# What are "shooting brakes"? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [July 23, 2023, 10:39pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876 "2023-07-23T22:39:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 10:39pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/1 "2023-07-23T22:39:52Z")
Car magazine article talking about a restored car’s new carpet, says the oem floor material would have been rubber (pads presumably), but b/c the car had “shooting brakes”, it had never had carpets . Just curious, never heard the term “shooting brakes” before, or what it would have to do w/the flooring material. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 10:43pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/2 "2023-07-23T22:43:15Z")
Basically it is a station wagon. It is a British term. ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/3 "2023-07-23T22:45:26Z")
Yes, it is a station wagon, estate is what they say in the article. So the “brakes” terminology appears to have nothing to do with the vehicle’s actual brakes? ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/4 "2023-07-23T22:47:38Z")
No, it has nothing to do with the vehicle’s brakes. ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 10:48pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/5 "2023-07-23T22:48:16Z")
lol … makes things more interesting I guess … lol . ---
**Author:** ![old\_mopar\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/6bbea6/32.png) [@old\_mopar\_guy](https://community.cartalk.com/u/old_mopar_guy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 10:58pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/6 "2023-07-23T22:58:06Z")
That is correct. ---
**Author:** ![LoudThunder](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/loudthunder/32/27769_2.png) [@LoudThunder](https://community.cartalk.com/u/LoudThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 12:39am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/7 "2023-07-24T00:39:19Z")
I like to watch Brit TV, I am in the US, but American TV plots have become so predictable. So, the wife and I enjoy watching British, Australian, and New Zealand TV shows. They may also use the same old tired TV Plots, but they are new to us… I am First Generation and my mother is a Scot, so some of these terms were second nature to me, but since we watch so much Brit TV, we picked up the rest… BTW, “Shooting Brakes” originally referred to the horse-drawn cart that carried a hunting party or a group of shooters, it later referred to the cart to carry goods to market and I can see how it came to mean a station wagon… More terms that Every American should know in this Car Based Web Site… LoL… • Kerb: The concrete curb along a road • Bonnet: The hood • Boot: The trunk • Motorway: Another term for the highway • Banger: A junky old car (also a sausage…) • Petrol: gasoline. Thus, you refill at a petrol station • Windscreen: The vehicle’s windshield • Car park: A parking lot • Indicators: turn signals • Lorry: A large truck • Sleeping policeman: A wry term for a speed bump • Tarmac: The paved surface of a road • Zebra crossing: The white-striped pedestrian crossing • Gearbox: The manual transmission • Hooter: A car horn • Wing: The fender • Junction: Where two roads intersection (aka intersection) • Lay-by: Rest areas • Tailback: A really, really major traffic jam • Pram: While not really a car-related term, you’ll likely hear this term for a baby carriage if you have young children—especially if you’re storing one in the boot of your banger. ---
**Author:** ![wolyrobb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/wolyrobb/32/45497_2.png) [@wolyrobb](https://community.cartalk.com/u/wolyrobb)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 1:12am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/8 "2023-07-24T01:12:57Z")
2 door station wagon, a british term really only used recently by Aston Martin for a limited Zagato shooting break. Sort of like using a nomad as a surf wagon but instead to carry game and the guns back to the estate. ![zagato](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/original/3X/b/9/b989e6550cd8a3744ba0d69bbd018217264f20d6.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 2:11am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/9 "2023-07-24T02:11:51Z")
Well, Bobs your uncle! Good list. I like Brit TV, too. ---
**Author:** ![lion9car](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/59ef9b/32.png) [@lion9car](https://community.cartalk.com/u/lion9car)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 3:39am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/10 "2023-07-24T03:39:59Z")
I assume you’ve read this: > **[Shooting brake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_brake)** > > A shooting brake, occasionally spelled shooting break, is a car body style that is a station wagon (estate) version of a coupé car, instead of being sedan-based. Its historic origin in the 1890s was as a horse-drawn wagon used to transport shooting parties with their equipment and game. > The first automotive shooting brakes were manufactured in the early 1900s in the United Kingdom. The vehicle style became popular there during the 1920s and 1930s. They were produced by vehicle manufacturers o... ---
**Author:** ![pleasedodgevan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ad7895/32.png) [@pleasedodgevan2](https://community.cartalk.com/u/pleasedodgevan2)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 3:44am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/11 "2023-07-24T03:44:53Z")
Pavement equals sidewalk. ---
