New Concept Car: Mercedes Shooting Brake

Mercedes-Benz is giving us our best look yet at its next CLS-class four-door at the Beijing auto show in the form of the Shooting Break concept. Just as the current E-class sedan’s body sculpting and lighting were previewed at the 2008 Paris auto show by the wagon-esque ConceptFASCINATION, the Shooting Break (Mercedes’ spelling, not ours) shows us most of the next-gen four-door CLS’s bod. The front end’s bisected grille, huge three-pointed star, and aggressive headlamp shapes will make it to production, although we’re not sure if the lamps themselves will be comprised completely of LEDs, as seen here. Only from the C-pillar back should the production CLS differ, as its roof will drape gracefully into a low decklid. So if you hold your finger over the rear part of the roof and D-pillar and squint, (most of) the CLS sedan will magically appear.

Perhaps equally significant is what lurks beneath the hood, where the first example of M-B’s forthcoming direct-injection, 60-degree V-engine family has appeared. In this case, it’s a 3.5-liter V-6 that will produce a claimed 306 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque. It also is said to “set new standards in terms of fuel economy among the competition.”.

But what of this whole Shooting Break idea, anyway? Well, the name is a bit of a stretch, since a “shooting brake” typically is a wagon based on a coupe, and Mercedes is already stretching the accepted definition of coupe by applying that term to the four-door CLS. For what it’s worth, Mercedes-Benz is calling this thing “a coupe with a sloping tail end.” Whatever.

Now, whether or not you buy into Mercedes’ creative definition and spelling of such descriptors, the Shooting Break makes sense, four doors and all. The interior, rife as it is with show-car indulgences, nevertheless promises swanky and intimate accommodations for four with individual bucket seats separated by a full-length center console, as in the current CLS.

While the ConceptFASCINATION (which, by the way, was a real shooting brake with two doors) was never produced, it appears that the Shooting Break actually will be. Sadly, it most likely won’t join the four-door CLS on our side of the pond, according to Mercedes insiders. That’s too bad. The Shooting Break’s overall blend of reasonable utility (which the CLS sedan—er, “coupe”—has little of) and extreme automotive fashion is something we totally dig. We could even get used to the weird spelling.

Thanks to: Car and Driver