There have been a few references here on the HAMB to these tires, which were the elite whitewall for customs back in the day. DrJ in particular seems to remember them well. Here's a picture that HotRod1940 posted of some Masters on El Matador when he owned it. Given the 14" size, these would appear to be from the late '50s or early '60s. I seem to recall that, at an earlier time like the mid-'50s, there was another version of Royal Masters that had smooth sidewalls rather than the ribbed design shown here. I also thought, in the earlier design, that the narrow whitewall was closer to the rim. Anybody else remember these? Anybody have pictures?
I don't remember these, but I wish I did. They're bitchen. What's out there now that is remotely like them? I used to run Cooper Trendsetters--but those are just your standard skinny whitewall.
I didn't realize there were different versions. This one looks to have a very thin white and the major white closer to the rim than your pic. BTW, this pic was taken only last year. How the guy preserved the tires all these years is amazing.
Just to add an obscure historical piece to this thread: Around '56 or '57, US Royal introduced a sub-series of Masters called (if I recall correctly) "colorwalls". Not the white sidewall, but the black surface of the sidewalls were tinted in kinda muddy colors. I think they did blue, green, and brown. I thought they looked crappy, they did not sell well, and I only saw two or three cars that had them during that era.
Wow, I've seen these before but never really seen these before, huh?! I never really noticed the ribbing all the way to the rim. And I've never seen a tire that fit the whole super-sonic theme as well as these. I can imagine them on some super secret GM styling exercise from, like, '61 or '62 with a bunch of engineers holding clipboards and wearing Barry Goldwater horn rim glasses! Who-da thunk a turbine design on the tire itself! I should'a known this....
Those tires are kinky as hell!! They'd be perfect on my 15x6 Hollywoods. Goddammit. Now I'm going to have to sell my left nut and first born to get a set of 40 year old dry rotted tires.
Not only old and dry rotted, but think about cleaning them if you ever drove through some mud. Yuk! For anybody who gives a shit, I found the earlier/smoother/innier Masters I was looking for. See eBay 7171372893.
Before those the US Royal Masters tire line were www's. They were on my '53 Olds 98 when my dad bought it. Lasted almost 90,000 miles too. I don't know when US R. M's went to them, but GM had skinny whitewalls on their Motorama show cars at least as early as '55. http://www.car-nection.com/yann/Dbas_txt/Drm55.htm Don't know if they were Masters though. I have an October 1960 issue of Car Craft sitting in front of me with three out of the four custom cars on the cover running those skinny white, turbine fluted Masters. Winfield's Jade Idol, Bailon's "Scoopy" and Ray Farhner's Blue-Angel Deuce pickup. The fourth custom car, Wilhelm Mark I Mist has www's They were VERY popular then. Car Craft used to be a CUSTOM CAR magazine.!
I just put a set of US Royal Wide whites on my Dream Truck project because I love how they are connected to the early customs (Firestones and Goodyears were for Hot Rods- US Royals were for Customs). Seems like they all ran 'em- They don't reproduce those crazy 60's narrow whites yet.
In this part of the country, the slang for inchwall Royal Masters was "Rib Masters", the others were "Curbguards" because of the recessed whitewall. For some reason, only a few people wanted a full set - the goal was to have 8.20 Royal Masters on the back, and if you were a real hotshoe, reversed wheels. Since we're talking late '50s-early '60s, the wheels would be black with baldy hubcaps, front end dumped severely, and whatever little front tires you could scrounge cheap with Port-a-walls. I know lots of the guys running the streets would run 5.60 Continentals because VW trunk latches seldom worked right. And let's not forget why the rodders liked them so much - an 8.20-15 US Royal Master is 31 1/2" tall mounted, other brands will be somewhat smaller. A funeral home here had a '49 Buick Hearse with 5 8.90-15 6 ply Curbguards ... wonder if anybody ever got to use a couple of them on a '46 Ford ? Bottom line ? The U. S. Royal Master was the most beautiful tire ever produced ... thank God they're not being repopped, or I'd have to have some. 302
The nice thing about Royal Masters, they had a bunch of rubber under the tread. So we used to snag cast off baldys, you could regroove them and run another 40,000 miles on them.
I have a set of 4 US Royal Masters that were take offs from an Eldorado Brougham. I think they say 8.90 / 8.20 x 15 on the sidewall. I know the size quote is a bit odd but I'm pretty sure that is what they read. Been saving them for some righteous old custom I have not yet found yet in a barn!
Checked my barn. My tires read "9.0 / 8.20 x 15" Big 'uns. Royal Masters with the radial sidewall pattern inside and outside the whitewall. Still no old custom in my barn to put them on. Dang.
