With a burning question to answer and a little time on our hands during lockdown, we decided to answer the age old question: is Henri, our Citroen HY van, the fastest vintage coffee van (in the hotly contested Vale of Belvoir region)?.
We had a natural adversary in the form of Lauren, from Ginger & Blue Travelling Coffee Company. Lauren is actually a great friend of Cafe Allez! and her beautifully restored Renault Estafette van is of similar vintage to Henri.
We also had access to a runway (as one does) thanks to the lovely people down the road at Skydive Langar. You can find out more about them here: https://www.skydivelangar.co.uk/
Most importantly of all, we have access to a Simon Wilkinson-Blake, a talented videographer and an excellent producer.
So a 1/4 mile drag race was duly scheduled. No spoilers here – you’ll have to watch the film to see the victor, along with an incredible coincidence that the race threw out.
Aside from some local rivalry, there is actually a long standing historical spat that we were acutely aware of. After the 2nd World War, there was a pact between the companies whereby Renault were permitted to build vans but not trucks, and Citroen would manufacture trucks but not vans. ‘Maverick engineering geniuses’ Citroen then became ‘evil marketing geniuses’ Citroen and went ahead and developed the H Van regardless!. So this was an opportunity for Renault to seek revenge.
Sincere thanks to Simon, Skydive Langar, Phil Stringfellow (our drone pilot) and – most importantly – Lauren for making it happen. We hope you enjoy watching the outcome as much as we enjoyed making it.