Gardner Series Six History

Gardner added inline-six Lycoming-powered models for 1925 alongside its new straight-eight range, retiring the four-cylinder era entirely. The sixes occupied the lower-price tier of the lineup. From roughly 1928 Gardner focused marketing on its prestige eight-cylinder series, and the six slipped in priority.

For 1930 the six returned to the foreground of the catalog, carrying the Series 136 designation — a 70 hp Lycoming six on a 122-inch wheelbase — partly because Depression-era buyers could no longer afford eights and partly because of engineering investment in an ambitious front-wheel-drive prototype. The 1930 and 1931 six-cylinder production cars used conventional rear-wheel drive; the front-drive version reached only two prototypes (see Front-Drive Six entry).

The 1931 models were mildly updated 1930 cars. By then Gardner was building a fraction of its capacity — 187 total vehicles in 1931 — and Russell Gardner Jr. obtained stockholder approval mid-year to cease automobile production.