Senior Racer question.....
 

Can anyone here tell me when, or about when, Atlas stopped making the "Bucron" tires that many of us used in "stock" classes way back when?? Thanks. WJ

Re: Senior Racer question.....
 

By the late sixties they were gone.........

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I think it was the mid to late 60's. Great race tire, butyl rubber, soft. Life expectency was extremely short on non-race cars hence they disappeared.

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The last 2 that I bought was out of an old service station (Esso?) in late 68. They were the only thing I could get to begin to hook on my 67 Vette, besides some Marsh recap slicks.

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I do remember that they were real nasty on rainy, wet roads if you ran them on the street, but they worked quite well as a drag tire on my '57 270hp Chev w/the wider Sta. Wagon wheels...maybe 1962-3 was when I last ran them on that car and before long Marvin came along w/his M&H "Superstock" tire that really got the job done for many people back then.... WJ

Re: Senior Racer question.....
 

Yes, Adger....I believe Esso was the sole distributor of Atlas tires....at least all mine came thru a Esso station as well. Thanks. WJ

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I think they were pretty much gone by the mid 60's. I remember they were really skinny. About half as wide as the 7" tire allowed, but they sure did work. Pure oil also sold a butyl tire under their own brand name. More conventional tread pattern

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Guys, check out ebay item # 150234919306. Shows some Bucrons on front of a old PD car. Surely some whipper-snappers here have never laid eyes on a pair of these babies, ha...:D WJ

Re: Senior Racer question.....
 

Wasn't there another line of those that didn't wear out as quick or hook as good called plycron??

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Last set I got was in '70 for my '50 Olds. .....The wrapper looked like it was 10 years old then ! .....The Esso guy was glad to sell them for $15 ea! .........8.25x15 , I think was the biggest and it had about a 5 1/2" footprint!..........Now that you started this thread ,I'll be smelling that smell in my sleep!!..........Tom

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Esso in Texas?

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I recall measuring a set of Bucrons at about 4 inchs wide. Then came the next hot setup, Casler recaps , had a set on our P/S 59 Biscayne 283/185 4 speed !

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Dang boys i wish you had not started this thread again because now i can smell those tires! Here is the story which i posted some time ago in another post about 60's racing. The mfg of the tires was Standard oil of Ohio .In ohio that was SOHIO ,on the east coast Esso ,part of Rockafellers companies that the gov't broke up. The tires were made for Cadillacs so they would ride smooth . There were some larger than 8:25. I purchased some new from the sohio gas station that i worked for, to put on my 62 impala SS with the 327-300 hp engine and 4:11 gears. Icould leave 2 very long black streaks on any street and you could hardly hear them squeal.
Those were the days.

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Oh yeah Adger : we also sold Plycrons . hard tires

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Rocky J nailed it. The bucron tire was designed to make luxury cars ride real soft and smooth. Would wear out very quickly, faster than just about any other bias ply tire in its day. When I became an Esso dealer in Md. in 1967 the tires were only old stock, sold a hand full that came with the station. The plycron tire was hard and provided no traction compared to that bucron. I think the bucron was out of production by maybe '64 ot '65. Many were still available til the late '60's or so.

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Worked at a US Royal dealer in 67-68.We would dig through the used tire w. house to find the used Bucrons for my buddies 57 chevy 265 4 dr.Took it to Oswego raceway here in illinois and raced in the stock class.Hooked pretty well with them.

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My recollection was different; I remember them being very good in the rain. They also did not squeal when spun if I remember correctly. Cut down on the tickets.

Goodyear had a butyl tire also. They had a regular tread unlike the two big grooves I remember in the US Royal tire. I had a set on the front of a 63 Plymouth I had in the late sixties. I can’t remember how I got them but they were not as big as I wanted for the back so I used them on front because they were so good in the rain.

Bill

Re: Senior Racer question.....
 

