More style than substance?
Shooting Brakes have a long story. Francisco Mota traces some of the most iconic and a few of the more obscure, following a trend set by model makers in recent times.
Three years ago, we published a story in Diecast Collector about scale models of shooting brakes. It featured most of what was available in diecast form at the time, plus a couple of handbuilts. We gathered the most obvious, and gorgeous, some of which were replicas of Aston Martin-based cars, as expected, but we also featured some obscure examples - Mercedes SL Pagoda and Ford Mustang were among the less known. It just went to show the depth of research some model makers put into their new releases.
Three years later, the 1/43 scale market for shooting brakes has escalated to the point where we felt we needed an update to see what is now available. The result is a collection of models big enough to ‘break’ this story in two halves (pun completely intended!). It seems some model makers finally noticed that many collectors have a soft spot for replicas of this unique kind of motor car, and set a new trend.
So, let’s start with a little bit of history on how the shooting brake concept appeared, and how it evolved until today. The name itself could have come from ‘break in horses’, which is what a carriage would do to the animal that pulled it. The origin of the concept comes from the early 19th century and describes a vehicle made to transport shooting parties with their equipment and game. At that time, people were looking at luxury appointed horse-pulled carriages, custombuilt by the best coachbuilders.
The concept transferred to automobiles and gained a further degree of exclusivity. Now, shooting brakes were based on the best and more luxurious sports coupes on sale, but kept on being transformed by specialised coachbuilders. This kind of exclusive and ultra-expensive type of car had the function of taking their owners, dogs and firearms to hunting parties. However, form was at least as important as function and shooting brakes became some of the most elegant, and exclusive, cars on the road – you
would be lucky to see one passing by you on the motorway, as production was always very limited.
Luxurious and expensive, shooting brakes quickly moved from the woods to the golf course parking lot. Instead of firearms, now they carried golf bags. This made them look even better, less of an estate and more of a coupé with a longer roof and tailgate. Donor cars were usually some of the prettiest coupés available and quickly a trend towards Aston Martin shooting brakes was born. Specialised coachbuilders would take an expensive creation from Newport Pagnell and cut-off the roof, rear wings, boot, and much more, replacing it with a stylised rear hatch.
The concept has never been out of fashion since inception. Car stylists came back to it with successive modern models featuring the typical side profile. Some were not called that way, but it does not take a trained eye to see where the inspiration came from. There are also a number of concept cars, from different eras, that brought the idea back to life, sometimes with a twist. Just look at what Audi has made of it in this article.
The limited production of shooting brakes continues at Aston Martin, with the cooperation of Zagato. However, brands, like Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and even Kia, have launched models they call shooting brakes. There’s always the discussion about what is a true version - a car based on a two door sports coupé is the classic definition. However, over the years, some five-door cars still deserve to be so-named, we’ll talk about some of those too. We’d better start and see what we found in the 1/43 scale model world.
ASTON MARTIN ALWAYS ON TOP
If a model maker decides to replicate a shooting brake, the chances are it will look into the many examples made from Aston Martin cars. German
How to include a rear door on the 1986 V8 Vantage without spending much time.
The 'razor edge' Lagonda front end was perfectly reproduced by Kess.
brand Schuco must have thought that much when it released a dark green resincast model reproducing the 1966 Aston Martin DB6 Vantage MKII Radford. The paint finish on the model is second to none, photo-etched window surrounds are perfectly positioned, as is the front grille. Wire wheels look like the real things and the interior is full of small details like the switchgear in the dash and realistic looking seats and luggage compartment. A beautiful model made with the utmost attention to detail. About the real car, the DB6 followed the DB5 as a basis for Harold Radford to build a shooting brake with four seats, keeping all the underpinnings and engine from the coupé. Even the vertical Kamm tail was retained. Only six were ever made in period.
Next to this true icon, we have a 1986 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Shooting Brake painted in red. Not a colour you would associate with the marque, but one that model maker Matrix found that really existed. This resincast looks as brutish as the donor car, with that large and low grille, crossed spoke wheel rims and bonnet air scoop.Viewed from the side, the model features excellent photo-etched chromed window surrounds, a delicate door mirror and a canvas sunroof in closed position. The rear of the car is not the best view, with that rectangular window and messy rear panel, but Matrix made it as it was. The real car was a unique derivative from what was known at the time as the first British supercar - Swiss company Roos Engineering converted it.
The next Aston Martin is probably the biggest model here. A ‘razor edge’ 1987 Lagonda in shooting brake form. Kess made a truly original resincast of this improbable car. This is one of those cases where the five-e-door body does not
keep it from joining the club, at least to our eyes. In the original limousine, chrome parts are almost totally absent, only the diminutive front grille and headlamps surrounds have a little chrome. However, this version has two long stripes along the sides, although the model’s decals are not very realistic. Window surrounds are painted satin black and there’s a fashionable rear-tilted roof aerial. The glass area is very low and long, when looked at in profile. Kess took good care of the extra windows, and of the closed design wheel rims too. A customer from Hong Kong commissioned this conversion with Aston Martin, but was directed to Roos Engineering, and it did a great job of it. The rear door included part of the roof, to make access easier to the boot, taking both tail lights with it.
