Can a car have a soul?

{image1} Can a car have a soul? It certainly can, if you talk to Bill Dredge, the owner of Mequon's Sportscar Services, a classic car restoration firm that specializes in British models built before about 1980.

"The soul is an important motivation for people to show up here," says Dredge, who's customers pay well over face value to get their Lotus, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Bentley or Austin-Healey (to name a few) back into show condition.

Of course, Dredge isn't really claiming that a car can have a soul as much as he's saying that a particular vehicle can hold a special place in a customer's heart -- and that's why they come to him.

One customer, for example, took some of his tuition money back in the '70s and bought himself a MG Midget. He never told his parents, and he never had enough money to keep it in good condition, but it carried him all throughout college. Finally, he was forced to sell the car, but years later, when he could afford it, he tracked down the same make and model.

"He made a point to buy a white one, the same year, and it was a pile of junk. But he said, 'Make a perfect car out of this. I need to be able to drive it every day to work, but I also want to have fun with it.'"

By the time the restoration was complete, he had spent about $16,000 on the car. By comparison, one can buy a Midget in excellent condition -- but probably not the same year or color -- for about $6,000.

"But he didn't do that, and I asked him why. We could have taken a green that wasn't rusted out and painted it white. He said, 'It reminded me of my car; it looked like my car when I had to sell it, and I wanted to save it. I was gonna apologize to it.'"

Dredge can point to many more examples of that connection between man and machine, but some are more extreme than others.

Take one customer's extremely rare 1973 lime green Lotus Europa. The owner drove the fiberglass sports car to a race in Montreal as soon as he bought it, when it had only 34 miles on it. In Canada, it broke a rear shock strut assembly. The owner convinced a farmer to drag the car into his barn with his tractor. He welded the shock back on to the car so he could finish the trip, without even stopping at a gas station, since the car had two giant fuel tanks in the rear.

Years later, he fell upon financial hardship and had to stop maintaining the finicky Lotus. He stored the car in his own garage, refusing to sell it. In fact, he put a mattress on top of it and used it as storage. The woman who attended the race in Canada was now his wife, and the two of them considered the car part of the family history. Now, his luck has taken a turn for the better and he asked Dredge to restore the car.

It's not done yet, but so far, the customer has invested about $65,000 into restoring the car, which Dredge says could be bought at an auction today for about $25,000.

"I feel like it's important to address that disparity up front, and then frequently," says Dredge. "So many people get so excited so early in the process. We ask them if they're sure this is the course of action they want to take."

Invariably, they tell Dredge to continue.

"We've been in business for 11 years, and they always ask us to hurry up."

Dredge knows that not every mechanic out there would give his customers numerous opportunities to stop a project before it gets too expensive.

"There are three things we discuss in the reviews: the original motivation, the expectation at the outset, and when we're screwing it back together, is there something else? Expectations, when the dollar signs are so high, are gigantic."

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Indeed, Dredge and his employees have a unique, Zen-like approach to auto mechanics.

"I hope that's what causes the customers to come in here," he says.

That, and he speaks in a plain and ordinary way that doesn't intimidate, either. He says he knows who is his bread and butter, and speaking down to the customer doesn't engender trust, which is key in this line of work.

Dredge only works on British cars that were built before carmakers started installing computers into engines, which was around 1980 on most models. That said, he'll service almost any car made in England, and a handful made in France or Italy.

"The most frustrating project was an Aston Martin DB4, because it was an expensive car and it was for a client who wasn't sure what he wanted. The most expensive car was a factory Jaguar racer that had to be brought back to original condition," he recalls.

But the most exciting projects to work on, says Dredge, are the cars that people are the most keyed up about.

His favorite project was actually a French car, called a 2CV, for a husband and wife who rented one on their honeymoon in Belgium. For their 30th wedding anniversary, they bought a 2CV in Chicago and had it delivered to Milwaukee on a trailer.

"It was a pile of junk," Dredge told the couple. "I said, let's go to France and bring one back here for less money than what it would cost to rebuild this car."

But the couple insisted, and Dredge obliged. He painted it electric yellow and upholstered it in plaid. The couple moved to South Carolina, and they still send Dredge postcards of them standing next to the car.

When Dredge's firm isn't restoring and servicing British cars, it's indulging customers on another luxury hobby: Sportscar Services does a turn-key job for the weekend auto racer, bringing the car to the races, making sure it runs that day, then taking it back to storage when the competition is over. It's the ultimate service for the guy who wants to race without dealing with all the details.

"They can simply show up and drive," he says.

Dredge says his typical clients fall into two categories: passionate customers who don't know what they want, and people who are pretty well-off who know exactly what they want.

"Money doesn't come into the equation until we clarify that," he says.

And Dredge counts himself among the passionate. He still loves cars and loves to drive them, too, down to his beat-up MGB-GT, which he describes as the "cobbler's shoes."

"They're buying into the people here," he admits. "The only way you can get a job here is to say that you're insanely crazy about these machines here."

"But this isn't work," he says with a smile.

Sportscar Services' Web site is sportscarservices.net, but the best way to get a hold of Dredge is to stop by the shop at 10903 N. Industrial Dr. in Mequon or to give him a call at (262) 238-1133.