If you’re researching the Café Racer by Sanremo, you’re probably wondering what kind of features it comes with, if it’s worth the price and who it’s built for.
We have had the pleasure of using the Café Racer within our main office for a number of years, and we know the ins and outs of the machine. Whilst we do offer the Café racer as an option for our wholesale coffee customers, we know it’s not for everyone. We aren’t interested in selling you a machine that you’ll end up regretting in a few month’s time. We like to build long lasting relationships and, for that, we want you to be informed.
So, continue reading to learn all about the Sanremo Café Racer, its coffee brewing capabilities, design and customisation, pricing, service and maintenance, and if there’s anything we don’t like about it.
Looking for help with your Café Racer? Click through to read our Café Racer Ultimate User Guide.
Brewing Coffee with the Sanremo Café Racer
The Café Racer is a pleasure to brew coffee with. So much so that it’s been the dedicated staff coffee machine at our main roastery in Cardiff for the last four years.
Along with providing a simple and intuitive user experience, with incredibly consistent brew parameters, the Racer also provides a suite of custom programmable options to keep even the most skilled barista entertained.
Coffee Brewing Features
- Variable boiler temperature accurate to 0.1c.
- Programmable pre-infusion time.
- Up to four custom brewing programs, plus manual brewing, per group head.
- Repeatable volumetric dosing with programmable shot volumes.
- Variable brew pressure.
- Dedicated Boilers for each group head and steam wand.
- Volumetric pump providing pressure stability.
- High pressure steam boiler for fast, high-quality steaming.
Though the machine does not allow for pressure and temperature profiling, now offered by some of the most advanced espresso machines, the Sanremo Café Racer provides everything a barista could need to craft incredible, repeatable coffee.
Realistically, the barista will not have much day-to-day involvement with the brew parameters of the machine and will simply dial in each coffee by grind size (if at all). However, for those cafes seeking to achieve the highest quality and are constantly rotating their coffee menu, those features are at your disposal.
Design & Build
Overall, the fit and finish of the Café Racer is that of a premium commercial espresso machine. With tight tolerances, quality build materials, tactile buttons and switches, and textures providing an overall fantastic user experience.
The group head, portafilters and boilers are built with AISI 316 stainless steel which are corrosion resistant and therefore do not tarnish or corrode under regular use, unlike the materials used on cheaper machines.
Design Features
- 2 – 3 group head configurations.
- Spacious, adjustable height drip tray.
- Solid-steel group heads, portafilter and boilers for temperature stability and durability.
- Cool touch steam wand with joystick-style freedom of movement.
- Hot & cold water mixed dispenser for the perfect temperature hot water.
- Display for each group head and a main pressure display.
- Spacious heated cup storage with programmable temperature.
Price
The Café Racer sits towards the more premium end of the Sanremo line-up, with list pricing starting at around £14,000. The final cost to the customer is affected by the number of goup heads, customisation options, and the type of coffee machine purchase contract they are buying into.
Learn more about what affects the price of coffee machines here -> Costs of Wholesale Coffee Explained.
Enjoying this review? Sign up for coffee blogs, videos and reviews straight to your inbox every fortnight.
Customisation
The racer was clearly designed to mimic the design style and aesthetic of a modern motorcycle, with steel pipe accents, piston-like group heads, and speedometer style displays of the brew process.
An obvious focus for the team at Sanremo, when designing the Racer, was to allow for a high level of customisation.
From their Naked line-up featuring transparent glass panels to look inside the ‘engine’, to a range of prebuilt custom options including Dolomiti, Racing, Moto di Ferro, and the iconic leather accented Renegade.
Also offering a more standard line-up of custom looks including White & Wood, Black & White and Full White, the Café Racer is sure to look good in any surrounding.
Service and Maintenance
The Café Racer is a reliable workhorse. Our service & maintenance team come across issues rarely, with the occasional leak or drop in pressure being due to minor issues such as a gasket that needs replacing.
Having a dedicated brew boiler for each group head also means that during any issues with a boiler or group head, the other group head(s) should stay in full working order. You won’t need to fully shut down your coffee offering whilst it’s attended to.
We would recommend that the small replaceable parts (gaskets, shower screens and steam wand tips) are replaced yearly to minimise the chance of leaks and pressure drops. With daily backflushing of the group heads, filtering your water supply to reduce limescale, performing yearly boiler inspections and paying attention to overall cleanliness, your Sanremo Café Racer will be a dependable coffee machine for years to come.
Problems with the Sanremo Café Racer
There is much to love about the Café Racer, and though there are some features that are missing from their top of the line machine, the Opera, to save on pricing, there is only one thing we would complain about.
We find that amongst the brew parameters, adjusting brew pressure by turning a dial at the pump is not nearly as intuitive as the rest of the variables which are accessible via the screens at the group head. Though this is something you’ll adjust rarely, it would be nice to be able to adjust brew pressure in the same place as all other brew parameters.
Who is the Sanremo Café Racer for?
The Café Racer by Sanremo is for the specialty coffee shop, where design aesthetic, coffee quality, reliability and speed are priority.
The Racer provides the tools any barista could ask for to brew incredible levels of coffee, reducing any worry of inconsistency being incredibly reliable, easy to service and maintain. Built for the coffee fanatics in mind, we also see the design language of this machine fitting in perfectly inside a car or bike showroom or racing event.
Is the Café Racer Good Value for Money?
If you’re wondering “is the Sanremo Café Racer worth the price?”, we can’t make that decision for you.
There are certainly other machines to look out for in the same price bracket during your research, ,ut if the design language speaks to you, and you’re seeking an ultimate coffee brewing experience, the Sanremo Café Racer would be great option.
