Audi Mulls Business Case for Shooting Brake Concept Wagon

TOKYO – Audi AG will decide early next year whether a business case can be made for its 2-door station wagon introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show here.

The upscale Shooting Brake, which uses the aluminum-steel chassis of the next-generation Audi TT, features ceramic brakes and a navigation screen that can be controlled with finger writing.

With near 50-50 front rear-balance, the 250-hp 3.2L engine delivers 0-62 mph (100 km/h) acceleration of 6 seconds, and a top speed of 155 mph (250 km/h).

After the show, “we need to do marketing to magazines and have their test drives get reaction from customers,” says Ulrich Hackenberg, general manager-concept development.

Audi Shooting Brake concept wagon.

The car is a 2+2, with relatively short front doors. Front seats slide forward to allow access to the back seats, where there is enough headroom for a 6-ft. (1.8-m) tall person and more knee room than in the TT.

Hackenberg says the short doors are because, in many markets, parking lots are crowded, and sliding doors would be too expensive.

The car was developed over six months especially for the Japanese auto show and features a pearly white finish, repeated on interior details such as the door handles. It also experiments with new materials, including a technical cloth covering the seats and dashboard.

Shooting Brake is an old British term for station wagon-like cars, in which English gentlemen could transport their shotguns to the hunt or the shooting range. Today, it means “functional sporty car,” Hackenberg suggests.