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It's a German car; the desert dwellers (Middle East nationals) lose their first and last letters ("heart of" typically means the middle letter only but this setter plays a bit fast and loose as you are well aware).

Thanks, buddy. That was a good one. I don’t get the parsing of 8a and 12d though.

I don't fully understant the parsing of 8a, but (and I'm not proud of this) was able to write in the solution based on GK of professional wrestling. 😳

12d: parses as 1, 1, 3. Definition "I carry home with me".

Took a long time (even by process of elimination) to parse my LOI, the thematic 8d. An OMG moment when the penny dropped.
The similarly thematic 40a is rather funny IMO.

Thanks, geeker. Actually, I had parsed 12d. I didn’t get the definition. Duh.

I still don’t get 8a. I’m pleased to say I had to look up the name though. Not that I’m looking DOWN on you…

I think for 8a to work the clue needs to read WATCHED A so it's a homophone for SEEN-A/CENA

The "with a career" part of 8a still confuses me. Maybe it's a hint about pro rasslin'. Apparently the wrestler uses a watch as part of his shtick (that, thankfully, is courtesy of Google 🤣), so "watch" is a funny touch.