The Saint's Hirondel

The Mythical Hirondel from The Saint Books

While the Hirondel was not the only fictional car that Charteris placed the Saint into over the years -- the others included the Furillac and Desurio -- the Hirondel was certainly the most prominent and attention-gathering! The Hirondel was a heart-stopping red and cream sedan, weighing in at over 5,000 lbs, and requiring a light touch on the gas pedal to get anything over 3 to 4 mpg (and with Simon Templar's driving, you can be sure that those figures were often correct). With eight cylinders, this flamboyant and magnificent monster had a heady top speed and throaty exhausts that could be heard for miles.

Car and Driver editor, Waren Wieth remarked that the Hirondel "makes Mr. Bond's Aston Martin sound like a rental from Hertz" in his "Hymn to a Hirondel."

The Last Hero

Some who saw the passage of the Saint that night will remember it to the end of their lives; for the Hirondel, as though recognising the hand of a master at its wheel, became almost a living thing. King of the Road its makers called it, but that night the Hirondel was more than a king: it was the incarnation and apotheosis of all cars. For the Saint drove with the devil at his shoulder, and the Hirondel took its mood from his. If this had been a superstitious age, those who saw it would have crossed themselves and sworn that it was no car at all they saw that night but a snarling silver fiend that roared through London on the wings of an unearthly wind.

Hirondel issue of Automobile Quarterly

The mighty and mythical Hirondel was covered in the First Quarter 1972 issue of Automobile Quarterly (volume 10, number 1), with five different artists presenting their representations of Simon Templar's famous automobile.

Articles in the 1st Quarter 1972 issue included:

• Simon Templar's Hirondel
• The Soap Engine
• Rolls-Royce by Fernandez and Darrin
• The Opel GT
• Bol D'Or
• T-Head Mercer Raceabout
• Model T Ford Raceabout
• AC and the 427 Cobra