We still have a further pair of Aston Martin shooting brakes to look at, both manufactured in the nineties. The 1993 Virage Lagonda Shooting Brake, also known as “Vacances” (holidays, in French) is another resin model made by Kess and another five door. Painted a lighter shade of metallic green, it looks truly elegant with perfectly integrated rear doors and a single extra side window. Front grille has a different shape from the donor car, wheels are twopiece five spoke aff airs and the rear panel is truly elegant. There’s even a radio aerial on the right rear wing. The real car was made in one or two units, there’s a debate about that, what’s certain is that it was made by Aston Martin itself, together with a 4-door sedan that Kess also modelled. This was a plan to bring back the Lagonda brand. One year before, Aston Martin had already shown a 3-door shooting brake with similar lines at the Geneva Motor Show. That was the very first time such a variant was made in-house.
'Woody' bodywork looks terrific on this Allard P2 Safari, modelled by Matrix.
Aston Martin followed those with the 1996 V8 Vantage Sportsman - two were made, commissioned by two Swiss brothers and featuring three doors and four seats. The roofline is not as elegant as the Virage, however the theme here was pure power, as seen by the wider tracks, bigger wheels and menacinglystyled front end. Spark reproduced this very special car with its usual attention to detail. Things like the wheel design, photo-etched black window surrounds, double exhaust pipes and tail lamps look just perfect, as do headlamps. Cabin features green racing seats and all the switchgear of the real car, plus a luxuriously appointed load area to the rear.
AUDI TT-BASED CONCEPT CARS
Audi never got to launch a shooting brake as a road car, but it flirted with the idea by way of two concept-cars, based on the TT coupe underpinnings. The first was the 2005 Audi TT Shooting Brake Concept, based on the second generation TT. The styling treatment was the usual lengthening of the roof, almost vertical trunk door and taller side windows. There were other differences to the stock TT, like a new front grille design and very big wheels. Look Smart made a resincast of this, sold by Audi dealers inside a nice gift box. Quality is very high, with fabulous ‘glass’, perfectly glued flush to the bodywork. The grille with vertical chromed fins looks like the real car, as do the RS wheel rims. The rear bumper has a very nice design and the conceptcar look roadworthy, except it was never built.
The second Audi is the 2014 Allroad Shooting Brake, presented at that year’s Detroit Motor Show, and later in Beijing. Based on the third generation TT coupé, this one took the idea one step further, marrying the shooting brake concept with Audi’s own off-road look. The car looked as ready to enter production as the previous effort, complete with dual-tone body colour, roof racks and complete interior. The C-pillar has a more conventional shape and looks even better. Look Smart also made a resin replica of this one, sold in the same fashion. It looks as expensive as the real car, with a perfect paint job, plus incredibly precise headlamps and roof racks. True, these two never saw the light of day as road cars, but deserve to be here, as examples made from sports coupes.
TWO THAT HIT THE ROAD
Allard was best known for sports cars, both open two-seaters and a few closed coupés, most of them featuring American V8 engines from Ford, GM
and Chrysler, mounted on a British ladder chassis, featuring a wood frame and aluminium body. The J2 Monte Carlo was one of those closed 2-door cars, probably one of the most handsome in the life of the company that lasted only from 1945 to 1958. In an attempt to broaden the offer, Allard launched the P2 Safari in 1953, a 2-door shooting brake, however only 13 were made.
Model maker Matrix, in its pursuit of launching models of lesser-known shooting brakes, released a magnificent replica of this unique Allard. It features a brilliant ‘woody’ body, over an excellent Old White paint job. Headlamps with chromed frames, a nice grille and details like diminutive door handles make this one of the best models in this collection.The cabin is perfectly reproduced, with seats for six passengers.
Not many carmakers have been brave enough to launch a true shooting brake in the last twenty years. BMW was one of those, even if they ‘forgot’ to use the name, in 2002, when the Z3 M Coupé hit the roads. This was the closed version of the first generation Z3 roadster, keeping the two-seat cabin and adding a much bigger boot under a fl at roof. Minichamps released both the M Power version and a lesser powerful version, we chose the former. The model replicates the first generation Z3’s cartoonish design very closely, with cab-rearwards proportions, wide wheel arches and five-pointed star rims. There’s even a glass sunroof that makes it easier to see inside the cabin to admire a nice reproduction of sport seats and steering wheel. Surely, one of the mostproduced shooting brakes.
FROM FRANCE, AND ITALY
Citroën’s SM is widely known as the pneumaticeverything 2-door coupé with the Maserati V6 engine. The car was produced when the French company owned Maserati, and that’s how the Italian motor saw its way into the engine compartment of this outlandishly-shaped Citroën. What not many might know is that a shooting brake version was also produced at the time. The 1972 Citroën SM “Break de Chasse” was a one-off effort from an undisclosed German company. Not much is known about this one, except what can be seen in Schuco’s
With the M3 engine and a design like this, BMW's Z3 M Coupé was a great car to drive, and practical too.
