Ferrari's current lineup is largely made up of poised mid-engined supercars although, if you're a lover of the grand tourer, there's always the 812 Superfast and also the GTC4Lusso for those needing a GT that can actually seat four adults.

With the Purosangue SUV coming as both Ferrari's first four-door offering and the first high-riding model to feature the Prancing Horse on its bodywork, Ferrari will soon have the issue of practicality covered in its entirety. Until then, however, have a look at this $244,000 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti Shooting Brake. It's unique and it's cheaper than a GTC4Lusso, making us sad Ferrari has never braved the waters to mass-produce a 612 Scaglietti Shooting Brake model.

A Ferrari shooting brake isn't a first but this 612 Scaglietti is unique

With a quarter of a million dollars in your pocket, you can buy a lot of things. You can become the proud owner of a brand-new Lamborghini Huracan or, perhaps, a Bentley Continental GT if more practicality is what you're after. The McLaren GT is also able to tick the practicality box as is the case for the Mercedes-AMG S65 but you can already see all of those cars on the road. One car you won't see, however, is the car here, a one-off Scaglietti with a straight roof perfect for grocery shopping.

Ferrari's history is littered with one-off shooting brake builds the first of which dates all the way back to 1952 when Fontana built a bulky 212 Export with a station wagon-like rear. A decade and a bit later, Vignale converted a 330 GT into a strange-looking shooting brake concept at the request of a client of Mr. Chinetti's. Unsurprisingly, the car was once owned by Jamiroquai's Jay Kay but even he eventually sold it with the most recent estimates placing its value right under $1 million.

Then there was 1970's 365 GTB/4 Shooting Brake, a much more natural-looking proposition designed mainly by Luigi Chinetti Jr. and built in Britain by Panther Westwinds. Featuring curved side windows that help illuminate the trunk area and open upwards akin to the doors on a 300 SL, the 365 GTB/4 Shooting Brake last crossed the auction block four years ago when Gooding & Co. reckoned it could fetch as much as $1 million for it but it surely wasn't an easy sell. A few years later, some Shooting Brake conversion emerged based on the platform of the 456 GT the forerunner of the 612 Scaglietti.

Now, however, Ferrari knows better and has replaced the Ferrari FF - its first genuine production shooting brake - with another car built in the same vein, the GTC4Lusso. We, however, think the 612 Scaglietti's platform deserved to be that on which Ferrari would base its first official shooting brake model shooting brake model}}. After all, just look at how good this unique creation looks like.

Before we delve deeper into the secrets of this car, let's take a moment to remember a Ferrari that, by and large, has been forgotten although it's been less than a decade since the day of its discontinuation. The 612 Scaglietti, named that way because the bodies of the cars were built at the old plant of Carrozzeria Scaglietti before being dispatched to Ferrari's main plant in Maranello for final assembly, was unveiled in January of 2004 at the Detroit Auto Show. Then, merely a month later, right at next to Enzo's house, the press had access to it. In spite of the freezing cold, this was a well-thought-out decision as the Old Man was very much of the opinion that the best Ferraris were those that could seat four. He didn't like the sporty 250 GTO which makes us think he'd have loved the 612 Scaglietti.

The 612 Scaglietti was 5.5 inches longer and 1.4 inches wider while its 116-inch wheelbase surpassed that of the 456M by a healthy 13.6 inches meaning you didn't have to chop the lower part of your legs to fit in the back. Then there was the fact that the 612 Scaglietti followed in the footsteps of the 360 Modena and became Ferrari's first V-12-engined proposition underpinned by an aluminum space frame with an aluminum body penned by Ken Okuyama on top. The lightweight frame meant that the 612, despite its size, was, in fact, about as heavy as the 456M, meaning you couldn't quite think of it as a lithe ballerina at 4,100 pounds dry.

Powering what was, at the time of its launch, the biggest Ferrari ever had to be a V-12 and the 5.7-liter, naturally aspirated F133F/H does its job with 530 horsepower dispatched to the back wheels through either a manual six-speed transaxle or a semi-automatic six-speed gearbox, the so-called 'F1 box'. With 434 pound-feet of twist at its disposal, a 0-60 mph time of four seconds is achievable even by the simplest of handlers and that is, in effect, the 612 Scaglietti's headlining quality: it is really easy to drive, a proper long-legged GT that chugs away the miles en route to a 199 mph top speed that, you feel, can be achieved effortlessly come what may.

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti specifications

You can now get a Scaglietti for as little as $75,000 nowadays and you'll probably turn more heads while driving it down the road than the guy in the F8 Tributo. Having said that, Ferrari actually considered turning the 612 Scaglietti into a rather more striking car by moving its C-pillar all the way back so that the tail would end with a hatch. Those rumors, circling around a 'sport back' or 'shooting brake' version of the 612 Scaglietti meant as an appetizer for what was to come emerged back in 2011 but we just got the FF instead.

However, one Ferrari aficionado really fawned over that alternate history and commissioned a 612 Scaglietti Shooting Brake. He thus sent his low-mileage example to Vandenbrink in the Netherlands in 2016 and 15 months and 2,500 man-hours later, the car was ready. Custom fabricated aluminum body panels by van Roomen Carrosserie of Hoevelaken extended the roofline all the way to the back of the car where it ends with an electric tailgate. There are windows in the roof and, inside, the cabin has been reupholstered in fine leather by Carat of Liege, Belgium.

At the end of the day, the car, which broke cover only last year, looks resplendent in grigio over beige. But, somehow, its owner decided to part ways with it earlier this month as Bonhams featured it in the Zoute Sale in Belgium. Touted to sell for as much as $295,250, the owner got it for just $244,000 which isn't that much when you consider that it's unique. But, Vandenbrink, who's been open at the prospect of turning the 612 Scaglietti into a shooting brake for over a decade now, claimed that an "additional limited series" of these would be possible provided there were any more takers - but none have popped up (to our knowledge) in the past 12 months.