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It turns out that the usual excuses for denying consumers a station wagon variant of a given car – the regulatory hurdles, lack of demand from the market and expense of homologation – can be circumvented with one simple item; cash.
What you see above is an Aston Martin Rapide Shooting Brake. It’s a one-off model built by Bertone for a very wealthy client. Given the popularity of the Porsche Panamera and the Ferrari FF, this kind of product may not be a bad fit for Aston Martin, but there aren’t any current plans to add one to the lineup. In any case, those of you looking for a way to get your dream wagon now have a very easy formula. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy some scratch-off lottery tickets.
31 Comments on “How To Turn Any Car Into The Wagon Of Your Dreams...”
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Or at least hope Ford brings this over:
http://www.automobilepress.com/2012/09/2013-ford-mondeo-wagon-and-hatchback.html
BTW, I’m going to argue that this is an estate based on a sedan, not a shooting brake based on a coupe.
I’d have:
E39 M5 touring (not some 540it conversion)
Mazdaspeed6 wagon
G8 GXP wagon
Jag XJR estate
I remember seeing a *purple* E39 M5 Touring at one point. I generally hate purple cars, but I still wanted it baaaaaaad.
why the ugliest rendition of the classic 5 series look, the horrible bloated E39 when the e34 is actually available in M5 flavor and without the horribly gaudy e39 M5 spoilers? The rear suspension arrangement of the touring e39 doesn’t lend itself to advanced driving worthy of a M5.
This is a bizarre assessment of the E39’s aesthetics and I could not disagree more.
I don’t see a station wagon.
“I don’t see a station wagon.”
Bingo. It fails the basic litmus test of having a window between the D and D pillars that is larger than the window between the B and C pillars.
That’s a hatchback in the photo.
And the window between C & D should be longer than it’s height by at least the Φ ratio. But that would normally work in your formula too.
I disagree. A true, 100% hatchback had no additional window or pillar and is shorter than the sedan. A true, 100% wagon is just as long as the sedan and has a vertical back window. Almost all wagons today fall somewhere between, e.g., the one pictured may be 60% wagon / 40% hatchback.
redav,
One of the featured classes at last year’s Concours of America was Jet Age Station Wagons from the late 1950s and early 1960s. None of the classic ’50s wagons had vertical back windows, though the backlights did get more vertical into the 1960s. The ’57 Chevy wagon has a back window and tailgate that slope at about a 45 deg angle.
Pics here:
carsindepth.com/?s=jet+age+wagons
You’d never know it at your local cruise-in, but at the same time Chevy was selling those Nomads with the 45 degree tailgates they were selling many more Townsmans/Handymans/Beauvilles with a nearly vertical tailgate.
I’m sensing a “definitions of terms” article. Coupe, Sedan, Hatch, Wagon, Fastback, Notchback,…
scottcom36,
That is undoubtedly true but would anyone say that a Nomad isn’t a station wagon because it doesn’t have a vertical back window?
By your definition, a pillarless hardtop wagon like a ’57 Chevy Nomad or a ’58 Rambler Ambassador “Country Club” isn’t a real station wagon.
I buy into the litmus test too. But no matter how much I refer to my A3 (whose C-windows are half the size of its rear door windows) as a hatchback, people insist on calling it a wagon. I wonder if it’s because North Americans equate hatchbacks with more sloping (and less tailgate-like) rear ends?
That’s exquisite. Just the thing for hauling the dogs around (which is why David Brown had Aston build the original shooting brakes, of course).
It’d be interesting to know the approximate cost, including the donor car. A million $US? More?
They’ll sell you a factory shooting brake, with the proper two doors, for significantly less. Of course on the downside it will look like this:
http://www.leftlanenews.com/new-car-buying/aston-martin/cygnet/#
Which means you are unlikely to catch any foxes with it.
I can’t imagine more than 100-150K on top of the cars cost depending on how much structure they had to reinforce. Station wagon-ifying most cars with a normal trunk structure shouldn’t be a huge affair if you aren’t trying to build a 3rd row jump seat. It’s harder when you have sloping rears but I still imagine since it’s FE/RW it shouldn’t be too difficult. Are they still using airplane glue though? That alone would add a ton of cost because I understand they can’t weld around it because the heat eats the glue.
Now, THAT’s what I’m talkin’ about.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
About as anti-Bangle as possible.
Ferrari did this a while back. They transformed 2 of their cars into SWs for the sultan of Brunei. IIRC it was about 2 million USD a pop. Small change for the Sultan. I think Ferrari said they’d do it for anyone with the money. I wonder if there were any other takers.
Well, order was 7 SW, 2 saloon and 2 convertible Ferrari 456s for sultan. One SW for every wife I guess, but he bought at the end only 6 out of 7 ordered. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_456#Rare_body_styles
Thanks Manic! Do you know what happened to the leftover car? Why did he not buy it? Was he put on Ferrari’s black list? Ah, the lives of the truly rich!
I doubt they do it for anyone.
Wow, Ford really has their design act together. That new Focus wagon is gorgeous.
Sort of looks like a Jaguar wagon.
Could be sold as a light truck to get around those pesky fuel economy requrements.
Or you could just wait a bit and buy a Fisker Surf, if/when it goes into production. I’m sure the cost would be far less than was spent on this one-off Aston.
That is a beautiful ride…
+1 I don’t care what you call it, it sure looks cooler than any 3-box sedan.
That piece of crap looks like a swimming pool submarine. You need a periscope to see out of it.
A proper extended car (though not wagon): the 12 SM Operas they made.