Ed Drachenberg's garage looks like anyone else's - for the most part. There are tools and knick-knacks and even a little bit of dust.
Then, resting on top of an oil-stained piece of cardboard, there's something that exists in only a few garages in the entire world. It's a replica of an 1896 Ford Quadricycle, the first car Henry Ford ever built.
Drachenberg's version isn't an exact replica - for one thing, he swapped out Ford's turquoise carriage seat for a more elegant red - but only car aficionados would know the difference. The back of the car is open, exposing its mechanical innards, nuts and bolts and an engine that runs on gasoline.
Yes, the car runs. Just a couple of weeks ago Drachenberg took his aunt out for a ride.
"She's 87 and just giggled like a little schoolgirl," he says with obvious pride.
A retired machinist, Drachenberg has made a hobby out of building anything and everything, from Civil War guns to a jewelry box complete with Victorian engine (that's his next project, a gift for his granddaughter). His fascination with mechanics dates back to his childhood. "I used to tear everything apart and put it back together," he says. "Growing up on a farm you didn't have any toys so you built your own."
The idea for building a car came from his youngest son. "He said, 'why don't you build an old car?'" Drachenberg recalls. "I thought 'what the heck?'"
That was in 2007, while Drachenberg was being treated for colon cancer. Spending time researching and building the Quadricycle became a sort of therapy, much easier to handle than chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
Around the same time Drachenberg got in touch with a high school shop teacher in Nipawin. That teacher and his students were building a Quadricycle and once Drachenberg saw it he knew that was the car he was going to build. "I took a trip up to Nipawin on a Sunday and he [the teacher] showed me the car and I was hooked."
Compared to the car in Nipawin, Drachenberg's version is more advanced. He built his own wheels, added four-wheel suspension, brakes and the ability to reverse. All of those extras didn't guarantee success, at least not at first.
There were problems. After four years of working on the car, sometimes putting in as many as 40 hours a week, Drachenberg took a break, unhappy with how his creation was turning out. "I took it all apart and carried it down to the basement. Then last winter I rebuilt the engine and just about a month ago I had some friends help me carry it up and I reassembled it."
Since then, she's been running smoothly. To prove the point, Drachenberg bends over, switches a couple of levers and, just like that, the engine rumbles to life. It bumps and thumps and isn't nearly as smooth as what we're used to today, but it works. Drachenberg rolls the car out of the garage and down the driveway of his modest Humboldt home. People driving by invariably take a look as they pass by. It's impossible not to notice a 117-year-old car perched on the side of the road.
"I had it at a show in Watrous," Drachenberg says, "and there were 175 cars there and I think I had a bigger crowd around this thing than anybody else had."
Spend any amount of time with Drachenberg and it quickly becomes obvious that he not only knows a lot about mechanics, but also loves it. He uses the word "interesting" several times when talking about the technical differences between an Otto cycle engine (the kind that Ford had in his original Quadricycle) and an Atkinson cycle engine (the type he used in his car). It's important stuff, but unless you know a lot about cars it's a bit difficult to follow.
He opens a compartment at the front of the car to show his toolbox and an oil can, just in case there's a breakdown while he's out on the road. With a car so old, that's always a possibility.
As he rolls the Quadricycle back into his garage, careful to avoid bumping into the trailer where he stores it over the winter, Drachenberg keeps up his non-stop chatter about the car. "It only weighs about 400 pounds or so," he says as he carefully steers it back in place atop the oil-stained cardboard. "Much easier to move around than a car you'd have today."
Now the Quadricycle is back in place, a 19th century car in a 21st century garage. Keep your eyes open for vintage cars along the side of the road as the summer winds down; odds are it'll be Ed Drachenberg, bumping along on that red carriage seat.
