Car makers have largely ignored the shooting brake configuration, but will Ferrari bring it back with the new 612?

Car manufacturers are constantly seeking new niches to try and differentiate their models from the rivals. Gone are the days of the hatchback, Saloon, Coupe and Estate. We now have the MPV, SUV, 4 door coupe - even the SUV coupe (although the less said about BMW's monstrosity the better), along with the more traditional configurations.

One area so far passed over has been the shooting brake (or break, depending on your preference), or the 2 door coupé cum estate. Going back through the history of the car, most shooting brakes have been custom-built conversions on existing coupés, a number of DB-series Aston Martins in the sixties were converted and Aston itself offered a shooting brake conversion of the Virage in the nineties although only a handful were sold. Lower down the price range, a number of shooting brake-style GTs appeared from speciality sports car makers such as Jensen (the GT based on the Jensen Healey), the Reliant Scimitar GTE and bizarrely the 1800 ES from Volvo. Of these the Jensen disappeared without trace but the Reliant had a long production run from 1968 through to 1986 (with a handful made by Middlebridge in 1990).

More recently the BMW Z3 M Coupé certainly should be considered a shooting brake even if it was never referred to as such. Not originally intended for production the Z3M was a side project by a handful of BMW engineers to see if they could improve the structural rigidity of the underwhelming Z3 Roadster. Not really styled they arrived at a ahooting brake-style solution and in doing so inadvertantly produced one of the coolest modern BMWs in the process.

Although it never reached production, styling-wise the most successful shooting brake was the Lamborghini Flying Star II by Touring (pictured top). Based on a 400 GT, the Flying Star featured a wonderful roofline gracefully curving down to the sloped tailgate. The newly reconstituted Touring has exhibited a new Flying Star but this time based on the Bentley Continental GT (left), but it is not nearly as successful as its Lambo-based predecessor.

So is the shooting brake about to be the next niche that manufacturers will attempt to fill? Audi presaged the current TT with a shooting brake concept, as did Mercedes with the E class coupé, but thus far there has been no sign of either manufacturer putting these concepts into production, which in my opinion is a shame as both were arguably more interesting and attractive than the actual production coupés.

More intriguing is the internet rumour mill reports that the replacement for Ferrari's 612 Scaglietti might be some kind of shooting brake. This has been given some credence with the emergence of spy photos and a brief YouTube video (see below) of what is believed to be the next generation car under heavy disguise. As you can see the rear end of the car is heavily camouflaged but the rear window if real does seem to go down to the back of the car rather than the traditional fastback shape of Ferrari GTs.

The 612 is the connoisseur's Ferrari, and while big and imposing it has never been the must-have car that the otherwise brilliant 458 and 599 suffer from. Would the 200 people worldwide who buy a new 612 every year want a shooting brake? Well, if it looks good, is practical but still feels like a Ferrari I personally think it would be better to ask, why wouldn't they want one?

Will the new 612 be a shooting brake, another conventional big coupé, or perhaps something in between? All will be revealed sometime next year. I for one hope it is, and also hope that where Ferrari leads others will follow.

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