240 Gardner:
Carryfast:
the Gardner seemed to be a lot of engine for little returnAs I recall, the 6LXB and 8LXB achieved the highest thermal efficiency of any engine on the market at that time. And, according to the IRTE, the lowest maintenance costs.
An 8LXB-engined Borderer belonging to John Raymond held the fuel consumption record on Comical Motor’s Scottish test route for five years!! And it was also one of the faster vehicles round there. When it was finally beaten by a DAF 2500, the DAF was decidedly slower.
Apart from that, I suppose they didn’t offer much…
A properly driven Gardner is faster than you think across country, but doesn’t really feel it. My 150-engined Atki was geared for a top speed of 46 mph, but it was driven from Preston to Southampton, at 26 tons gross, at an average speed of 41.
By thermal efficiency I think that they meant it never worked hard enough to warm itself up and there was’nt much point in fitting a heater in a truck which always ran cold 
.I’m not surprised that the DAF was slower cosidering it was only around 8 Litres in capacity although it was turbocharged.The 2800 would have been a fairer comparison.If Gardner had ever worked out how to make a turbo work on their engines then it might have even stood a chance against one of those .But while we were running Gardner powered wagons at 45-50 mph the yanks were running across the states at around 100 mph with those clockwork two strokes and a Gardner is as slow as you think when it’s struggling to climb a hill.Luckily for them we were’nt importing clockwork yank two strokes at the time .Not surprising with the quality of British transport management and it’s fear of a bit of fuel consumption.