This shot (no pun intended) of a 1958 Simca Aronde 1300 Chatelaine gives us an opportunity to sharpen up our vocabulary a bit, starting with the term “shooting brake” and moving on to “chatelaine”.
Here’s where the term originated: a horse-drawn used to transport shooting parties with their equipment and game. Pretty straightforward.
The term came to be applied in Great Britain to a coachbuilt body style analogous to the station wagon in the US, except its use was generally not so much for hauling guests from the train station to the hotel as it was for transporting shooting parties, with room enough for all involved, including the “beaters” and the game. Here’s a fine example on a 1930 Rolls-Royce chassis.
The term “estate car” began to replace the shooting brake, as it suggested a wider range of uses. Some of these were truck based, equivalent to the Chevrolet Suburban and such.
As the popularity of the passenger-car based wagons increased in the fifties, the estate car term became to mean just about anything we’d call a station wagon.
It might be debatable, but it appears that the term shooting brake first reappeared on the 1960 Sunbeam Alpine “Shooting Brake Estate Wagon”. Three prototypes were built, but none have survived, and only this rough photo exists.
In 1965, Radford started offering its conversion of an Aston Martin DB5 into a shooting brake. The term was back, and it was then applied to a number of similar vehicles, meaning low, exclusive, modest-capacity “wagons” based on sports or sporty cars. Some obvious examples are the Reliant Scimitar, Volvo 1800ES, and BMW Z3 Coupe.
So it doesn’t really apply to the featured Simca, but for the lady with the gun.
Is she the chatelaine? It’s the feminine version of an ancient term, chatelain, used to denote most simplistically “the keeper of the castle”. The term evolved over the centuries, and it implied various levels of titular rank in the feudal system, depending on location and time.
The chatelaine was then the mistress of the castle, or chateau, or any large medieval household. It’s also come to refer to a woman’s ornamental chain around the waist, with keys, a purse, timepiece, or other household attachments.
Wow, that pic of a 1930 Rolls woody really caught my eye. Gorgeous!
The lady drawing a bead on a bird clashes with the modern American stereotype of France!
It’s too bad Simca didn’t try harder for export business. The Aronde was a wonderful car, closer to American needs than the Dauphine. And the Ford V8 models were even more American.
That little car (pic with lady shooting the rifle) is really a cute little thing. But the one I really love the most is the Hillman Estate car. What a great looking ride.
Whenever I hear the word “Chatelaine”, I am reminded of an annoying K.D. Lang song from the early nineties. Apologies to all who may actually like this song. Most likely, the reason I don’t care for it is that it was seriously overplayed at the time… anyway…
The term Shooting Brake. I learned it HERE on these very pages years ago.
CC Effect: Just last night on my drive home from work, a dark blue Audi that could easily be described as such blew by me. Good looking car, although I think it had four doors.
Which begs this question: Could the Tri-Five Nomads be considered to be Shooting Brakes? They were two-door sporty wagons. I would think the answer is yes.
Neat cars, all of these .
-Nate
A hill I will die on is that the 3rd-gen through 5th-gen Honda Civic “hatchbacks” were actually Shooting Brakes.
Hmm, never thought of them like that but you may be right.
The French name for this body style is “break de chasse”. Curiously they kept the original denomination for such a carriage: a two wheeled vehicle used for breaking in horses. Why the Brits went for “brake” is anybody ‘s guess. And it ‘s “Châtelaine”, not “Chatalaine”.
There’s a certain irony in that Sunbeam Alpine conversion given the Alpine was based on the Hillman Husky estate floorpan.
As a shooter, fisherman, golfer, skier and more I have always loved the more modern concept of a shooting brake… a sporty-driving vehicle that can take a couple and their gear on a trip. Right now, my GTI fills the bill (it just took me on two weeks of bird hunting and fishing), but a two-door wagon with similar driving quality (and three pedals in the footwell) would be hard to resist. Great piece, Paul… thanks!
Good to hear you defy the stereotype that everyone who hunts uses a camo-wrapped F-250 or something!
I enjoy seeing the various vehicles that show up during deer season. (I hunt at my in-laws’ place, and many of the landowners around there let hunters use their properties during deer season, so the hunting vehicles are always easy to spot.) This year, in addition to several pickups, there was a Nissan Xterra, a 1990s conversion van, and (most surprisingly) a Geo Metro. I did wonder what the Metro driver planned to do with a deer should he get one.
Eric: Well, I do have a 4Runner up here in the CO Rockies. It gets me in closer to fishing/hiking/hunting places and is a beast in ski season. A deer might not fit well, but I’m just a shotgunner chasing birds. No camo, however!
Definitely expanded my vocabulary here — I never heard the term chatelaine before.
I love the eccentricity of the term “shooting brake.” The picture of the horse-drawn shooting brake here looks like what we’d call a buckboard here in the US… so maybe someone could resurrect that term as well!
https://nihilistnotes.blogspot.com/search?q=Chatelaine
The Aronde wagons were more akin to the Hillman Husky than the Hillman Minx Estate; two doors (there never were two-door sedans in either line, just four-doors and 2-door hardtops) and a bit shorter than the sedan. The Simca doesn’t have a shorter wheelbase though.
Totally distracted by the Australian Ford Ten-Ten estate ad with the stow n’ go seats: never heard of or seen such a thing. I wonder, was that seating a first?
I found some stats on the car. 1.2 sidevalve, 30hp, 0-30 mph in 15 secs, three gears and 6.8:1 top. Mightn’t be the speediest way to transport those 7 passengers, or indeed, to stop at the destination if reached, given the 4-wheel cable brakes. More crap-shoot braking than shooting break, perhaps.
Anyone see one in America? (see below)
this.
Ford ten van horrible device terminally slow even empty a flat twin Bradford actually goes better and theres more room in the front the engine was offset in the Ford and even on the wide side theres nowhere for your feet
with the back seat down a RT360 Yamaha and F11 250 Kawasaki motorcycles will fit in the Hillman just tailgate down of course I traded mine for a AL110 International flat deck much more suitable for hauling dirtbikes
To me, this Simca looks very Hillman Husky-esque – a short estate /statin wagon conversion on a saloon that could easily be a van with windows, or the van be an estate without windows. The Husky could had as a Commer Cob which was a van.
Sometimes. when looking back, I feel a see a parallel world between Rootes and Simca. Not scientific or evidence based though – just similar looking trends and this is one of them.
Bingo, if unprovable. Me too. Something to do with being a non-major name, producing stuff that’s not too exciting but still more substantial than the competitors? I guess it helps such musing that history left them joined up in the end.
As the proud owner of a Simca 1204 long ago I’m struck by the contrast, it seems every Simca prior to it looked like it was from the early 50’s, the 1204/1100 was clearly a 70s car. (even if it came out in the 60’s)
But that DB5 Shooting Brake, my god it’s gorgeous, Grand old England was still alive, well and thriving in 1965. I’d drive that in a hot second.
The people in the Hillman ad look shrunken as was common in 50’s advertising: