As covered in today’s news recap, Toyota has actually converted an 86 sports car into a fully functional shooting brake. It’s only a one-off design study for now, but it’s already eliciting plenty of reactions from long-roof lovers all around the world.
Shooting brakes as a concept date back to the 19th century but it’s still wholly embraced by the automotive industry a century-and-a-half later. In its current form, a shooting brake is like making a shorter wagon or three-door hatch out of a two-door coupe for the purpose of added practicality and comfort in a car that retains its performance capabilities. Several OEMs have produced or at least experimented with these designs in recent years and there are even aftermarket conversions you can buy right now. Notable examples include the BMW Z3M Coupe “clown shoe” cult classic, the super-limited Bentley Continental Flying Star by coachbuilder Touring Superleggera, and a shooting brake conversion for the Corvette Stingray.
Plenty of other shooting brake conversions exist solely in the digital world. It’s hard to not find a conversion that was photoshopped onto a new sports car by a fan with spare time. This Toyota 86 Shooting Brake seems like it could easily be one of those digital experiments, but it isn’t. It’s a real, fully-functional shooting brake 86 that was described by its project manager as “a car you can buy with your head and your heart”.
With all that in mind, is there a car that you’ve been wanting to see get the same treatment? It doesn’t matter if it’s something new, old, fast, or slow. If it’s a car that deserves a shooting brake conversion, it belongs here.
[Image source: Toyota Australia via Autoblog]