Seen some cool slicks on an old gasser the other day from marsh's racing tires silom springs ark. anyone ever heard of these id like to find where i can get a pair or just one .
They also made the first superwide 70 series tires back in the mid 60s. I bought a pair of H-70 14s in 68 that I ran on the back of my 55 Nomad, bought them at Pfiffer's Speed Shop in Albany New York. I would think that Coker Tire would know if they are still available....................
MRT, Marsh Race tires, Had a major plant fire some few years back, 98 - 99 , if memory serves me correctly. Not sure what did or didn't survive. A lot of the drag tires they produced were recaps with a checkered flag pattern.
Talked this morning to Lyle Marsh, founder and retired from Marsh Racing Tires, now MRT. There may be a few left but according to him they were overstock, stored in an old non-climate controlled warehouse in Arkasas and probably wouldn't be good for much other than a static display. He emphasized that he would not attempt to run them. I should hear back in a week or two if there's anything left at all. Nothing survived the fire they had in 1998. All of the old, good inventory is history...deposited as ash over the Arkansas countryside.
Guys - I was a partner in a small speed shop in Springfield, Mo back in the late '60s. We sold a few Marsh slicks, and I recall Lyle stopping by a few times to drop off our orders. He seemed like a real good guy - very down-to-earth and not at all like the usual "hustling" salesmen. At that time the Marsh slicks were strictly recaps on standard casings. They featured an extreme "pie crust" design that had about an inch and a half of rubber extending past the casing on each edge. While they looked impressive, that rubber served mostly to "flap in the breeze", as there wasn't really anything (but the molded "pie crust" ribs) to hold it against the track surface. Still, the rubber compound was quite soft, so they did provide some degree of bite - certainly an advantage over street tires - and they were much more economical than the purpose-built slicks of the day. Also, quality - and service - was quite good. Toward the end of the '60s, they began to produce circle track recaps built on actual racing tire casings and those seemed to be pretty popular with the local circleburners. I'm not sure if Marsh ever produced its own tires from scratch or if they were strictly a re-cap operation. Does anyone know for sure?
They have print on sidewall like axel snappen gear breakin carb suckin etc. that makes them kind of different from the norm,thats why id like to get the marsh ones if possible.
I was a Marsh dealer in the late 70's and early 80's. I mostly sold circle track stuff...recaps on passenger car casings. Lyle had a "color code" to determine the rubber compound...it was spray painted around the circumferunce of the tire. The durometer (hardness) reading was... white...32 yellow...45 blue...48? green...52 red...58 This from my best recollection...I remember my "softer is better" mentality...we had several guys running white or yellow compounds on the right rear on stock cars that worked GREAT for the first few laps...then the tire went away FAST.... I picked up many of my orders while trucking thru Arkansas...I did an awful lot of explaining to customers when they asked why I was hauling tires with their tomatos or ground beef!!!
I have a pair of the original marsh pie crust slicks, they are too dry rotted to run but look cool. Maybe would be alright for some short cruising. The pie crust on these is really impressive, they also have kool double stripe whitewalls. Corky, if you are listening, you should really consider repopping these!
Wow, does this back some memories! Second car, '64 Impala hdtp. w/283 PG. Bought some chrome reverse Rallye wheels at Clark's Dept. Store for $15 each. What to do for tires? (Couldn't afford new wide ovals) Pop and I went to Pfieffer's in Albany, N.Y. (100mis. Roundtrip) to get some Marsh tires. Boy, were they sharp (and cheap)! Took them to the Firestone place to get them mounted and the "old guy" insisted on doing them by hand! Want an ordeal for him. Wish I had a picture of that car, definitely looked sharp, dark green with the chrome and wide tires.
I worked at Marshes Tires for a couple summers in the late 60’s. Ground the old carcasses down, wrapped them with rubber, threw em in a mold and cooked up some neat slicks. Ran them on my TRI-power 65 GTO. What fun! Still live in Northwest Arkansas.
Marsh had a lot of really cool tires. I raced with a pair of the Checker Flag tread tires. They worked. i always wanted to try the Sprinter series but was too late. I met Mr. Lyle Marsh at a dirt track race in the 90's at West Plains Mo. I got to visit with him for a while. A very nice gentleman.
I had a pair of Marsh cheater slicks on the back of my '63 Chevy II. They were recaps on something like a 6.70 or 7.10 X 13 tire and had the checkered flag pattern on the face of the tire, and if memory serves they also had a checkerboard pattern on the sides rather than "pie crust" pattern. That would have been about 1970 or '71 and boy, did I ever think I was cool! Lynn
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