Someone else told me tonite that the Amoco stations sold the Atlas Bucron tires as well.....Anyone have any luck running that Amoco "white" hi-test gasoline they had available back in those days? I remember running that occasionally, but mostly the Sunoco 260, and even some "280" was available for awhile...at about 40-45 cents per gal., ha....WJ:eek:

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Ives recaps were good back in the day too. I ran them on the street on my 327 57 Vette. Pray that you didnt get caught out in the rain they would swap sides of the street in an instant. Atlas Bucrons were expensive too, about $20 each {at the time anyway}

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I bought my last set from an Esso station in Texas in late '65 and he told me they were being recalled and refused to sell me any more than two, if they stayed around til the '70's I'll bet it was because someone didn't turn his in.

JimR

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Yes the Bucron's were a Standard Oil Deal and were sold around here at Standard and Amoco Stations. But they used to be advertised as Blems in the back of Hot Rod Magazine for years out of some tire company in the Southeast. I could get them up here via Bus for $22 each. I ran them on my '50 Olds, Model A with and Olds, and sold them to other guys around town who were always going to "put gears in" but didn't and then they'd fry their clutches with the tall. sticky tires.

I still have two sets, and they're just as soft today as they were in the sixties. In fact, one set is holding up my '50 Olds while I'm restoring it. The set in the warehouse still has the same air in them as when I brought the car back from Arizona in 1984. I think I've had to put air in ONE of the two on the car since I put it in storage 20 years ago. The regular front tires go flat all the time, but the Bucrons never lose air.

With 4.30 gears, the "allison" trans (4-speed GM Hydro), the Bucrons, and a hopped up '56 Olds engine, I used to race the mid-sixty muscle cars all the time. Of course they'd always want to count to three, but I'd just tell em " Naw, you just go when you're ready". I'd always hook even with the deep low gear in that trans, and would be way ahead by the end of low gear. To me '64 and '65 GTO's were an INSTANT $20.

I changed the car to a Stocker in '67, and it ran the same with either the M&H's or the Bucrons, but the M&H's were on Cragers, so in the interest of being cool, that's what we ran.

Interesting tire, and very intersting that I just talked to an old Amoco dealer today about those tires before I even saw this thread. Pretty ironic.

Jerry

Re: Senior Racer question.....
 

Re: Senior Racer question.....
 

When they were first introduced in the late fifties they were the most expensive tires sold at the time BUT they had a lifetime tread wear warranty with free replacement , no pro rating. What racer wouldn't love never having to buy another set of race tires? The other posters have noted that they were not supposed to squeal and provided fantastic traction for their time; wet or dry. Local drag racers were getting about three weeks between replacement sets. Standard Oil withdrew the warranty about one year after introduction. About eighteen months after intro the compounding was altered and, while better than other OEM tires, they couldn't hold a candle to the originals for off the line traction. Race-specific recaps then filled the gap until dedicated race tires came along in the mid sixties. Bucrons were on most of the late fifties/early sixties, full bodied door slammers, built with Detroit big-iron that were being drag raced on the street and strip.

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The race specific recaps Dallas refered to were then called "cheater slicks" although there was nothing illegal about them in stock or super stock.

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As someone here earlier stated, the Casler cheater drag re-caps worked excellent. As for my experiences w/the Bucrons, if I remember correctly, they worked best at the track on my '57 when about 1/2 worn.....that point is also when they became quite scary, if you had to drive them on a wet road.....however, new, w/full depth tread, they were respectable in the rain....just 2 straight tread lines w/hundreds of little "z" cuts in between made them quite unique-looking for that era....:) WJ

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I started my automotive life at my uncles Stadard station in the mid 60's when I was 12.

They sold EVERYTHING Atlas.

My first 8 track tape deck circa 1970 that I installed in my Mustang was a Atlas brand.
Anyway, here is a photo of a Atlas Bucron.

http://636utah.com/images/bucron_004.jpg

Re: Senior Racer question.....
 

Back in the day (1964) we either used Casler "cheater slicks" or Atlas Bucrons on our 1957 Chev D/MP car --Caslers for dry racing and the Bucrons in the rain --(believe it or not we would drag race 4 abreast in the rain at Pacific Race Ways)

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back in the late 50s and early 60s firestone built a tire called the " butalair" that was really soft. some drag racers in the ohio area were running them back then

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Anybody need any. have about 10 or 15 bucrons left over from my dads stock car racing days.