What Is A Shooting Brake? – A Shooting-brake, or Shooting Break, is a car body style with a squared-off rear. They generally have a rear tailgate or a hatchback although one or a pair of side-hinged doors is also sometimes seen.
Origins of the name Shooting Brake
A “shooting brake” is a term for a vehicle style which oriented in the 18th Century for a vehicle to carry shooting parties and their equipment and game.
In the early 19th century, a brake was a large carriage-frame with no body, used for breaking in young horses. By the late 19th century the meaning had been extended to a large wagon designed for country use.
A “shooting brake” carried a driver and gamekeeper facing forward and up to six sportsmen on longitudinal benches with their dogs, guns and game carried alongside in slat-sided racks.
In the 1960s and 1970s motorized Shooting Breaks were popular in Great Britain, these crossover vehicles combined the luxuriousness of a coupe with extended space and additional variability.
Examples of shooting brakes
Reliant Scimitar GTE
Volvo 480
Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake
1967 Aston Martin DB6 Shooting Brake
Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Shooting Brake
Aston Martin Virage Shooting Brake
