“Nothing I have ever done compares to the trouble I’ve had with this – nothing on this cars was easy.”

Parked across the road nestling amongst the serenity of southern Britain by the seaside is an all-American gas-guzzling motoring icon. Or so it seems…

On closer inspection the orange-liveried off-roader looks… smaller.

Andy Saunders looks at the modified motor and frowns.

“I wouldn’t do another one”, he exhales.

Andy Saunders – TV star, full-time mechanic and record-breaking car customiser – wanders over to the baby Hummer replica like a loving father disciplining a reckless child.

“I wanted a daily driver, something I could use regularly without causing me too much hassle.”

We jump into the low-slung Hummer replica and Andy fires up the engine – but far from raining chaos onto the quaint streets of Bournemouth with a muscle-bound V8 monster, the modified motor just buzzes into life.

“It’s only a 1.2-litre petrol engine underneath.”

The car whizzes off the line and Andy explains.

“I just thought modifying something ordinary and turning it into something amazing would be a good idea.”

“But this car took me ages to finish – it took 200 hours just to finish the roof.”

Orangey-boom

But the finished product is nothing short of amazing.

“It’s based on a Suzuki Wagon R. I chopped the roof down by seven inches, matched up the doors, re-modelled the front using the bootlid from a Peugeot 206 CC and welded Vauxhall Agila parts for the roof.”

Andy’s baby-Hummer replica – dubbed ‘The Alchemist’ – isn’t an ordinary replica.

“I didn’t just want to make an exact copy of the Hummer – that would have been boring.

“So I thought I’d make something a little different.”

And ‘The Alchemist’ has had the touch of TWO famed creators.

“I got in touch with John Langdon – the artist who designed the covers for Dan Brown, who wrote The Da Vinci Code – to draw up the lettering for the car, in the style of the book Angels and Demons.

“I wasn’t expecting a response, but he contacted me saying he was a big fan of custom cars and would do this as a special favour!”

And parked next to the real Hummer, ‘The Alchemist’ looks like it could fit inside the American behemoth. “I suppose they look like those Russian dolls you get”, Andy says, “where one fits inside the other!”

Can’t draw, won’t draw

So where does one of the world’s most inventive designers get his inspiration from?

“I don’t know to be honest”, Andy muses in his Bournemouth drawl. “Alcohol probably.

“I remember someone said that my ideas ‘hopskotch across the horizon like a demented kangaroo’. I really liked that – I think it’s true.

“Growing up I really loved Batman’s car and Lady Penelope’s Rolls Royce.

“I can visualise an idea I want for a car in a split second, and I’ll work from the mental image up here”, Andy says, tapping his head.

But the designer – who broke his own record by building the world’s lowest car – chooses to work in a different way.

“I can’t draw, so I just use whatever’s in my head. That way, I have the image, but nothing is fixed. My creations grow, and this suits me.”

Celebrities and chefs

Andy is a self-confessed workaholic – he spends every working minute customising motors, including his latest love, an American Cord dubbed ‘Tetanus’, which looks like a 1940s super-saloon on steroids.

“I thought to myself, am I wasting my life stuck in my garage every waking minute? I decided to get out and I even watched TV at my friend’s house because I don’t have one of my own.

“I flicked on to Big Brother and just thought, ‘I’d rather be breathing in filler dust than watch this drivel!’”

So how does Andy deal with his own celebrity status?

“I don’t mind, but I once got a fan who thought I was Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I look nothing like him.

“And I can’t cook.”

Low-riding bug

Parked next to Andy’s Hummer replica is a 1980s Volkswagen Caravelle campervan.

“That’s the next big record-breaker – we’re going to make that the world’s lowest van, in just three days at Santa Pod raceway in July, under the watches of the Guinness Book of World Records.”

Andy smiles: “I love that – when the job seems impossible, that really excites me.”