MOUNT PLEASANT — He was clearly going bananas. A longtime lover of American automobiles, Steve Braithwaite posed this question to himself in 2008: “If I was going to build something ridiculous, what would I build?”

 

He got the answer about a month later when he found himself standing in line at a gas station, staring at a nearby bowl of fruit. There on top of the bowl was a bright yellow banana, one with not too much of a bend.

 

“I pictured it driving down the road and started laughing,” Braithwaite said. “And I was so engrossed in this, I didn’t realize the line ahead of me had cleared. I’m now standing in the middle of the store staring at a banana.”

 

But the time was well spent. Thus was born his novel idea for one of the most a-peeling rides to hit the road: the bright yellow Big Banana Car that has captured the attention of drivers and pedestrians everywhere — lately in Northeast Texas.

 

Braithwaite and his berry yellow ride have been spotted around Mount Pleasant for a few weeks. He hopes to be in Victoria soon, and he’ll keep his fans updated on his Big Banana Car Facebook page.

 

He’s been in town to have the crew at Legendary Concepts, a custom truck builder owned by local businessman Jon Anderson, ripen up the engine and other parts on his one-of-a-kind auto.

 

The banana car is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “longest custom banana car,” measuring 22 feet, 10.5 inches long.

 

As he sat recently in the lobby at Legendary Concepts, Braithwaite talked about the car that has earned him nationwide attention. His British accent hasn’t been dulled by the decades he’s spent living in the U.S.

 

He grew up across the pond and fell in love with American hot rods after watching the film “American Graffiti” as a teenager. He later moved to the states and kept up his automotive affinity.

 

Several years ago, he watched an episode of British automotive TV series “Top Gear” in which drivers operated a shed and a couch that were made into street-legal vehicles.

 

That’s when he was inspired to create a wild ride of his own. After his epiphany at the gas station, his vision for a banana car became the apple of his eye. 

Braithwaite went to a junkyard and found a Ford F-150 to use for a frame. Then he went to a supermarket to get a banana, which he used as to model to shape the car. It’s built out of rebar, urethane foam and fiberglass.

 

At the front end, a tinge of green paint around the radiator shows that the car is ripe for riding; it has a seat for the driver and three passengers, each one slightly higher than the one before. At the other end, the stem sticks up several feet into the air.

 

Braithwaite took about two-and-a-half years to build the car, working mostly on Sundays. He was living in Pennsylvania at the time, and for the car’s maiden voyage, he took it to a festival in Minnesota. Ever since then, he’s been peeling out from his driveway to destinations across the country. He has participated in the annual Houston Art Car Parade and Festival featuring other wacky car creations such as his.

 

The banana car is his daily driver and has more than 230,000 miles on the odometer. Braithwaite has been to most of the 48 states in the continental U.S. He makes enough money to pay for the car’s gas by giving rides, but he relies on the kindness of strangers such as Anderson to house him while he’s in town.

 

Like a postman, he treks on no matter the weather in his cab-less car.

 

“It’s like the motorcycle. You just accept that you’re going to get wet, and I have gotten drenched,” he said. “I was in a hail storm in Orlando one time. It was so vicious, all the cars on that bit of interstate were pulling to the side of the road, and they got roofs. And there’s me, and I had nothing to shelter myself with. So now, if you look in there, there’s umbrellas.”

 

The speedometer tops out at 85, and he’s had it there. The ride is, surprisingly, as smooth as a banana smoothie.

 

So, how’d he wind up in Mount Pleasant?

 

Braithwaite was at an ice cream shop in Mineral Wells to give people rides a couple of months ago. One of Anderson’s friends sent Anderson a video of the car cruising down the road, and Anderson had Legendary Concepts’ social media manager invite him to town.

 

Alan Vollmering, a mechanic at Legendary, has been fixing the banana car’s brakes, wheel hubs and engine. Getting parts for the car at local auto parts stores has been interesting, he said.

 

“It’s a running gag around town,” he said. “If I go somewhere and need something for it, I just look at them and say, ‘It’s for the banana car.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah. We saw that thing rolling around town, saw it on the news, saw it on the internet.’

 

“Everybody knows the banana car.”

 

For Anderson, getting to help keep the banana car on the road is an honor.

 

“Steve’s heart is to make people smile, and really, what better ambition in life could you have than to make everyone around you smile?” Anderson said. “We love that about him. We love that about the banana car. And that’s really our heart as well.”

 

Smiles were on the faces of those who saw the car cruising through downtown Mount Pleasant this past week. Braithwaite parked the car in front of Laura’s Cheesecake & Café, and from up the street, three women working at the Sugar Emporium ice cream and candy shop came to take a look.

 

“I think it’s bananas,” said Kelsey Chapin. “Who can say that they saw a banana going down the street and they didn’t slip?”

 

Braithwaite said he hopes to take his car around the world, but he’s got to raise funds first. After leaving Mount Pleasant, he’ll head to Victoria and then — insurance company permitting — into Mexico.

 

Before long, he’ll be banana-splitting south to meet more of his fruity fans.

 

“It’s the best thing in the world,” he said. “I was not prepared for the reception that that car gets. It blows my mind. It’s been on the road for 14 years, and it still shocks me. It’s just fantastic.”

Jordan Green is a Report for America Corps Member at the Longview News-Journal. He can be reached at jordan.green@news-journal.com.