What Was The First Performance Estate Car?

[AngeloUccello]

Just out of curiosity, what do you guys consider to be the first performance orientated Estate car? Thanks

[Johnny 89]

First thing that springs to mind is the RS2.. I'm sure there are earlier cars though?

[parabolica]

Mid-60s station wagons from the US I would imagine; Ford Galaxy, Pontiac Bonneville, Chrysler Town & County, Plymouth Fury etc; most of them came with the option of 500+ ci engines.

ETA HotRod Garage's Plymouth Fury is a good looking thing:

Edited by parabolica on Thursday 1st March 16:51

[Presuming Ed]

Plenty of breadvans like the Scimitar, Beta HPE or Lynx Eventer but can only think RS2 or a 325i before that. Volvo 740 Turbo, no that's going too far.

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

Available in Europe I'm struggling to think of much before the RS2. The E34 540 wagon was available earlier, with 280 odd brake, not shabby today.

Edited by Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah on Thursday 1st March 17:01

[hornmeister]

I seem to remember a DB5 shooting brake?

yep 1965
http://astonmartins.com/car/db5-shooting-brake-by-...

Is a shooting brake an estate though?
Can of worms opened.

[lukeharding]

Hammer wagon surely got to be one of the first performance oriented estates?

https://jalopnik.com/this-1987-amg-hammer-wagon-is...

[Prinny]

Audi 200 Avant with the 2.1 turbo 5 from 1983?

Not my pic:


Struggling to think of a European 5-door before that outside of ‘specials’.

[PGN]

I can remember Mark 2 Cortina GT Estates being a thing - although I don't think they were an official Ford model.

[GTI16V]

I'm pretty sure Audi offered a 200 Avant Quattro with 200 hp in the mid to late 80's.
And I know Vauxhall offered a Carlton GSi with the 3.0 24v engine in an estate
The only other contemporary I can think of is an E30 325i Touring.

[littleredrooster]

If we're talking production cars rather than coachbuilt specials, then Scimitar GTE from the late 60s/early 70s, surely? Anything earlier than that?

[Brinyan]

In the U.K., I was thinking Scimitar GTE, offering very good performance for that time. Mk2 Cortina Savage - 3 litre in various states of tune, that would have been rapid back then.

[littleredrooster]

Brinyan said:

... Mk2 Cortina Savage - 3 litre in various states of tune, that would have been rapid back then.

...But only built as specials by Jeff Uren. They weren't offered by the Ford factory.

[2xChevrons]

Like most of these type of threads it can come down to nitpicking over what is meant by 'performance' and 'estate'.

If the Scimitar counts, so do all the Lagonda, Aston Martin, Alvis and AC shooting brakes from the 1930s and 1940s, although I suppose they were specialist rather than production. Personally I'm not sure the Scimitar does count.

If by 'performance' you mean something that not only goes fast but has the rest of the package (speed, power, handling) and was explicitly marketed as such I think Prinny's suggestion of the Audi 200 Quattro Avant Turbo must be up there.

parabolica also has a point with the American stuff. A high-spec station wagon like an Oldsmobile Visa Cruiser was packing far more power than it needed just for utilitarian estate-type work - you could have one with a Rocket V8 punching out 320 horsepower, which basically made it an nine-seater muscle car.

[njw1]

Talking of Fords, mk2 Granada 2.8i estate?

[GravelBen]

On the Japanese front, Subaru were making turbo 4wd Leone wagons from 1983 which I guess you'd call performance versions compared to the reguar model, but they were still pretty slow.

200bhp Legacy GT in 1989 was probably their first respectably quick one.

I guess the Aussies were making V8 Falcons and Commodores etc before then too.

[Wacky Racer]

Lancia Beta HPE, trouble is they fell apart with rust.

[littleredrooster]

2xChevrons said:

Personally I'm not sure the Scimitar does count.

But it came down the Reliant production line in significant numbers, unlike lots of earlier coachbuilt stuff.

[williamp]

1920s, old boy...

[geeman237]

If you're thinking of the first mass production, general public, dealer available performance estate, then I'd throw the Triumph 2.5pi MK1 estate up for consideration.

Edited by geeman237 on Thursday 1st March 18:32