Imagine the prestige felt by a Cadillac owner in 1912! While your neighbors are risking broken arms from cranking a Model T, you hop into your Cadillac, engage the Delco electric starter, and accelerate away without the slightest hint of exertion.

Today, Ken Krolikoski enjoys that same prestige but for different reasons. Owning a 1912 Cadillac places him above the masses in more ways than one.

“It’s so high,” says Ken, “that with its 35-inch wheels I’m at the same level as a city bus driver.”

The tall wheels make for easy steering, but sitting so high (in a right-hand-drive car) has its drawbacks.

“When I’m going down the road, I can’t see anything behind me because I’m on the right and the back of the car is six feet high,” says Ken. “And when you put the top up, the car is probably eight feet high. I can’t get it in my garage with the top up--and raising it is a two-man job--so typically it stays down.”

Ken lives in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area where, coincidentally, the Cadillac was originally purchased in 1911.

“The previous owner was the president of the Horseless Carriage Club in the San Francisco Bay area,” says Ken. “He invested a lot of money in the Cadillac, making mechanical improvements, and then traded it in on a 1936 Packard. Interestingly, he sent me documents showing the Cadillac originally shipped to a dealer in Portland. It’s been around and then returned home.”

One of the things Ken likes best about the Cadillac is its uniqueness.

“I’m into cars that there’s not many of. When I’m at a car show, I don’t want another car showing up just like mine. I’ve never seen a 1932 Packard Deluxe Eight or a 1912 Cadillac at a show. In fact, I’ve never seen another 1912 Cadillac.”

Along with the Cadillac’s uniqueness comes a rather difficult personality--one that is missing a few modern-day refinements.

“I’ve never had so many things vibrate off a car before,” says Ken. “I thought my Packard was rough, because it has a straight axle, but after driving the Cadillac, the Packard feels like an air ride.

“It has a 286 cubic-inch, four-cylinder engine and each cylinder is individually cast. They are beautiful engines because they have copper water jackets. The valve train is exposed, so when you run the engine, you can see the valves going up and down. The one-pass lubrication system uses oil one time and then it leaks out of the engine or gets burnt in the combustion chamber. And the funny thing is, some guy on the Internet said, ‘How do I stop this motor from leaking?’ Someone else said, ‘You don’t want it to stop from leaking!’ The original owner’s manual says you adjust the oil injection to equal the amount that it burns and leaks.”

Driving the Cadillac can be challenging, even for an experienced driver. Top end cruising speed is about 40 miles per hour and although it turns easily, it’s turning radius is like a 30’ RV. Shifting, braking, and even entry and exit require extra effort.

“There’s no door on the driver’s side,” says Ken. “The car is right-hand drive and the driver’s door is on the left. The shifter for the three-speed, top-shifter transmission is right between your knee and the body of the car. Shifting is not the easiest thing to do when you’ve got your leg right there.

“The transmission does not have synchromesh so you have to double clutch it both ways, shifting up and shifting down. I’m pretty good at shifting up, but shifting down is different. Sometimes I can do it and other times, I grind the gears, but you really can’t destroy the gears if you just use normal pressure.

“And the mechanical brakes, which are just the rear wheels, are bands that constrict the outside the wheel drums, but the emergency brake activates a drum brake inside the hub. I live on a hill with pretty steep roads so a 4000 pound car with only rear mechanical brakes presents an interesting challenge. When I’m going down the hill, I feather the emergency brake and the foot brakes so I don’t get them overheated until I reach the bottom. And that’s going down in first gear.”

Although Ken may restore the Cadillac some day, his current plan is just to enjoy it.

“As far as condition, I would say it’s about a 2 minus,” says Ken. “But the nice thing is I can park at the grocery store and not worry about it. If it gets scratched, it gets scratched. There are enough scratches on it already. So, I tend to just enjoy it, though I’m trying to refrain from thinking about new paint. And as it is, it’s won some trophies. It actually won “Best in Show,” at a small car show.

“A humorous moment occurred when I took a customer to a restaurant and I said ‘The reason I’m taking you in the Cadillac is just in case it breaks down, you’re a car guy and you appreciate cars and will understand.’ He drives a Mercedes AMG Coupe that is a land based rocket. After we had lunch and were leaving, the whole wait staff came to look at the car. I hope the other restaurant patrons were forgiving of me for disrupting service with my car!”