OK, if the fact that I write a car blog didn’t clue you in, I’ll just come out and say it; I’m a car guy, through and through. I bought a Mazda RX-7 when I was 16, learned to fix it myself — a necessary skill if you can’t afford to pay a mechanic — and really, never looked back.

As a “car guy” you might assume that the cars that get me hot under the collar are the exotics, the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and what not. Well, you’d be dead wrong. The cars that really cause me to go a bit mental are station wagons. Yes, those extended hatchbacks driven by seemingly dull individuals, often with children and dogs in the back cause me to go slightly weak in the knees. And while this might seem a little silly to you, I would argue that the station wagon is one of the coolest forms of transportation on our roads. For evidence one need only look at the various names for station wagons and their etymology to get a glimpse into this most misunderstood automotive segment.

Unlike Sedans, trucks or coupes, there are numerous names for station wagons, and they all have their origins in possibly the coolest time and place ever, the American Wild West. In those days the “station wagon” was the horse drawn carriage you took to go from your farmstead to the train station — presumably because some corrupt banker conspired with the town mayor to kick you off your land, and the sheriff was off chasing bandits.

OK, not the coolest thing to be named after, but it beats “Sport Utility Vehicle” in my mind.

If you had a very fancy home, you probably had something fancy to pull behind the horses, so luxury station wagons are often known as “estates.”

OK, interesting, yes, but still not very cool, I’ll admit. But I’m not done yet.

If you were one of the aforementioned bandits you probably needed a pretty fast wagon in which to carry your loot, and avoid the sheriff; these were called “brakes.” The fastest — and most bad assed — brakes had places for bandits to shoot from, and as such were called “shooting brakes.” This is also what we call the very fastest, often two door, station wagons, although they rarely have place from which to shoot your gun these days.

If you’re interested in checking out these most excellent hatchbacks, try performing a Google image search with the name you favorite car company followed by “shooting brake.” I recommend starting with “Porsche,” “Aston Martin” and “Ferrari” for some of my favorites. Maybe then you’ll start to understand what it is about these cars that causes me to go a little woozy.