantage, including a four-door shooting brake.[30]
Other cars combining elements of a wagon and coupé have been described but were never formally marketed as shooting brakes, including theReliant Scimitar GTE (1968–1975),[31][32][33] theVolvo P1800 ES (1972–1973),[34][35][36] andthe 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.[37] The 1998BMW Z3 Coupé (plus associated M Coupé model) is also typically referred to as a shooting brake.[38][39][40][41]
Mostly dormant since the mid-1970s, the shooting brake term was used in 2004 to describe theChevrolet Nomad concept car.[9] The following year, theAudi Shooting Brake concept car debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show. Several other cars have been described by journalists as shooting brakes, including 2005Dodge Magnum Station Wagon,[42][43][44] 2006Renault Altica concept car,[45] 2008Mini Clubman,[46] 2011Fisker Surf concept car,[47] and the 2011Ferrari FF.[48][49] The first production model of the 21st century marketed as a shooting brake was the 2012Mercedes Benz CLS-Class Shooting Brake (X218),[50][51] which was previewed as the Shooting Brake concept car atAuto China.[52][53] 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 smallerCLA-Class four-door shooting brake to the model range.[54][55][56][57]
The 2018Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo[58] and theVolkswagen Arteon, despite having five doors,[59] are both described by their manufacturers as shooting brakes, as is the Chinese-made electricZeekr 001. The modern trend is to associate the shooting brake body style with high performance.[60]
2005 Audi Shooting Brake Concept
Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG (2012), a five-door station wagon that the manufacturer dubbed shooting brake
^abAutomobile quarterly, vol. 22, Princeton Institute for Historic Research, 1984, p. 1931,If milord had it in mind to do a bit of hunting, he and his guns would then be transported to the shooting site in a "brake" (the English term originally applied to horse-drawn wagons). Being somewhat logical, the British determined that if a brake was used for shooting purposes it might well be named "shooting brake." However, the term fell into common parlance and eventually became a generic label...
^abHartford, Bill (February 1969)."Sizing up the 1969 Station Wagons".Popular Mechanics. Vol. 131, no. 2. p. 104. Retrieved5 December 2023 – via Google Books.
^Terry, Christopher William (1914).Motor Body-building in all its Branches. London: E. & F.N. Spon. p. 6.16. Wagonettes. — This type of body should have longitudinal seats placed vis-a-vis in the main portion of the body and usually with a hind entrance, although some varieties have side doors as well. A shooting brake is a wagonette provided with game and gun racks, and accommodation for ammunition. A luggage brake, or estate wagon, is often a wagonette with the long seats made to fold flat against the side of the body and the hind entrance provided with double doors.
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