Price information
The asking price is € 185.555,- ex. 21% VAT, Costumers outside the European union don’t have to pay VAT.
Private Buyers have to pay VAT in this case the price will be € 224.521,55.
Costumers inside the European union with a valid VAT number could buy with 0% VAT rate.
Tesla Model S 85 Performance – Shooting Brake
It was never his dream of building a bespoke shooting brake on a modern platform, and once finished, it was neither his goal to ever sell this one-of-a-kind Tesla Model S Shooting Brake again. But life is an undefined path and some are just following their bliss. This is the inspiring story of our friend Floris de Raadt and his bespoke Tesla. Once his project started everything changed and he wanted to make a more beautiful car, not necessarily a more spacier version of the already practical Model S. We are happy to find a new caretaker for his car. For years to come the next owner of this Shooting Brake will be King of the Tesla Supercharger Network. Or Queen. Whichever comes first.
Shooting Brakes have been around for more than a century, but never became mainstream. Even though they are extremely rare, some examples of fine Shooting Brakes easily come to mind when petrolheads discuss these niche models. The same counts for Floris, who always chased his dream of owning an Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake. Floris de Raadt isn’t just the ordinary petrolhead as he can be better described as one of the early adopters of electric motoring. As a big fan of Shooting Brakes and forerunner for powerful EV’s his remarkable story is part of the creation of this coachbuilt Model S.
As soon as the car was finished, it went viral worldwide. What surprised the owner most were all the positive reactions. Not just by professional journalists, but also along the road bystanders showed their respect and enthusiasm. This experience is something owners of nice classic cars will recognize and owners of the most beautiful modern cars don’t. What most people surprisingly seem to realize is that this isn’t an off-the-shelve car. And they notice it’s not a home built project either. What everyone sees is a car that is completed beyond factory build quality. And they all seem to appreciate that, even the die-hard petrolheads who don’t like EVs at all (yet).
When Tesla came to the market with their Sedan, the Model S, it was an instant hit for so many reasons. First of all Tesla made it into the headlines for nearly a decade before they really took off as a giant player in the automotive world. From 2007 till its launch in 2012 the project moved from codename WhiteStar into the Model S as we know it today. And when it came out it proved to be very good. Tesla needed to go back to the drawing board after Henrik Fisker had left the project in an early stage. They found his successor at Mazda. The American Franz von Holzhausen was called one the auto industry’s rock-star designers who became chief designer at Tesla in 2008. His career really took off as design director at Mazda where he created the design language ‘Nagare’ together with Dutchman Laurens van den Acker. If you look at the Model S design Holzhausen had finalized you can see the same muscular shoulders that his latest concept cars at Mazda were known for. On the other hand its styling reminded people of cars from Aston Martin and Jaguar. If you know that Henrik Fisker followed Ian Callum’s footsteps at Aston, it’s not just a big coincidence at all.
Love at first sight
Holzhausen’s famous flow in the design helped to make people love the Tesla Models S from the first sight. Even though the first prototypes showed up in 2010 it took two more years to take the Model S into production. There was no time to rush it onto the market, Tesla wanted to do it right and they did. With this approach they left other niche players far behind, including Fisker himself. Elon Musk simply wanted to change the world and he wasn’t interested in becoming a sports car manufacturer or niche player. The example we offer here was built in the Tesla Factory in Fremont USA, but assembled in Tilburg, The Netherlands, just like all European Teslas are. It was delivered and road registered on Dutch license in december 2013.
By the time the Tesla Model S was introduced the Dutchman de Raadt already drove several EVs himself, but it took him another 3 years to buy his Model S from the first owner. And the only reason for doing so was that a coachbuilder had just told him they could build him a station wagon, based on the liftback shaped Model S. This company was RemetzCar in the Netherlands. Floris saw their market introduction of a Model S haerse, and once he knew it was possible to reshape and restyle the Tesla, he opted for the idea of installing the rear of a Jaguar XF Sportbrake onto the Model S. The Jag’s station wagon shape, created by Ian Callum, was perfect to him and even the rear window had the right angle for a shooting brake look and feel on the Tesla, he thought. One problem was the fact that the Tesla has an aluminium body and the one on the Jaguar is plain steel. Frank Reijenga of RemetzCar explained how the two dissimilar metals would react. Frank convinced Floris that an all-aluminium coachbuilt project would be the best way to go. And so it happened.
Exciting first ride
With coachbuilding in mind, the project suddenly started all over as it was a blank sheet of paper. As a starting point Floris wanted to give his Tesla Shooting Brake a British touch, to create a stronger connection to the county where the concept of Shooting Brakes originated. British Racing Green was the first ‘theme’ that both Frank and Floris agreed on. Where other custom builders chose to wrap a car in a funky colour, this team went all-in and even created a sparkling green paint with a golden twist. Floris found a rare green Model S 85 Performance, low mileage and undamaged. With a low centre of gravity the Model S Performance is a true joy to drive. Rear wheel drive, 422 horsepower and a massive instant torque of 600Nm make the Performance version a whole lot of fun when it’s dry. On the way home after purchase the winter weather was very extreme and the roads were very slippery, but he managed to bring the car to coachbuilder in one piece. Every adventure starts with a bit of excitement.
Frank Reijnga had more than two decades of experience in automotive prototyping at RemetzCar. This company was a renowned coachbuilder and was well-known for unique projects like the Audi A8 Executive, Tesla Model S Hearse, Range Rover 6 wheel drive and many more bespoke cars. An interesting fact is that the Royal Audi A8L for His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands was also designed and built by RemetzCar. Just like the Tesla Model S, the Audi A8 is made out of aluminium as well. With his Tesla Model S in the workshop Frank and Floris started to brainstorm how to shape a handbuilt wagon-style rear-end onto the Tesla.
