Car Designations Explained: The European Influence
Theres nothing like using the motherlands terminology to make your car sound like its got more class. Of course youll never drive an Aston Martin Black Pudding but harking back to the gentlemanly days can give a marque some extra kudos.
Shootingbrake or shootingbreak depending on which country youre in
In the 1800s and through to the early 1900s a brake was a type of opentopped horsedrawn carriage of any size designed for hunting. It was designed to carry the driver and a gamekeeper at the front and several sportsmen with guns in the back. Dogs guns and game were carried alongside in racks. While this sounds like it could have morphed into a mafiastyle limo its more commonly used to describe a station wagon or estatetype of car.
Aston Martin is particularly fond of the term DB5 DB6 Virage Vantage Lagonda and DBS all had the term applied and its been resurrected recently by Audi for a couple of concept cars. Ferrari Porsche Volvo Bentley and even Lamborghini have produced concepts or production cars. Although anyone trying to shoot a pheasant while hanging out of the side of a Lamborghini would need heatguided missiles.
Many of the concepts started to look like stylistic hearses. www.shootingbrake.com has a number of images.
Drophead coupe or drophead coup
Basically its a convertible or cabriolet in British English. The name applies to both cars with a retractable hardtop roof or a soft folding top. The concept behind a convertible was that you could convert your opentopped car into one that had a roof. British manufacturers tend to use the designation with Aston Martin DB2/4 Drophead Coupe Bentley Arnage Drophead Coupe and Daimler DoubleSix 50 Sport Corsica Drophead Coupe. RollsRoyce released its 2008 Phantom Drophead Coupe at the January 2007 Detroit North American International Auto Show.
Fixed head coupe
Its the opposite of a drophead coupe. A coupe with a fixed roof the term was mainly used by British manufacturers such as Jaguar e.g. XK150 EType well as RollsRoyce e.g. Corniche Aston Martin e.g. DB3S TVR e.g. Tasmin 280i and Bentley e.g. Mark VI Park Ward.
GT
Standing for Grand Tourer or Gran Turismo in Italian GT means its a high performance car with the comforts required for long distance driving. Theyre usually larger and heavier than sports cars and mostly have their engine at the front. While outright power and acceleration of GT cars can match some sports cars softer suspension and a heavier body often means on the track theyre left in the dust. Examples include pretty much the whole Aston Martin range Ferrari 599 GTB Jaguar XJS Maserati GranTurismo and the Mercedes SLR McLaren. The Porsche Carrera GT is not really a GT car more of a supercar or hypercar.
So as long as it sells cars car manufacturers will continue to evoke the images of a halcyon yesteryear.
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About the writer: Darren Cottingham motoring journalist and editor of Car and SUV a website specialising in new car reviews road tests and news.
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