WWHD—WHAT WOULD HOLMES DRIVE?

I RECENTLY HAD THE DELIGHT (AND HONOR) OF BEING INTERVIEWED on the “I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere” Podcast with Baker Street Irregulars Scott Monty and Burt Wolder. With due respect to podcasters Scott and Burt, the actual interview begins around 10:13. (Interesting podcast info prior to this.)

“The Game Is Afoot” Category. Scott recalls that my first “The Game Is Afoot” item at SimanaitisSays “Watson’s Eyesight, Holmes’ Eating Habits,”August 17, 2012, was only four days after the website’s inaugural posting. And, of course, The Game Is Afoot category has continued to flourish along with Cars, Old, New, and Future; Science and Technology; Vintage Aero; Computer Flight Sim; I Usta Be an Editor Ya’ Know; and And Furthermore (this last one, for anything else I damned well feel like writing about). Scott also asked a wonderful question: What car would Holmes have driven with Watson bejesus-terrified? Here are tidbits enhancing—not just gleaned from—my response. Indeed, WWHD, What Would Holmes Drive?

The Mycroftian Answer. Holmes’ elder brother Mycroft, unclubbable, superbly deductive, and oversize, would have agreed with what I noted back in “Motor Holmes,” September 15, 2012 (note, another early posting).

In “His Last Bow,” it’s noted Canonically, “As the big Benz ‘swung around the village street it nearly passed over a little Ford coming in the opposite direction.” 

Holmes was in that little Ford being driven by Watson. No surprise, I noted, because by 1916 “fully 55 percent of the cars in the world were Model T Fords.” In retrospect, this is quite the astounding figure.

And, as I described to Scott and Burt, even in 1925 near the end of the Model T’s production, 50 percent of the world’s cars were Model Ts.

Let’s Put Holmes At the Wheel. Ah, but it was Watson driving the little Ford. The question remains: WWHD? 

This is an easy one, albeit nonCanonical and, some might say, anachronic. Yet as Holmes is timeless, I would put him at the wheel of the 1933 Napier-Railton, which, indeed, I too had opportunity to drive back in 2007.

As noted back then, “I’m bigger than the average bear, but the Napier-Railton is bigger yet.” Image by John Lamm.

Broad-Arrow 24-Liter 12-Cylinder Powered. British sportsman John Cobb’s Brooklands-dominating race car had a Napier Lion aircraft engine, a design already having powered the Supermarine Sea Lion II and S.5 to aerial Schneider Cup victories in 1922 and 1927.

The Napier Lion aircraft engine has a trio of 8-liter fours arranged in a broad-arrow configuration.

Why Watson Would Have Trembled. A memorable photo of Cobb and the Napier-Railton at Brooklands River Way bump suggests the car’s aero heritage. 

No doubt Holmes’ first drive of the Napier-Railton would have taken place at Brooklands, as shown by this rare photograph. I suspect it was shot after lapping the circuit; how otherwise to explain Holmes’ ashen complexion. 

No doubt with familiarity came a heavier right foot (on the middle-placed throttle pedal). In this second photo, a larger-than-life Holmes passes his friend on a road circling the Monterey, California, polo field. 

Indeed, Holmes and I are evidently in good company.

Thanks, Scott and Burt, for your podcast cordiality and its rekindling Sherlockian memories. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026