by Wallace Wyss –
First of all, what is a shooting brake? I have my own theory of how the phrase originated. When m’Lord would decide some morning to go off into the hinterlands of his vast landed estate and shoot grouse or pheasants or whatnot, he took a vehicle, in the pre-car days a wagon, a brake. Then one day some Lord thought to add some excitement to his drive and had his Aston Martin converted to a wagon. Thus began the modern shooting brake.
Of course, Wikipedia nails it, to whit:
(A) Shooting brake is a car body style which originated in the 1890s as a horse-drawn wagon used to transport shooting parties with their equipment and game. The first automotive shooting brakes were manufactured in the early 1900s in the United Kingdom. The vehicle style became popular in England during the 1920s and 1930s. They were produced by vehicle manufacturers or as conversions by coach builders. The term was used in Britain interchangeably with estate car from the 1930s but has not been in general use for many years and has been more or less superseded by the latter term.
The term has evolved to describe cars combining elements of both station wagon and coupé body styles, with or without reference to the historical usage for shooting parties.
One of the most memorable, on chassis 15275, is the one-off Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona shooting brake that Gooding & Co tried to sell in 2016 at Monterey at their auction but bidding failed to meet the reserve. That car originated when Florida architect and real estate developer Bob Gittleman approached Philadelphia dealer Chinetti Motors (a firm founded by America’s first Ferrari dealer, Luigi Chinetti) in the early 1970s. He was interested in the Daytona they had for sale, but wanted a shooting brake. Dealership owner Luigi “Coco” Chinetti Jr. was a designer and won a commission to design him one out of the Daytona.
British coach builder Panther Westwinds, whose work was so high quality Rolls Royce allowed them to build bespoke Rolls, built the car. It was said to be so modified that only the windshield surround and A-pillars were left untouched.
In front, the nose cone was subtly elongated and a rectangular grille with horizontal bars put below the bumper. An unusual full-width reflector is added above the bumper, too. At the rear, though, is where it got really creative.
With an extended roof and tailgate in the form of a chopped ‘Kamm’ effect tail with a fixed glass panel. The rear glass didn’t lift up–you loaded your Purdy shotguns from either side through huge, curved, glass panels on both sides that lift up gullwing-style.
The interior was totally re-done, trimmed with wood veneers and featuring all the gauges moved to a center console. Gittlemann sold the car in the 1980s, and it went from one dealer to another. I found evidence t was promoted at a Gooding auction but failed to sell. Their estimate was $750,000 to $1 million. At the time that was the going rate for a box-stock Daytona.
So why wouldn’t a handbuilt one fetch more? Maybe it’s an acquired taste. After all not many Lords hunting grouse from shooting brakes these days…
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss, a fine artist, says he’ll do a painting of a Ferrari shooting brake but can’t decide between the Daytona or the new one designed by Niels van Roij Design which has only been seen in preliminary drawings.
Correction: the car shown is the original 1974 Ferrari 365 GTB 4 Daytona Shooting Brake, converted by Panther Westwinds. Designer Niels van Roij is currently building a tribute to this car, named the ‘Daytona Shooting Brake Hommage’ based on the Ferrari 599 (see https://nielsvanroij.com/portfolio/daytona-shooting-brake-hommage/).
Thank you, the correction has been made.
See https://www.coachbuild.com/2/index.php/about-coachbuilding/the-shooting-brakes-archive for the Shooting Brakes Archive!
As is sometimes the case, the end result isnt always reflective of the original concept or drawings.
I was an automotive designer and can attest to how often design changes were made that didnt always enhance the styling…..but thats another story for another day
Luigi Chinetti Jr and I have had a number of conversations about this car. I have also seen the original sketches and renderings. Sadly, this car received a number of “changes” that are not reflective of the original design. What was delivered, and what was expected were not the same .
Hi Randy, that is interesting info… Would the original drawings be available? It would be wonderful to understand better what the original idea has been!
Randy,
I would love to see the original sketches and renderings and read your comments about the differences – send them in if you can!
michael.gulett@gmail.com
I prefer the American perfected genre of station wagon, I say no to small, cooped up, acute angled Euro green house designs that have to be treated with kid gloves. I have to have a ‘shooting brake because some old english guy went hunting once? Poosha. Give me the quattroporte with a nomad’s roof and all the built in strength and useable interior room of a late 50s American wagon but fine Italian lines.
I love this – can you share more information?
After complaints at a social media car fan site about my ‘photoshopping’ on my car photos, I think the pictures were fooling some guys that don’t read captions and thought I was making fun of them or something, complaints that they aren’t real cars, etc,. I was banned there so I started posting wagon shots at another social media station wagon fan site where I was suddenly banned, blocked, erased with no notice or reason. I guess because some guys complained about posts of exotic cars and muscle cars that I was putting station wagon roofs on. I would also post real wagon shots of mine. The rules of the page said nothing about posting art like mine but it doesn’t bother me, guys that ‘get it’ got to see my designs and techniques, I do understand that real designers use much more sophisticated software but mine can show many variations very fast. I created a RR Wraith wagon before I saw that they had a few that were actually made. Mine has a Jeep roof that doesn’t taper as much. The link to the latest youtube movie is her as well as a still of my version. A Rolls Royce fan site let me join but didn’t let me post this video for some reason.
Oh, and still with the Ferrari’s V12.
Readers might get a kick out of the fact the villain/heroine of Cruella drives (or rides in) a car designed and built by Panther, the Deville, sort of a scaled down Bugatti Royale clone. They made at least a dozen.