Early in his career, Wikner and his older brother, Roy, built what is now regarded as the oldest racing car in Australia.

What’s more, the claim is recognised across the world, and the surviving vehicle is now on display, touring America for two years.

Not bad for an old T-Model Ford built largely from used parts, including copper exhaust pipes made from a toilet cistern, in 1922.

Known as the 1922 Wikner Model T Special, the ingenious vehicle later became a mystery, unidentified for 36 years until 1994.   

Captain Wikner, who died in Cooma in 1990, was a daring adventurer who designed and built aircraft.

As well, he once ferried more than 1000 aircraft to airfields in World War II Britain.

But he is forever linked to Port Stephens, because he gambled successfully on flying his family and many others to Australia in 1945 onboard a 30-ton former Halifax Bomber.

The hazardous 22-day flight from England in the aircraft ‘Waltzing Matilda’ made headlines everywhere and featured on this history page a fortnight ago. The historic bomber was, sadly, later scrapped.

Geoff Wikner and his wife, Trudy, soon established an early caravan park/holiday centre at Little Beach, in Port Stephens. They named it Halifax Park in honour of the mighty aircraft.

But there was another side to the resourceful Geoff Wikner that I was totally unaware of until speaking this week to Novocastrian Rob Rowe.

“Did you know Geoff Wikner, of Halifax Bomber fame, also built a racing car? It was used (for publicity) to tow his incomplete home-built aeroplane to an airfield, in Queensland,” Rowe said.

“The T-model Ford was a World War I type design. By 1927, it was wildly out of date with a two-speed gearbox. It was very high off the ground because of our poor, early roads.

“Geoff Wikner then built a special, separate chassis underneath to get a lower centre of gravity. He used his brains and a small hand drill, I think,” Rowe said.

“Doug Partington, of Allora, Queensland, has now owned it for about 60 years, but it was once a mystery. He didn’t know what he had for years.”

Later, Partington, now 75, said he had always wanted to own a racing car since he was a young boy.

He said that in 1958 he noticed a local newspaper ad for a complete but dismantled old race car. He could scrape together only 14 pounds (about $28), but the seller accepted the price. The next four years were spent reassembling the car.

Partington said Geoff Wikner must have had the heart of a lion to even consider racing his T-model Ford with its spindly wheels, axles and tyres.

“Lucky my dad insisted I do a sympathetic restoration, to bring it back to its original condition. Don’t bugger it up, he told me," he said.

“I could make it go faster and look beautiful. But it wouldn’t be the same pure T-model.”

Partington said he became aware of the 1922 Wikner Special only when a fellow motoring enthusiast suggested he check out a book about Wikner called Flight of the Halifax in 1994.

Partington discovered that young Geoff and Roy Wikner were selling Indian motorbikes in Leura, in the Blue Mountains, when they decided to build a sample race car to attract future aviation backers.

What is now Australia’s oldest locally built racing car was born out of imported parts around a Ford Model T four-cylinder engine. The brothers then entered the Wikner Special in inaugural races at Olympia Speedway at Maroubra Beach in 1925.

This was once planned to be Australia’s Indianapolis. The vehicle then towed Geoff Wikner’s first airplane up to Archerfield, in Brisbane.

In 1934, Geoff Wikner decided to travel to England. He sold his Wicko Cabin Sports aeroplane and left the Wikner Special race car with the family he’d stayed with to cover outstanding rent. The family at Archerfield didn’t know how to handle the old race car, which deterioriated and was finally sold after World War II.

Doug Partington is still amazed by how sophisticated the Wikner's home-made race car was for the 1920s.

“The car’s tail is even shaped like the rudder of a World War I biplane with a metal skin, instead of fabric, pulled up over it. Rebuilding it exactly has been fulfilling a dream, I suppose.

“At a time when a lot of cars were being over-restored, we even left the hammer marks left by a blacksmith. I’m so glad I didn’t chop it up and convert it into something else.

“The Wikner Special is the oldest-built Australian racing car. Older (overseas) racing cars have since been imported into this country,” he said.

“You know, I could drive the Wikner Special in the USA if I wished as it is privately road registered over there for the princely sum of $35 for an eight-year permit.”

In 2013 the Wikner Special was inducted into the Model T Ford Club of America’s Speedster Hall of Fame – a rare honour.

For a while, there was talk the present American circuit tour might be the last time the Wikner Special might be seen outside of a museum.

“Not really true," Partington said.

"There’s a car exhibition held in Winton, in outback Queensland, each May. They’d like to have my vehicle there for a birthday party in 2022. That’s when it will be 100 years old.”

Partington said the Wikner Special race car was now a family heirloom.

“I’ve sold it on paper to my son who lives in Newcastle. He has three boys and they’re all motor racing mad,” he said

“And for its age, the race car is holding up extremely well. It's not done many miles in recent years, but my son did do 400miles in it in the States last year.

"That’s a lot more than it’s done on the racetrack.      

“You can’t use the original tyres on a modern race track. There’s too much grip. At speed, the tyres just want to pull off the rims.”

Partington admits his unique Wikner Special sometimes discourages people wanting to ride in it. Somehow, a proposed trip seems all too scary.

“The Wikner gets up to a good speed. In one photograph (pictured) I think I was overtaking a MGB on a corner,” he said.

“I’ve actually taken a few passengers along for a ride, but the funny thing is no one wants to come back for a second time,” he laughed.