Petrolhead heaven: Scottish car lovers could do with a fix of Caffeine & Machine

There’s the revered North Coast 500 route, some gloriously twisty Borders backroads and the sweeping majesty that is the lofty M74 gateway to England. All offer motoring thrills aplenty. But what the nation sadly lacks is some sort of mecca for the Scottish petrolhead - or indeed EV-head, in our increasingly electrified age. A place where car nuts can gather socially, have a blether about all things automotive, admire each other’s wheels and maybe down a coffee or two.

North of the Border, gatherings of car fanatics seem to be restricted to shady after-hours meet-ups in superstore car parks, with the inevitable engine revving and tyre burn-outs attracting the attention of PC Killjoy. Journey a few hundred miles south, though, and you’ll happen upon a place that ticks all the boxes on the car fanatic’s checklist.

Caffeine & Machine is located a short blast of blacktop to the south-east of historic Stratford-upon-Avon. Opened less than a decade ago, this converted rural roadside pub offers the lot - a main coffee shop/bar/restaurant with several spacious bedrooms, a shop and gallery, plenty of outdoor seating, much of it under cover, and, crucially, tonnes of parking space.

I’m writing this piece during my fourth annual pilgrimage to C&M and it feels like a real home from home. It’s not essential to have petrol running through your veins to click with this place, nor do you require deep pockets. The car park today, for example, is playing host to quite a few hot hatches of varying vintage, some sporty coupes, the odd supercar and even a couple of motorbikes.

The successful formula at The Hill in Warwickshire has now been replicated at a sister venue, The Bowl, in Bedfordshire, while The Hut is set to bring the C&M vibe to Hampshire. So here’s my appeal to the Caffeine & Machine boys, or any other enterprising individual for that matter, step on the gas pedal and provide Scotland with its own petrolhead nirvana. I’ll be first in the queue for opening day.

Scott Reid is a business journalist at The Scotsman