COFEE CLUB No.4
Andy - 1971 Plymouth Road Runner (Main feature). Datsun 240z, Mk2 Golf GTI, shed find: 3 speed Vespa!
Hold onto your french press folks, this one’s a belter!
Preferred brew method: French press / Aeropress.
While we love coffee and cars, it's the people we meet that are the real slices of greatness in this community.
Andy reached out to us with a picture of ‘The Beast’... there was nothing that could stop us from seeing this 2 meter wide American muscle car. Andy’s a bit of a big dog in the car design world (our words.. not his), though Andy was unassuming and humble from the off. On top of this, his choice of cars to fill his garages are sublime, as we’re sure you’ll all agree.
Andy took us for a spin in the Plymouth — not going to lie, as we approached the first bend we leaned into the corner, expecting the big American to have plenty of roll. To our surprise and Andy’s amusement, the Beast stayed level, and cornered like it was on rails. Big smile from us! 🙂 The engine burbled along like nothing we’ve ever heard before. More often than not, these big muscle cars sound good, look good — but don’t really move that quickly…
Of course Andy pulls off the main road, drops a cog and accelerates brutally. Every sense is bombarded. Even bigger smile from us 😀
We head back to Andy’s to have our delicious Volante blend and a trifle with his young lads. We ask him all about the journey he’s been on with the Plymouth. Andy bought it 11 years ago in Salzburg and drove it back to his then home, Berlin. The setup of the car and the way that Andy drives it shows how he has formed a deep relationship and understanding of this car. (more on some of the more testing moments later)
Now we’ll leave you to enjoy the wizardry of @jamie_bufton_photo, who has taken these snaps hanging out the back of our Jeep. If you ever want to have fun on 4 wheels, try a rolling shoot on Cheshire B roads with a Plymouth Roadrunner 3 feet off your rear corner. THE BIGGEST SMILE 😃😃
As we mentioned, this Plymouth doesn’t half shift! It’s currently running on a 383cu big block with a 440 crank, redlines at 5700 RPM, and hits 57MPH in first gear. Now, this car has had a manual gearbox added — with a rather lovely pistol grip shifter. The Beast also runs a 750 CFM Holley double pumper, as well as upgraded suspension and bigger brakes. The Plymouth also has a custom dash, which is a work of art in itself.
While Andy clearly loves this car and knows every inch of it with a setup that enables him to really push it to a place it was never really designed to go, there have been some testing moments…
Andy regularly used to take it on runs into the Swiss Alps (very brave!). One run on a crisp late September, The Beast decided to go no further and rolled to a stop on the hairpin bend, towards the top of the pass. Unfortunately, all his fellow drivers had long since left him, and were sipping their stein’s merrily while Andy was waiting to be rescued. Even more unfortunate for Andy, was the fact that the recovery vehicle that appeared was a BMW 3 Series Touring — the Plymouth is 2m wide — No chance!
As the darkness drew in, Andy was forced to sleep in the Plymouth overnight until an early morning peloton came to his rescue.
Andy freely admitted he did not want to see the Plymouth again for several months after that experience… but it’s never stopped him loving the car.
We asked Andy to summarise his truly incredible machine in a few words:
“Owning the car is like owning a big dog; most of the time it’s eating and sleeping, but I just love it!”