The idea of ‘Project Shooting Brake’ started when Erik Groenendijk de Laat from the Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven came up with the challenge to create a Shooting Brake on a sportscar base, for their Minor Motorsport Engineering. We did already a lot of projects together with them. When Erik asked Arno and Angelo van Thull, they were enthusiast about this idea, because they are always in for something new and outstanding.

The project started as a Minor of half a year. The students Bram, Dennis, Thom and Yori were supervised and assisted by the team of van Thull Development. For advice in some design issues they had contact with van Berlo Design in Eindhoven.  The group of these four students started this project without any experience in bodywork and designing.

Our intention from the beginning was to make this project feasible. When we searched for inspiration we came across a lot of sketches and Photoshop’s or renderings of modern Shooting Brakes. To design a nice looking Shooting Brake is not the challenge, but to make it like a real concept is something different.

Because of this, we had to make some compromises in the design. We decided to use as much as possible parts that already exist. When we had to develop our own windows for example, this project would get way too expensive. That’s why we have chosen to use windows that already exsist and a rear hatch from a Peugeot. To give the Shooting Brake a more up-to-date look we used several modern elements.

The complete roof, rear hatch, rear fenders, door sills and rear bumper were developed from scratch, or partly used from different models. To make the rear side windows fit more into the Shooting Brake roof line we designed some air intake parts to cover the windows partly.

Of course a minor of a half year was too short for the students to finish this concept. Because they were so enthusiast and exited to see some end result Erik decided to give them another assignment for a half year so they can spend more time to develop this project into a real concept car.

This project car is property of the Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven and is not for sale