For vintage auto collectors, Sportscar Service is nirvana.

By Pete Millard.
The Business Journal-Milwaukee 17.49 (Sept 1, 2000): p15. From Business and Company ASAP.

A national following has developed around Bill Dredge’s garage

Bill Dredge was groomed to become a newspaperman like his father. Instead, he became a car freak, thanks to his father.

While attending Marquette University as a journalism student, Dredge learned he got far more satisfaction rebuilding rundown sports cars from the bottom up than hammering out stories.

Dredge, a master mechanic and race car driver and instructor, never regretted choosing cars over the printed word. He has parlayed a serious hobby into a business that is moving into a new building to accommodate the growth.

The cluttered office at Dredge’s old Thiensville garage is an ashram for car nuts. Dredge is the guru. Dozens of people who own unreliable and temperamental classic sports cars come to Dredge for guidance.

Dredge’s business, Sportscar Service, used to be a neighborhood shop that specialized in repairing Japanese and British automobiles.

When time would allow, Dredge restored foreign-made road racing cars and lends support to sports car owners who needed assistance preparing their cars for weekend races, shows and rallies.

Three years ago, an analysis of Sportscar Service’s books showed Dredge there was more money to be made fixing and renovating old British, Italian and French sports cars than repairing new Mazdas, Subarus and Toyotas.

WORD OF MOUTH

Even though it is a bother, Dredge still handles routine maintenance on Japanese cars for longtime customers.

“We’ve tried to kill the Japanese car business but people won’t go away,” says Howard Hinterthuer, Sportscar Service’s operations manager.

“We can’t be all things to all people anymore.”

Dredge’s market is now national in scope. He has clients who truck in their fading cars from California and Ohio to have the sports car master bring them back to life. Dredge declined to discuss his company’s revenue. He has six full-time employees in the summer and four in the whiter.

“People have heard through car circles that we can rebuild the carburetors on a 12-cylinder Jaguar or that we build winning race cars from the ground up,” Dredge says. “That’s very gratifying.”

RESTORED TO GLORY

Jack Domencich, Brown Deer, has a 1967 Lotus Elan in Dredge’s shop right now. Domencich is having the car restored to its original glory so he can race the auto on weekends. Domencich also owns a 1973 Lotus Europa and drives an MG as his everyday car.

“I’ve got a little money now, so here come the cars,” says Domencich. “I look at these things as heirlooms.”

When Domencich hands a car over to Dredge for work, he always has a number in his head of what not to exceed.

“As a businessman, part of this game is knowing there are limits to what I will spend,” Domencich says. “I have never met that number.”

For the past seven years, motorists and pedestrians passing through Thiensville would stop and take a look at the exotic sports cars in Dredge’s parking lot.

“It’s a mixed blessing,” Dredge says. “We love to talk with people and generate excitement about British race cars, but sometimes it takes a pretty big chunk out of the day.”

Dredge’s shop is plastered with photos of tricked-out Studebakers flying across the Bonneville Salt Flats, Birdcage Maseratis sliding through turns, and MGs and Austin Healeys racing during the 1950s. Dredge takes dilapidated versions of these cars and prepares them for vintage competitions like the Brian Redman Historic Racing Event at Road America in Elkhart Lake.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY

Some of the cars that have ended up in Dredge’s care have literally been pulled from barns. One 1955 Austin Healey had been stored in a Washington County barn since 1962. The owner wanted to have it restored with its original parts.

Using the original parts on the 1955 Austin Healey, Dredge rebuilt the car to like new condition. Dredge says the Healey now wins awards for historical accuracy and its pristine condition.

The majority of the cars that go through Dredge’s shop end up with better parts or technology than the original versions.

“We are taking cars with a reputation for being unreliable and using technology from new cars to enhance their performance,” Dredge says.

To demonstrate to people that his magic works, Dredge drives a 1970s era MG all year long, even in the middle of winter. Historically, MGs weren’t meant to operate in Wisconsin winters. Dredge takes the same car to road races and rallies on frozen lakes, competing with the Audis, Subarus and Jaguars.

“I know it irritates people that I can drive the whole day on a frozen lake without opening the hood on the MG and then drive it to work Monday morning,” Dredge says.

COMPETITIVE SPIRIT

Dredge has fun working in this unusual automobile business. Some of his racing clients are serious and race to win, but most just want to feed their competitive spirit and participate to get their minds off the office.

The mechanics and restoration specialists at Sportscar Service provide the technical support that allows clients to focus on driving or improving their lap times. Of course, if clients want to do some of the work themselves, that’s fine with Dredge. He will get them the parts and offer advice on how to get the jobs done.

The current surge of interest in vintage car racing and the recently launched endurance racing series of the Le Mans/Sebring ilk is creating an expanding market for Sportscar Services, Hinterthuer says.

Sportscar Service’s new headquarters in a Mequon industrial park will give the company’s mechanics enough space to handle the racing business in additional to taking in more restoration projects.

“A better organized shop helps customers feel more at ease about their pet projects,” Hinterthuer says. “For them and for us, this is labor of love.”

FACTS & FIGURES: SPORTSCAR SERVICES

NAME: Bill Dredge, 49

TITLE: President and owner, Sportscar Service, Thiensville.

FAMILY: Wife, Karen; son Adam, 18, and daughter Katherine, 10.

EDUCATION: Attended Marquette University nearly 1970s to work on journalism degree. He never graduated.

HOBBIES: Road racing, rowing on the Milwaukee River and gardening.

GETTING STARTED: Dredge opened his own repair shop in 1993 after working as a mechanic, auto dealership customer service director and road racing team manager the first 20 years of his career.

CHALLENGES: The biggest problem Dredge faces year-in and year-out is keeping well-trained mechanics on staff. The young mechanics he routinely recruited away by racing teams. “Some of our past employees have been hired away by racing teams that are paying them $15,000 more per year than we can pay,” Dredge says. “We can’t compete with that.”