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A series of tweet responses from Paul Balze:

The History of the Drove Motor Car Company
by Paul Balze (@paul_balze)

The Drove Motor Car Company was established in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1931 by Ivor and Victor Drove. The brothers had just barely managed to hold onto some meager savings after the stock market crash of 1929...

Squatting in an abandoned barn, the brothers hammered together their first car, the Model Epsilon. The Epsilon' s two-door sedan body was modeled on--well, transplanted from, really--a Hudson that Victor "borrowed" from an unattended garage, while the frame was from a 1927 Dodge.

The engine was taken from a McCormick-Deering tractor, and Ivor was able to get it running after a few late nights. The brothers introduced their new car at the Mayfair Theater in Sioux City in May 1931, and were able to sell it for $250. The brothers were ecstatic!

After a three-day bender at a local speskeasy, the Droves realized they would need to build more cars--and that they'd left the HUDSON badge on the Epsilon's radiator shell.

Ivor began searching for more parts, while Victor addressed the nameplate issue with a flathead screwdriver, under cover of darkness.

Incredibly, the Droves were able to carry on in this manner for nearly six years, selling over 1400 cars, before Victor's arrest for possession of a stolen truckload of Ford parts exposed their business model in February 1937.

Ivor sold the last Drove to raise Victor's bail money. It survives today, as a decoration outside a Sioux City salvage yard. It's often mistaken for a 1934 Studebaker, because that's what the front clip came from.