**Author:** ![LoudThunder](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/loudthunder/32/27769_2.png) [@LoudThunder](https://community.cartalk.com/u/LoudThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 4:00am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/12 "2023-07-24T04:00:39Z")
> [@Mustangman](#): > > I like Brit TV, too. My mother like to say this when I was a child “It’s a braw bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht.” I really only thought it was a type of tongue twisting like “Knick Knack Paddy Whack…” as in give a dog a bone. I use to say it without even knowing what it meant. It means “It’s a lovely, bright moonlit night tonight” Just to get this kind of back to on track… On Brit TV, watch “Mystery Road,” an Australian TV series crime mystery series. It is best described as a neo-western, the police wear their guns slung low on their hips and they wear boots… There are 3-series and each series has 6 to 8 episodes. ---
**Author:** ![JoeMario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JoeMario](https://community.cartalk.com/u/JoeMario)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 10:55am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/13 "2023-07-24T10:55:13Z")
Many years ago I was in a hostel in downtown London. Everyone was in the common area talking, including a woman in her 20s who was leading a group of cyclists. As the evening ended and all were about to retire for the night, the guy managing the hostel said to the woman: “What time shall I knock you up in the morning?” ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 12:26pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/14 "2023-07-24T12:26:52Z")
To bring it back to cars… It isn’t called a rental car in the UK, it is a hire car. ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 12:33pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/15 "2023-07-24T12:33:36Z")
I found Mystery Road on Acorn. Thanks, I’ll give it a watch. ---
**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/30_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 12:33pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/16 "2023-07-24T12:33:42Z")
Not car-related, but definitely related to transportation… If you see a sign in London reading “Subway”, it just leads to a short pedestrian passageway underneath a busy street. Confused Americans–who somehow forgot that the British term “Underground” indicates a subterranean railway–frequently walk down a short flight of stairs and wind-up being very confused when they are led to another short flight of stairs leading back up to the street. ---
**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 1:52pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/17 "2023-07-24T13:52:44Z")
Punter = customer. ---
**Author:** ![LoudThunder](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/loudthunder/32/27769_2.png) [@LoudThunder](https://community.cartalk.com/u/LoudThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 7:55pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/18 "2023-07-24T19:55:10Z")
> [@jtsanders](#): > > Punter = customer. The trouble with any “term-of-endearment” it’s not always complimentary. A “punter” is also a con man, a gambler, someone who might be operating a “shadow business” (where they pay people under the table and such…), and sometimes a customer of a “lady-of-the-evening…” And if a Brit asks for a “fag”, they are referring to a cigarette, not anything of the “alphabet nature…” ![tenor (1)](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/original/3X/c/9/c907d6499f940bf6925938520df721404cb0939a.gif) ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 8:56pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/19 "2023-07-24T20:56:13Z")
> [@LoudThunder](#): > > Lorry: A large truck That word always reminds of the Cat Steven’s song “Where do the Children Play” … two lines of the lyrics … “Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas” > [@LoudThunder](#): > > Zebra crossing: This phrase always reminds me of the _Abbey Road_ album cover. * * * One more UK car-related phrase I see now and again, “hood”, I think that refers to the soft top covering of a convertible. ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2023, 10:24pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876/20 "2023-07-24T22:24:25Z")
> [@LoudThunder](#): > > “Shooting Brakes” originally referred to the horse-drawn cart that carried a hunting party or a group of shooters, it later referred to the cart to carry goods to market and I can see how it came to mean a station wagon… The “shooting” part makes sense, but “brake” meaning a vehicle design? I looked up the etymology in Oxford English Dictionary. Apparently, early 1830’s, there’s a 4-wheel carriage design called a “break”, designed for breaking-in horses (horses that have never been used for pulling purposes, therefore needing training). By 1860’s, the word “break” might also refer to a carriage that is purposely dragging something to make it harder to pull, a training aid for new horses to the stable. Somehow this same carriage design evolved in the 1880’s into a configuration that was popular for carrying hunters to the hunting areas, the spelling changing from homophonic “break” to “brake”, yielding the term “shooting brake”. [Next page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/what-are-shooting-brakes/191876.md?page=2)