Exclusive Aston Martin

Bertone designs an exclusive Aston Martin wagon for one lucky hauler

While wagons remain a rarity in the United States, the rest of the world has renewed its appreciation for the most useful of automotive forms. From the Ferrari FF to the new Mazda6 wagon (which won't be sold here), the wagon's shape allows designers room to play with surfaces with a grace not found in SUVs. To drive the point home in style, Italian design firm Bertone revealed today it had built a single copy of a wagon built from an Aston Martin Rapide, adding a hatch to the 476-hp, V-12-powered sedan. It's the perfect car for James Bond to take to Tesco.

Dubbed a shooting brake in the British style, Bertone says the car was commissioned by a wealthy Aston Martin collector who wanted something unique, and from what these drawings show, has far better taste in bespoke cars than whomever custom ordered the McLaren X-1. The interior was also revamped to add a few extra accoutrements, from custom leather to fold-flat seats with a sliding electric cover, for those unexpectedly bountiful trips to Costco.

Bertone says the Rapide shooting break shows it can now tailor the body of nearly any model to a customer's wishes, much as the coachbuilders before and after World War II were able to, and will show the finished car next week at the Geneva Motor Show. If every one of them turns out as graceful as the Rapide wagon, it might make up enough karmic points to absolve Aston Martin for building the Cygnet.