Replacing the rear hatch with a taller one was all that it took to convert the SM into a shooting brake.
Pro.R scale model. It looks like the conversion from coupé to shooting brake was made mainly by simply swapping the original glass fastback for a squarer one. This was designed in a way to follow the roofline and give the car the desired side view and some extra boot room. Schuco reproduced all this in its resincast model with an excellent paint finish. Chromed parts lack a little shine though. All the other details, like tail lamps, front headlamps, wheels and door mirror look realistic.
Much better known, for its numerous appearances in various ‘concours d’elegance’ around the globe, is the Ferrari 330 GT Shooting Brake. The donor car was a regular 330 GT 2+2 coupé, delivered in 1965 to USA importer Luigi Chinetti, who sold it and got it back from the owner two years later. Then, he commissioned a new body by Vignale coachbuilders. Vignale did the job and showed it at the 1968 Turin Motor Show, just before the car went back to Chinetti.Years later, that one-off shooting brake was owned by Jamiroquai’s lead singer and classic car collector, Jay Kay. The first colour scheme was green and gold, however, from 2017, the new owner decided on a full restoration and changed the colour to full gold. Matrix launched both versions, we chose the latter, maybe to hide the fussy design details.
This is not a car to the taste of everyone, of course, and Matrix did it no favours, modelling it as close as possible to the real thing. Just look at the hidden front headlamps, the pair of roof racks and the rear tail lamps. The voluminous central pillar with some extra-thin vents is particularly, erm, unique. A great job by Matrix though.
RACING SHOOTING BRAKES
We’re taking some liberties here as the following car was better known as the “bread van”. However, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Drogo that raced at the Le Mans 24 hours has the shape of a Shooting Brake, complete with a rear window, but no extra side glass. Of course, the shape was dictated by aerodynamics, an effort to get a better Cd figure, and raise the maximum speed along the big “Les Hunaudières” straight. The car left the Modena factory as a regular 250 GT SWB in 1961 and rallied in the French Tour Auto, finishing second overall with Olivier Gendebien at the wheel. Count Volpi bought the car from Gendebien and decided to change the body to a completely new concept for the following season. He commissioned Giotto Bizzarrini to convert the Ferrari and Piero Drogo, from Modena, did the job. The engine was moved back in the chassis to improve weight distribution, however, the car entered by Scuderia Serenissima and driven by Carlo Mario Abate and Colin Davis, did not finish Le Mans, due to transmission problems.
Look Smart launched a high-end model of this Le Mans entry with race number 16. As usual with this brand, the quality level is excellent. The unique shape and proportions are perfectly rendered, and
1 The shooting brake style was also raced at Le Mans. The 'T' car has its own story.
The V12 engine in the 250 GT Drogo can be seen through the bonnet's plastic cover. Can the MGB GT be considered a shooting brake?
paint is of the highest level, probably even better than the real car. And then, you can chase all the details you like, from Plexiglas-covered headlamps, to wire wheels, to window surrounds with rubber and chrome. The engine top can be seen through a plastic cover on the bonnet and the window wipers are featured in the windscreen and the rectangular rear window. There are grab handles both in the side doors and the rear hatch, and all the decals are in the correct place.
Fujimi, using the same set of resin parts, released the second version of the same car. It only added a pair of vertical bumpers at the rear and a frontal license plate to make it road legal, as count Volpi used it as a streetcar. Apparently, this is how the car was painted for some test, with the usual “T” in place of the race numbers, and a red bonnet with two black stripes, with the main colour black.
The real story is quite different and I quote Wallace Wyss from the “My Car Quest” website, where he tells the car’s full story: “The Count did quite a bit of entertaining on the French Riviera and among the playboys he ran with was Giovanni Agnelli, a Fiat heir and the living epitome of the word “playboy.” One night Agnelli had no car to go home in from the latest bacchanal so he was loaned the Breadvan. Once he had it at his house, someone remarked that it looked like a funeral hearse, so he told his butler to go out there with a bucket of paint and paint it black so it would look like a hearse. The butler did the back, roof and sides but ran out of paint so the front just had black stripes.Volpi was not amused.”
To end this first instalment, we leave you with some food for thought. MG launched the MGB GT in 1965, look at it from the side and you’ll see the proportions are a carbon-copy of some shooting brakes we’ve featured above. It is a closed version of a two-seater sports car, the roof is quite horizontal and there’s a capacious trunk at the rear with a generous hatch. It really ticks all the boxes to qualify, doesn’t it?
The model we have here to document the MGB GT is an old release by Dinky-Matchbox, finished in blue. It is quite an unpretentious scale model, but it looks like the real car and features some nice touches, like the chromed window surrounds, chromed headlamp frames, canvas sunroof and a simplified red interior. With a good set of wire wheels, this would still look good.
So that’s it for now - do not miss part two of this story in the next issue, when we’ll look at yet more gorgeous and obscure examples.