“Shooting Brake” - is a 2-door car body style with a squared-off rear. They generally have a rear liftgate like a wagon or a hatchback although one or a pair of side-hinged doors is also sometimes seen.
The term originated with custom built 2-door luxury estate cars altered for use by hunters and other sportsmen such as golfers, riders, and polo players requiring easy access to larger storage areas than offered by the typical automobile boot.
Back in 1999, BMW introduced the Z3 Coupe featuring a chassis-stiffening rear hatch area, a Shooting Brake model that was quite controversial. Around the same time, BMW also introduced the M Coupe, another Shooting Brake styled high performance vehicle produced by the M Division.
Despite being highly acclaimed by the enthusiasts, the Z4 Shooting Brake seem to have consumed its run at BMW and several reports claim that the Munich-based automaker has no plans for a new Shooting Brake vehicle based on the new E89 Z4 Roadster.
But rendering artists continue to have a field day with the Shooting Brake design idea and used their efforts to draw up a Shooting Brake version of the latest Z4.
The result? Not our cup of tea, but we will let you be the judge.
[Photo: Autoblog.nl | Wikipedia ]
Author: Horatiu B.
Source: http://www.bmwblog.com/2010/08/01/rende ... ing-brake/