NEBRASKA is a long way for a veteran car enthusiast from Hobart, but in Ken Hall's case, it was a trip well worth making.

"I get a lot of emails about auctions from a friend of mine, but when I saw what was up for grabs, I knew this was one auction not to miss," he said.

The bait was a rare 1907 Aerocar and, determined to add it to his collection, Ken set off for the deceased estate auction in the US midwest - albeit via Sydney, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Sioux City in Iowa.

The protracted journey, however, paled in comparison to the unorthodox auction.

"It was a very interesting auction - the chap had a lot of veteran parts," Ken said.

"But you had to be there in person to bid, and there was no actual catalogue, it was kind of all just laid out on the floor in front of you."

There were four large trailers loaded with parts, and the rest of the items for sale - carburettors, lights, brass instruments - were in two rows on the ground.

First off the blocks was a 1912 L30 Locomobile that went for $145,000, followed by a 1909 Kissel Kar Model LD9 Touring car that sold for $110,000.

Then it was the Aerocar's turn in the spotlight.

Ken was well aware of its value: it was air-cooled; well made, with a lovely Victorian-style body; expertly engineered; and almost entirely unique, with only one other survivor of the entire manufacturing run from 1906 to 1908.

It had a mostly rebuilt motor, but was still largely in its original condition.

Unfortunately, another bloke had his eye on it.

"He was bidding pretty seriously, but he eventually dropped off and I got the car for $22,000," Ken said.

"I am glad he didn't bid any higher, as I would like to say I would have stopped at $25,000 - but who knows?

"You can get quite bullish at those things."

Ken also had his eye on a 1910 Cadillac, but that one ran away from him.

"It was mostly unrestored and went for $41,000 which was well out of my price range."

The Aerocar is not the first early model Ken has fallen in love with.

He owns a number of early motorcycles and some notable pre-1913 cars, including a 1910 single-cylinder De Dion-Bouton and a 1913 Leon Bollee.

Ken's most recent model bike is a 1949 Norton, and it is little surprise that he has short shrift for later incarnations.

"They (veteran vehicles) are individuals, and they were constructed as such," Ken said.

"These days you would be battling to tell the difference between a Ford and a Holden.

"Back in that era, the bike and cars were built to be different and you can see the way manufacturers tackled problems by the way they developed over the years.

"These days, a car bonnet can hide a multitude of sins."

Ken likes to take his time on his restoration projects, and once spent 20 years working on a motorbike.

"It was an on-off sort of thing. Sometimes you get stuck, and the project gets too hard and you end up putting it away for a bit," he said.

His biggest project so far has been the overhaul of his Leon Bollee.

"It had no radiator, no front axle, an empty gear box, you name it. I had to scrounge around for parts," he said.

"A friend of mine gave me bits of a body and it fit perfectly on to the chassis and I thought, 'uh oh, now I am committed'."

For now, though, his focus is on his new Aerocar, which he hopes to debut at a car rally in 2013.

"I will give it a fresh coat of paint and make a few other minor changes; it is a little too far gone to leave it as it is," he said.

While some enthusiasts are loath to tinker too much with the original for fear of putting a foot wrong, Ken isn't too worried about getting his adjustments scrutinised by other restorers.

"Because it is a such a rare car there are no experts in the world to tell you that what you are doing is wrong," he said.

"The rarer the car, the fewer the experts you have to deal with.

"Which suits me just fine."