First supercar for superstars
QUESTION Why do Americans call something that’s one of a kind a doozy?
Doozy is a contraction of Duesenberg, a luxury American car brand from the 1920s and 1930s. The Model A had a 260cu in, 88hp engine, then the largest in a commercially available vehicle.
Duesenberg won the 1921 French Grand Prix, the first American car to do so, and also had racing success at Indianapolis. The company was bought by luxury brand Cord in 1926 and it set about designing a car to outclass all other American marques.
The Model J was introduced in 1929 with a 265hp engine, at prices from $14,000 to $20,000 (the equivalent of $240,000 or £198,000 to $340,000 or £297,000 today). They are considered to be among the most luxurious cars of the time.
Duesenbergs were innovative machines. They were the first cars with a straighteight motor and four-wheel hydraulic brakes. Various models had four valves per cylinder, double overhead camshafts and superchargers.
They were driven by film stars, royalty and millionaires. oscar-winning actor
Gary Cooper owned a Model SSJ (a modified Model J) that could do rest to 60 mph in less than eight seconds.
It was sold in 2018 for $22 million (£19million), a record at the time for an American car. A Doozy indeed!
Nick Wootton, Wallasey, Wirral.
QUESTION Have any British artists had a No 1 in Japan?
SINCE the oricon Singles Chart, the official Japanese music chart, first appeared on January 4, 1968, just 12 Western acts have topped it, six of which were British.
The first three British hits each spent a week at no 1: the Bee Gees with
Massachusetts in 1968; Mary Hopkin with Those Were The Days in 1969; and The new Seekers with I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony) in 1972. Daniel Boone from Birmingham had a remarkable international hit with Beautiful Sunday in 1972. It reached only no. 21 in the UK but topped the charts in Germany, new zealand, norway and South Africa. He re-released it in Japan in 1976 and it spent 15 weeks at the top of the charts, making it the best-selling single by a foreign artist. The nolans spent two weeks in the top spot in 1980 with I’m In The Mood For Dancing, and elton John’s Candle In The Wind was no. 1 for a week in 1997. Harry Topp, Chesterfield, Derbys.
QUESTION Does any modern crime fiction have characters who don’t swear?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, Britishborn author Lee Child writes books about brutal characters who don’t hesitate to kill.
yet his protagonist Jack reacher, a 6ft 5in former U.S. military policeman built like a brick outhouse, never swears. But you will find a smattering of swear-words by other characters in the books.
British crime and detective novelist Anne Perry is the bestselling author of the William Monk and Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series set in Victorian england. Her stories may involve violent murders, but there is no bad language.
Martin Barnett, Salisbury, Wilts.
IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.