[theslayer]

The Mercedes Benz Concept Fascination

Gone are the days when reading Overdrive and Autocar made you intelligent enough to distinguish cars as sedans, hatchbacks, estates and other categories of body styling they belong to. Car makers have been perpetually discovering niche segments to cater to. Soft roaders were the rage for some time, having limited off road capabilities and average joe 'stay on road' capabilities during cornering. No more can you be cocky when you try telling your friends that the car you just saw was a sedan, because just as the car turns into the corner you realize its arse is micro sized and hence its a notchback!

In such a chaotic scenario, Mercedes Benz showcased the Concept Fascination at the Paris Motor Show. Having posted a thread on another forum for the Fascination, then reading through other blogs, sites, news reports in magazines, I was yet to realize that shooting brake was neither a typo, nor a Mercedes codename. It was yet another body style! Now people who've been reading auto magazines in India for a couple of years might be sort of familiar with this name since it cropped up once in 2005, when Audi launched its shooting brake version of the Audi TT which also was an opportunity for Audi to display styling cues of the new TT which was not launched then.


2005 Audi TT Shooting Brake


Tracing the history of shooting brakes, one ultimately ends up at Wikipedia where it says shooting brakes were customized estate version of luxury two door and usually high performance cars. From Wikipedia, "A brake, also known as a break, was a type of horse-drawn carriage used in the nineteenth and early 20th centuries. It was a large or small, open-topped vehicle with four wheels and designed for country use . The form usually met, the "shooting brake", was designed to carry the driver and a gamekeeper at the front, facing forward and up to six sportsmen on longitudinal benches, with their dogs, guns and game carried alongside in slat-sided racks." Albion Motors of Scotland made some of the earliest shooting brakes that were powered by 15hp monobloc four of 2492cc to be followed number of years later by Aston Martin, Pontiac and Jaguar.These were mainly used by rich blokes to carry around their hunting gear, and golfers and polo players.




Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake


Jaguar XK150 Shooting Brake


At this point, I could pretend any of the automotive journos in the country and keep on with the article telling you about the Ferrari's shooting brakes ( yes, there were more than one), the Lambo Flying Star, the Rinspeed Porsche 911 and so on, but, the intelligent part of me has realized I'm not! So like a normal, just out of college, unemployed young adult, I'm going to go see who's better looking at the Lakme Fashion Week, Deepika or that Sen girl in fashionable 'evening' wear. What? It's been long since the Fashion Week has ended? Go tell Yahoo! who keep featuring it on their website.

Ah, for the sake of all those supercar pictures you guys have thrown at me when I was a Guest here, I leave you with the only shooting brake I thought was flawless in design.



Aston Martin Bertone Jet2

Credits to :

Ultimatecarpage.com - Powered by knowledge, driven by passion for pictures of the Aston Martin Bertone Jet2

Car Body Design - Car Design for Automotive Designers, Engineers and Enthusiasts for Mercedes Benz Fascination

Serious Wheels Classic, Sports & Muscle Car Pictures for Audi TT Shooting Brake

shooting-brake.com - unique collection of sports wagons and luxury estate cars
for the rest of the pictures. Also the website where you'll find more info on the shooting brakes not mentioned in the post.