Design centerpiece
As a starting point Frank used CAD-design to model the entire Tesla on his computer after exact measuring. To create a shooting brake that at least looks like it was made by the factory itself required a good design. RemetzCar had already found a way to keep most of the original structure intact, even the crumple zone at the rear. The C-style could stay as well. Niels van Roij was asked to take the ideas through a robust design process. Niels van Roij wasn’t very known at the time. He was a young and talented car designer who chose a different path than his fellow students. Instead of joining the large design teams at famous car manufacturers, he was on his way to become a specialist in coachbuilt one-offs. A perfect match for this project. The owner was really surprised when Niels came up with one-hundred-and-one different designs.
One of his ideas really stood out and was called “Bold Chrome”. A large strip of handcrafted chromed steel would become the car’s trademark. It flows from the A-pillar all the way to the C-pillar and helps to reduce the extra optical mass a station car brings with its extended roof line. The dynamic shaped profile adds visual length. From the moment the car was finished this is the centerpiece of the Shooting Brake’s design. And even on the road other users can spot the chromework in their mirror and they’ll instantly notice that this car is something special.
Only one
While the project was going on Floris de Raadt realised he was skyrocketing his initial budget. Huib de Vries – a PR and Marketing expert – joined the team after he already connected Floris to Niels at an earlier stage. And together with RemetzCar and Niels van Roij Design they developed a business concept to sell this bespoke shooting brake conversion to others. A website was launched and an initial price was calculated, but soon the build costs increased more and more and so did the selling price. Despite all efforts it turned out that there was going to be only one Model SB. It was launched as such at the famous Concours d’Elegance at Palace ‘t Loo in june 2018.
For Floris some other major steps needed to be taken before the project was heading into the final stage of the design. First of all, to him, a Shooting Brake is incomplete without a rear windshield wiper. During the design no wiper was integrated and it seemed like there wasn’t a way to put a wiper without adding some kind of ugliness to the overall design. The three were racking their brains over this problem. Again during a ride in snowy conditions, Floris was driving behind a BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and he saw the rear windshield wiper coming from underneath the spoiler. Frank and his crew knew what to do and made it work. The tailgate is a piece of art with its hidden wiper and integrated brake light. This Model S was equipped with the optional Tech Pack and this means the tailgate on the sedan opens automatically and it still does on this custom built version. On the inside all panels fit like they were factory made, but they were built in-house by RemetzCar.
The entire look & feel of this Shooting Brake is taken to the next level by its creators with many details to enjoy. Not just the steering wheel was re-trimmed in the same colour as the rest of the upgraded upholstery. The seats themselves got green piping, for an extra bit of Britishness inside. Niels van Roij also added a few ‘easter eggs’, as he calls it. When you open the glovebox the green exterior colour shows up, just as the case of the car’s rear view mirror.
Contradictions
Floris de Raadt loves the contradictions in shooting brake design, which is why he truly loved the chromework on a modern car. The craftsmanship is a nice showcase, but lot’s of chrome is usually not a very good match on nowaday’s cars, but it worked well in this case. Even his dream car, the Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake is a bit quirky in his eyes. It’s the way that opposites can attract each other that keeps him curious. At first it doesn’t make sense to make a station wagon out of a sports car and it will never be more beautiful than the original. Once finished it can somehow have visual appeal in one way or the other. From all the shooting brakes that have been built in the last 100 years, not all of them were beautiful. Most shooting brakes failed when it came down to beauty, but there was always something intriguing that got de Raadt hooked to them. During the years he’d restored several shooting brakes, mostly to sell them for the next project. To him some station wagons are more stylish than the sedan versions. Now that his Shooting Brake is finished people really see beauty in its design too. Floris already knew that coachbuilt projects are very outspoken and therefore a great firestarter for a never-ending discussion about mixed taste. None of that all happened here.All this positivity surprised Floris de Raadt and confirmed all efforts were worth it.
Geneva Motor Show
As a young boy Floris grew up in Switzerland and he never missed the Geneva Motor Show. He was a big fan of Franco Sbarro and Peter Monteverdi whose companies were based in Switzerland as well and who both used their local car show to introduce their cars to the world. It was never de Raadt’s dream to create his own cars which he could show to the world. But when the Dutch tyre manufacturer Vredestein asked de Raadt to put his Shooting Brake on stage at their stand at the Geneva Motor Show he didn’t need to hesitate. With all the response he got there he couldn’t be more proud and satisfied. His Shooting Brake was one of the show’s highlights and the biggest compliment it got was someone who said: “this shooting brake makes the normal sedan look like it’s missing something”.
Specifications
Tesla Model S 85 Performance (RWD)
Coachbuilt as a one-off Shooting Brake
Aluminium bodywork
2013 model with 2016 facelift (coloured fascia)
Bespoke green paint with touch of gold
Bespoke green piping on the leather seats
Factory Panoramic Sunroof
21 inch Turbine wheels
Air suspension
Tech Pack
Connectivity Package (Upgraded to 4G data communications)
Supercharging hardware
Low-mileage: 60.000 kms
422 Hp / 600 Nm of Torque
Range 407-438 km (EPA)
Battery pack 85 kWh
Upgrade to Type 2 charging port with integrated light and automatic closing lid