Re: Early Packard Woody Wagons

Posted by tfee On 2013/3/28 9:04:32

Quote:


Woody or woodie is a term used by most people to describe any car with a body made of wood however there are many different styles of woody and they were used for different purposes.

A depot hack was a car used to ferry guests from the train depot to their destination. These were built in an age before air transport and highways when people used the train as their main mode of transportation. They typically had two or three rows of bench seats arranged parallel to each other as well as some storage space in back. They didn't have any windows but they did have a roof. The name depot hack is the same as station wagon as train stations were known as depots and wagons were referred to as hacks. As roads and vehicles improved over time people became more and more likely to drive themselves to their destinations and the term depot hack was mostly dropped. Nobody wanted a depot hack, they wanted windows and maybe even a heater and the newer cars were being sold as station wagons and suburbans and if you had a lot of money you wanted an estate wagon. The estate wagon was the same as a station wagon but typically built on a larger luxury chassis, these were used by the wealthy to ferry their friends around. If you had a lot of money and you lived in England then you would call this car a shooting brake. Shooting brakes got there name from the cars use as transportation during hunts. The term is still in use today and it usually refers to exotic make sports cars that have been converted in to station wagons.

Here is an excerpt that goes in to a bit more depth on depot hacks from a book I own:http://www.woodyguy.net/evolution.html

And here are some modern shooting brakes:http://jalopnik.com/the-callaway-c21-aerowagon-is-the-corvette-stingray-sho-453832292http://jalopnik.com/5946625/porsche-panamera-sport-turismo-concept-yes-its-a-porsche-wagon

And my personal favorite modern wagon: the FFhttp://jalopnik.com/5739585/ferrari-ff-four-wheel-drive-four-seats-one-fantastic-rear-end