“Station wagons” are still popular in Europe. In the U.S. such cars were usually viewed as family-hauling “boats”. In Europe, Audi and Mercedes especially build some of the fasted production cars with that body style. Audi refers to these as “Avants”. This is a video of a guy in a BMW (certainly no slouch) who starts playing road tag with an Audi Avant, an RS model. The video says RS4; I think it might be an RS6. Amazing how fast the Audi pulls away when it gets a brief clear space. Anyway, insanity on a crowded highway. Makes you hold your breath. The BMW pulls up behind the Audi at about 30 seconds into the video.
I remember when guys would want a "sleeper." We had a 1964 American station wagon (3-on-the-tree and a flathead 6) that I wanted to "drop a V-8 into." Such are the thoughts of an 18 year old.