Requiem for an imaginary car

[Mick Lynch]

I grew up in rural Northumberland in the 70s and 80s. An only child of parents that didn’t drive my life was dictated by school buses and public transport, hence the ability to socialize was reduced. Probably because of this I became an avid reader and my juvenile passion was for ‘The Saint’ books by Leslie Charteris.

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Bored one afternoon when I was about 8 I came across a box of Pan books that belonged to my mother and attracted by the bright covers fished out and started to read, and then re-read the adventures of Simon Templar and his gang of crime fighters known as ‘the halos’. Twenty years before James Bond each book had Simon bagging the baddies, getting the girl and after taking his 10% ‘fee’ donating the loot to charity. All good rip roaring fun for a 12 year old to read.

One thing I liked and which stuck in my mind was the descriptions of the cars. Simon drove a low sleek Desotio 12 cylinder. The baddies usually, drove black Furyacs with massive headlights. Of course the police drove Wolseleys, judges drove Bentleys and country magistrates drive Morrises. I always wondered about the Desotio and Furyacs. I imagined them to be exotic European or American cars, and even looked them up in library books but couldn’t find them (this was the pre internet age) but they remained as good mental images.

Anyway, time progresses and eventually I put the Saint books away as I discovered girls, alcohol, left school, apprenticeship, work, driving test, marriage and the rest.

This month I came across the books again, and in a fit of nostalgia started reading them again. Then I came across the chapter that introduces the long forgotten Desotio - I could finally see what it looked like courtesy of the web!

Imagine what I feel like as I finally found out that Charteris made up the marque and the cars! So something so real for 40 odd years was nothing more than the authors creation - but when I read the books I still hear the V12 roar!

[Classiccars]

I bet you can make a moggie roar on a steep hill down in a low gear.