The restoration was finished on December 26 2004 and ready for it's first shakedown run. Following is the saga of the event.

In January 2005 I was invited by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain to join them in celebrating their 85th year celebrations by participating in a 1000 km rally from Brisbane to Sydney in Australia. There were 8 veteran cars brought out from Britain for the event and six cars from Australia.

This was the first opportunity for me to give my newly restored 1906 Model K a run. I had installed a wet sump system in order to overcome major problems that the car experienced in 1906.

We started in showery weather from Brisbane and immediately found that the oil was dispersing at an enormous rate so every 50 kms or so in addition to the normal stop to fill the radiator with water, we had to add another 4 litres of oil to keep the machine going. With no windscreen or hood we were totally exposed to the elements so donned leather helmets and goggles, and just as well because at the end of the first day's run of some 220 kms my wife and I ended the journey spattered in oil from head to toe.

As my home town was in close proximity to the overnight stop I was able to return to the workshop to work on the car attempting to reduce the leakage of oil. (My wife used the opportunity to replace all the clothes originally packed for the journey with a variety that would cope with the splattering oil!!) The next day we set off to catch the other cars in Grafton some 140 kms away. Having packed a number of rags around the engine cavity there was a small improvement in the volume of oil being spilt but it was still a major problem.

From there we headed up the long and sometimes steep hills of Great Dividing Range onto the tablelands and Armidale. Whilst the car managed with absolutely no trouble at all the oil was still leaking at a great rate and continued to function extremely well as long as the water and 4 litres of oil were kept up every 50 kms, then quite unexpectedly the rear camshaft bearing came loose taking the commutator into the flywheel fan blades and tore through the electrics and ground the car to a halt just out of Walcha.

Leaving my wife on the side of the road to hitch hike I loaded the car into a trailer and headed for the next town that was 140 kms away (thankfully she managed to get a life with a 1908 Renault). I headed for the local Ford Dealer and spent all of that day and up until 1 pm the next day working to get it repaired and functioning again. Whilst I was working in the garage, the temperature reached 45 degrees and the rallying British cars and their drivers and passengers were really struggling in the heat. It was so hot the fuel was evaporating making it extremely difficult for some of the vehicles to get up the hills.

Once repaired and on the road again I endeavoured to catch up with the other cars but after about 80 kms I found that the floorboards near my feet were getting very hot. It was evident that the engine was running hot and the spark needed to be further advanced so I stopped….. but when I pulled back the thick rubber floor covering I discovered that the heat from the exhaust system had completely burnt through the floor and melted right through the rubber. A strange smell was also coming from the back seat area and when I lifted a large plastic box that contained all the wet weather gear I discovered that there was a huge hole in the floor where the exhaust had heated white hot and burned through the floor and the carpet and melted the bottom out of the box, and also melted half the clothes that were inside!! The car had been saved from burning to the ground by a metallic sign describing the vehicle that had fortuitously and quite by coincidence been stored under the box. The 20 litre container of water that was also in the back seat for filling the radiator was used to reduce the heat that was coming from the exhaust system.

After a bit of fiddling I got the car going again and headed for the Hunter Valley wineries to catch up with the other vehicles, arriving so completely exhausted that it took many beers to slow me down!!!. The next day was a rest day so there was time to readjust all possible mechanisms to get the car to the final destination in Sydney the next day.. and of course by then it was raining and very cold and we froze for the whole 170 kms, however in the cooler weather and with the adjustments she ran like a bird up and down all the hills.. and didn't seem to be spilling quite so much oil.

On the final morning in convoy we had a run right into the city of Sydney and over the Harbour Bridge ending the rally at Mrs. Macquarie's chair overlooking the bridge and the famous Sydney Opera House.

It was a great run and a wonderful test for the car. I used approximately 60 litres of oil on a 1000 km journey.. and have decided that the wet sump must go. I think I will replace it with a better system.

PS.. and my wife is still talking to me, although she has gone away to a resort for a week to recuperate!!!

It was large, expensive, had 6-cylinders, and Henry Ford detested it. He envisioned a light, affordable car. Model K was the last gasp of Mr. Ford's original partner, Alexander Malcolmson. By mid-1906, Mr. Malcolmson was gone, and by 1908, so was Model K.

In 1906, Ford Motor Company seemed to be headed in two different directions. Henry Ford was perfecting his first dream car, the light, inexpensive, four-cylinder Model N, predecessor to the famous Model T. Simu1taneously, the huge, powerful, six-cylinder Model K was entering dealers' showrooms. This was an impressive machine, featuring a bore and stroke of 4-1/2 X 4-1/4 inches, giving a displacement of 405 cubic inches and 40 brake horsepower. The wheelbase began at 114 inches, and soon increased to 120. Prices started at $2500, and eventually were increased to $2800, or $3000 with top and head lamps.

Following on the heels of the $2000 Model B, the K represented the last coup of major stockholder Alexander Malcolmson and his cronies, who wished to tap the lucrative luxury market for short-term profits. Like Model B, the K was a bit of a hard sell. The car was plagued with defects, including a crankcase that cracked easily, and an inadequate 2-speed planetary transmission. It was the last upscale, luxury car offered by Ford Motor Company until the acquisition of Lincoln in 1922. Less than 1000 K's were built from 1906 to 1908, and about 25 remain today.

As was the case with Model B, racing was used as a promotional tool for Model K. Frank Kulick had considerable success with several six-cylinder racing machines designed by Mr. Ford to help promote the slow-selling Model K.

In July, 1906. Mr. Ford bought out his original major partner in Ford Motor Company, Alexander Malcolmson, for $175,000, and the stage was set for the company to become the world's largest producer of cars affordable by middle-class buyers ...as soon as the Model K production run was exhausted!

With 2005 over and a lot of "shake-down" post restoration problems from the Brisbane- Sydney run in January 2005 now fixed, two major annoying problems needed to be overcome to have the car able to function well enough for rallying in the future.

1 Oil dispersal problem from the engine. Ford initially redesigned the crankcase to allow better breathing of crankcase pressure. As I did not wish to alter the unique early crankcase design I settled on fitting a belt driven vacuum pump to draw off crankcase pressure. So successful was this that I began to starve oil lubrication to the rectangle designed cam followers. (This area was where most of the oil dispersal was taking place and fine tuning the draw off left just enough oil dispersal to drive well)

2 Water overheating. Ford eventually fixed this by redesigning to a thicker radiator. For me to fix this problem and still retain the unique very early style Camel Back radiator I experimented by slowing the water flow through this narrow 3" core. I knew that I was on the right path when I ran the car in the October Stanthorpe rally without much overheating. However, the real test came with our local club outing where the outside temperature was 38 degrees and after an 80 km run it lost little water.

As for "Machine against Man". I think that man is winning at 2006 end. What idiosyncrasies of madness the car will throw at me in 2007 remains to be seen.