July 13: Mercedes-Benz Shooting Brake

Mercedes-Benz is nuts and I mean this in the best possible way. They have been putting wildly powerful motors in their cars and sometimes they drop them into their wagons. The pic above is their new E63 AMG wagon with the Performance package, which pushes out a mere 550 HP! What's with these guys  -  nuts in the best possible way! I've seen a couple around and they look and sound wonderful.

Now they have taken this a couple of steps further with the new "Shooting Brake". The original concept.......

This toured the auto shows a couple of years back, but what the heck is a Shooting Brake. According to my research, the "shooting" part refers to gentlemen's hunting parties in the early part of the 20th century. The "brake" refers to a vehicle used to break horses. Someone, sometime and for some unknown reason put the two together and Shooting Brake started to refer to a station wagon, but always the very most expensive ones, like an Aston Martin or Rolls (google Aston Martin or Rolls Royce Shooting Brake).

Now back to this concept from Benz. My most favorite car is the CLS 63  -  swoopy and hot looking (words I also use to decribe my wife in case she is reading this), so now my buddies at Benz have introduced the hot, hot CLS 63 Shooting Brake........

This is a car or a wagon or a shooting brake that I can love, but why, oh why, does it have to be a car that unless the rich uncle that I don't have dies, I will never have the chance to own.

But here is some good news. Early reports don't show this beautiful brute coming to North America, so I won't worry about lusting over a car, if no one else is driving it either. In Europe, the station wagon has never fallen out of favor, so there are some great looking wagons roaming their highways and byways. What is wrong with North Americans? Why do they persist in buying those cumbersome suvs, when they could have a rolling sculpture like this in their driveway? Our loss.

We all have fantasies, mine just might be driving up to the golf club in this CLS 63.

Until next time........