Say, now that does sound like something I’d like in a tire — roundness! I guess I never really thought of it, before, a sleek, black, corner-free tire on my very own car? Four complete and true circular wheels on my car, one at each corner? Man, a fella could get used to that!
This is a late ‘60s ad for Atlas Plycron Tires, and, yes, their slogan really was “The Round Tire.” You wouldn’t think that slogan would give you much of an advantage, right? I mean, that’d be sort of like Anheuser-Busch advertising “Budweiser: the Liquid Beer!”
If we read further in the ad, we see what they’re getting at is that their tires are just more round than every other round tire made since anyone decided to make tires, ever. The Plycrons were allegedly made using a mold that was calibrated to 3/1000 of an inch of roundness, as opposed to the 30/1000 that seemed to be good enough for everyone else.
They say their tires lasted an extra 3,000 miles longer as a result. I’m not sure how much I buy this. I mean, sure, if everyone else was selling dodecahedrons as tires, then, sure, a round one would be better, but for the difference in true roundness between 3/1000 inch precision and 30/1000 inch, well, in the real world, I’m just not sure how much difference that would have made, especially on late ‘60s era cars.
Still, maybe I’m wrong — maybe this ‘round tire’ thing will catch on, after all?
Contact the author at jason@jalopnik.com.