IN PART 1 YESTERDAY, WE CITED several cars appearing in Harry Nile adventures. We continue today with two more that our sleuth drove: a 1936 Bentley and a 1942 DeSoto.
The Bentley Adventure. Dorothy Leland is a recurring sorta love interest in Harry’s Los Angeles adventures. She’s the divorced spouse/widow of Jack Leland, killed while working as A-1 Fabricators’ security officer prior to Harry’s employment there. Jack is a naturalized U.S. citizen, a relocated Brit with an evident enthusiasm for cars: Dorothy gets a 1936 Bentley in the divorce; Jack drives a ’34 Hudson Terraplane. (Later, a cop tells Harry, “Those old Terraplanes are as fast as greased lightening. I’ve had to chase a few and they can outrun my V-8.”).
A 1936 Terraplane. Image from Stahls Automotive Collection.
Harry Pilots the Bentley. The “Weekend in Heaven” episode is a hoot, with Harry’s likable if conniving pal Marvin setting up a free weekend for Harry and Dorothy at a new Laguna Beach resort. Not trusting Tondelayo for that distance (“a hundred-mile round trip”), Harry is encouraged to fire up Dottie’s garaged Derby Bentley.
“When I told all this to Dorothy,” Harry recounts, “she squealed like a high-school girl, gave me the keys to her ’36 Bentley, and, by golly, after coaxing the choke and goosing the gas, it finally started.”
He continued, “So that Friday afternoon, with me driving from the righthand seat, we headed south with the top rolled back and a warm wind tossing Dottie’s hair, while I held on to the big wood steering wheel and tried to get used to shifting with my left hand.”
A 1936 Bentley 4 1/-2 Litre All-weather Tourer. Image bradfieldcars.com.
Opps. To quote from the Bentley Motors, Ltd. Instruction Book, “The gearbox has four speeds and reverse. The change speed lever is on the driver’s right.”
From the Instruction Book.
Curiously, whether in its standard righthand-drive or in export lefthand-drive versions, the shift lever was positioned to the driver’s right. That is, lhd Bentleys of the era had what we Yanks would call a conventional center-mounted shifter. Eventually, column shifts were fitted, which changed this (and would have eliminated Harry’s imagined difficulty).
Note, the driver’s seat of an rhd Bentley often had a notch in its upholstery to accommodate the shifter. Image from Hyman Ltd.
In any event, a good time was had by Harry and Dorothy with her ’36 Bentley in “A Weekend in Heaven.”
A New (Used) Car. Harry has moved to Seattle and set up sleuthing with Murphy, a sweet librarian type who also knows her way around the detective arts. It’s the fall of 1950, it’s raining in Seattle, and Harry’s trusty if rusty ’37 Ford Coupe Tondelayo has been torched by a guy Harry “sent up the river.”
It’s time for Harry and Murphy to seek out something “Almost As Good As New.”
Car Shopping. Murphy says brightly, “Here’s an ad in the paper for a Duesenberg.” “Duesenberg?!?” says Harry. “And here’s one for an Auburn Speedster,” says Murphy.
“Sure,” Harry says, “And how about a neon sign saying ‘You are being followed by a private detective?’ ”
“Are you folks in the market for a good used car?,” a guy in the next booth says.
Morris Motor Company. Before long, “Harry and Murphy are standing in the rain at Morris Motor Company, the squalid home of twenty used cars.” Among them are a black foor-door sedan (“too much like an unmarked police car,” says Harry); a sporty Packard (“too fancy, too easy to spot”); a dandy little Studebaker (“something a little bit bigger; I might have to spend the night on a stakeout”); a Nash with a bed in the back (“I don’t want to get that comfortable.”).
A 1942 DeSoto Convertible. “A very rare model too,” Morris says. (Indeed, no cars, commercial trucks, or auto parts were made from February 1942 to October 1945.) “The factory built only a few of them before converting to making tanks. I can get you into this baby for under a grand.”
“Hmm…,” says Harry. “Nice leather seats, pretty dashboard, ‘Safety Signal’ speedometer, pushbutton radio. It smells good in here…. kinda perfumey.”
The pair is driving away in the “$900 plus” DeSoto when Murphy tells Harry, “I think you got gypped.” She has discovered the dealer bought the car for $400—what’s more, she notices, “This car doesn’t have any headlights!”
This and following images from Mac’s Motor City Garage.
Harry delights in showing Murphy a feature of the ’42 DeSoto: Airfoil Lights, headlights hidden behind articulated lids. (Cords had them earlier, but not nearly as slick in operation.)
The ’42 DeSoto also featured Chrysler Airtemp air conditioning with the bulky evaporator and distributor mounted behind the rear seat and exterior stying that concealed the running boards.
Mac’s Motor City Garage recounts, “Another advanced feature offered by DeSoto at the time was Simplimatic, a four-speed semi-automatic transmission based on Chrysler’s Fluid Drive system. DeSoto pioneered in marketing as well, offering options not often available to mid-priced car buyers in those days.”
Mac continues, “The Personalized Interiors program offered as many as 10 available upholstery and trim combinations, while an option package called the Fifth Avenue Ensemble included unique chrome rear fender trim, a premium seven-tube radio, and a cigarette case built into the steering wheel.”
Like me, Harry had quit smoking a long time ago. But he still enjoyed the DeSoto’s other innovations—for a brief time.
No spoilers here. It’ll ruin “Almost As Good As New.”
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanatisSays.com, 2025