1931 Gardner Sport Roadster - Restored

[prewar40]

1931 Model 158 Sport Roadster restored by Gardner historian Ed Jacobwitz.  Long w/b 130" and big eight 299 CID.  Located in Reno.

Only known '31 Model 158 of any body style.  Best offer over $65K - less than restoration costs. 

Lots of pictures and details at www.gardnermotorcars.com

Edited January 21, 2017 by prewar40
price change (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

Am I correct, Bob, that you're listing this for a friend?

[prewar40]

Yes I'm listing this for a club member.  FYI  The club has three great cars on the for sale page, another roadster and a touring.

[prewar40]

Imperial62 - we will be at the Des Moines Concours this week end and will have our 1928 Gardner roadster, stop by and see one in person.

[John_S_in_Penna]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the brown color

that was hindering the sale.  One dealer friend

told me the saying, "If it's brown, it stays around."

 

Those may have been the historical authentic colors of

one owner's taste in 1931--and that's worth preserving;  

or perhaps, less favorably, the car was repainted

in the 1970's when brown and orange were everywhere

as fad colors.

 

But the scarcity of the car will make it a good 

conversation starter at shows.  Hope it finds a good home!

Edited September 11, 2016 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[jeff_a]

Beautiful Gardner! I don't see anything wrong with the colors...everything about it is distinctively different. That's a last-year-of-production-car, I think, with a big straight-eight Lycoming. Very similar to an Elcar, which also lasted 'til 1931.

[prewar40]

You may have seen the 1930 Gardner roadster in the last issue of Hemmings (photo taken at Pebble Beach).  That car received a lot of attention at that car show.

It should be pointed out that both the '30 and '31 roadsters are listed as Classics by the CCCA as well as the 1927 roadster listed on the for sale page of

Gardner Motor Cars - www.gardnermotorcars.com

[SparkEE]

Beautiful car!  I'm curious about the "yellow jacket" engine mentioned in the linked ad.  What does that signify?  A high compression head?  Are there other cars of this era with a Lycoming engine and a similar option?

[prewar40]

The yellow jacket head came out in with the 1929 models, the compression ratio for 1930 was 5.25 CID 299 and 126HP.  Which made the Gardner about 4th for most HP.  

(They were tied for 1st in 1928-29 among production 8 cyl cars) The difference with the yellow jacket was that they went to a duplex carburetor.  The same Lycoming engine was used in other makes but to my knowledge none called them yellow jacket. 

In 1923 Gardner had the most HP of any 4 cyl car and the head was painted red the block was black.  I think this was part marketing and an effort to point to the high HP.

[SparkEE]

Thank you.  I'd never heard of the yellow jacket.  With what appeared to potentially be a historically yellow head, I'd wondered if it was like Chrysler's "red head", high compression head.

 

...hoping someone else buys this so I can stop thinking about how I might do that.  

[prewar40]

I think Chrysler had a silver head as well.  The 1930 Chrysler had a compression ratio of 5.00.  I do think this was more marketing than anything else, however in the case of Gardner they did have the highest HP for the number of cylinders for a few years.  I've made an effort to study Gardner and I've found that Chrysler seemed to copy what Gardner introduced, such as the exposed oak bow going to the pivot point behind the roadster door (1925) in 1925 or 1926 Gardner had a 3 door roadster in 1927 Chrysler used that design on their Imperial.  So I wonder if this was something that Chrysler saw in Gardner and copied. 

 

[Edson49TC]

Bob,

 Did you sell the Gardner? If not, is it still available?

Thanks,

Ed

[prewar40]

Yes the car is sold but there is a 1927 Gardner roadster on my web site now.  www.gardnermotorcars.com on the for sale page.

[John Kelso]

The colors were a strictly a Jacobwitz choice, I know that because I applied them in the early 80's