Just ran across this old thread. I thought I'd put up the magazine ad I found for the mid-'50s style Masters (1954 ad) with the smooth shoulder and narrow WW next to the rim:
I used to run the ribbed sidewall Dominion Royal Masters many years ago. Great looking tires but terrible traction and piss poor in the rain. I saw a set of 4 for sale at a swap meet about 2 months ago. The guy said they were new but really 30 years old and unused, in other words they are SCRAP.
i dont know about the master series(look like denman super safetys) to me but i remember the us royal tire u couldnt wear them out because they blew out first use to get big eggs on the sidewall,they were garbage.
The old man had 4 U.S. Royal Masters on his red,black& white '57 Hudson Hornet Hollywood 2 dr. back in;63-'64 ,, Awesome looking tire ,, Wish I had a set for my '64 Riv ... I believe he even had one inside the Continental Kit ..
Someone should ask Corky Coker why no one has reproduced these tires. Seems like it would be a strong market.
That's the one That was on the '53 Olds 98 I learned to drive in. I suspect reasons they (Coker) haven't made the later ribbed style might be: #1 None of the molds exist anymore? #2 The company does't exist to buy permission to reproduce the name? #3 Uniroyal (which I think bought the name?) won't sell the reproduction rights? #4 I can't think of any other legitimate reason!
Yep they were pretty high end even for the guys who drove new Cads and Lincolns at the time. They cost about twice what a Firestone DLC did at the time. No matter what the car having Royal Masters on it was on a par with having a well stacked red headed girlfriend. Both were hard to afford for most guys
In 1964 I had a grey primered 55 Chevy post car, our neighbor owned a tire shop. I pestered that poor man for first dibs on used DRM tires and he ended up selling me four at five bucks each. Seems wierd now but I was so proud of having those tires. Cool side walls and even cooler tread.
1959 was the year for the U.S. Royal Masters in the Atlanta,Ga. area. I had a set on a 56 Chevrolet. Very pricey.hard to clean and even harder to keep balanced for some reason.Nickname in this market was"Stingy Brims".
Back in the day (1952/56) my Dad use to buy Royal Master 2nd's to run on his stock cars (37/40 Fords). They wore good but we did run safety tubes in them. I still have one we never used in my old tire rack.
Although nobody has repopped the Royal Masters in either the early smooth-shouler version (like the ad above) or the later ribbed shoulder one, a thought just occurred to me. Diamondback, as you may know, makes their wide whites by essentially fusing a separate Port-A-Wall type white sidewall to an existing new radial tire. I would think it possible that they could make a narrower (2"? 2 1/4"? something like that) whitewall resembling the Master, and put it on a modern carcass in the same way. I'm not aware that any of the existing choices among new tires have completely smooth shoulders like the early Masters had, but I imagine that something close could be found. Personally, I think it's the width of the whitewall that gave them their distinctive look. Having said that, I'm not gonna be the first to try it. Call me a coward.
In 1962 I purchesed a set on US Royal Master tires in 14". At the time they were a cool looking white wall with the fine lines going around the tire. As I remember they were not made of real rubber, but were called US Royal Master Butyl Airs. They were made with a synthetic rubber. For the price they did not wear well on my 1951 Chevy 2dr ht. P.S. I Have a set of Goodyear Regatta Touring tires that are a white wall on my 1951 Chevy 2dr ht. They have similar fine lines as did the US Royal Masters. I'm not sure Gooyear still makes these tire. but check them out
Amazing piece of time-practice, 302! The text is as if it was written in Santa Clara, CA. in 1957! (my '36 Five window was equipped with: 3-1/2" Mor-Drop Dago axle, flattened spring, reversed eyes; My Mom's '48 Cad had 8.20X15 U.S.Royal Masters on it, so when I dropped her front end, her front Masters went on my punched '48 Merc rear wheels) Fronts were also punched, ("reversed") and I bought some used 5.90 X 15" whitewalls for the front. Wheels were black, and 'Baldy' caps swiped from the House Trailer Sales lot! My bud swiped 'em, his channeled 'A' Coupe's trunk was full of 'em! (20+ at a time) Mom bought a pair of 7.60 X 15 Masters for the front of her now raked Caddy, I remember those new Masters cost $90 apiece! A friend of mine had the newer ribbed Masters on his '31 Plymouth P-A Coupe. (Chrysler 15" steel wheels, also black with baldys. His tires were 8.20 rear, 6.40 front; he had the only pair of 6.40 X 15 Masters I ever saw.)
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