At eight stories tall, the 12-ton Uniroyal tire is a Motor City landmark. Here’s the fascinating history behind this giant artifact.
Roughly midway on the route from Detroit Metro Wayne County Airport to downtown Detroit, the giant tire is often the first symbol of the Motor City that visitors encounter. Thousands of Southeast Michigan rivetheads pass by it on their way to the auto plants every day.
However, not many today know that the big tire was originally built by U.S. Royal, Uniroyal’s corporate predecessor, as a Ferris wheel for the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair. Engineered by the firm of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, the same outfit that designed the Empire State Building, the amusement ride featured 24 gondolas powered by a 100-hp electric motor. Two million guests paid a quarter each for a ride.
When the World’s Fair closed down, the tire was disassembled on the Flushing Meadows, Queens site and re-erected, minus the Ferris wheel mechanism, as roadside marketing art at its current location in Motown. The enormous (and smelly) old rubber plant downtown, on Jefferson Avenue at East Grand Boulevard, is long gone now, but Uniroyal’s corporate symbol on I-94 near the M-39 Southfield Freeway remains.
The company has treated its very large tire to periodic facelifts over the years. In 1994 the tread and wheel cover were updated, and in 1998 a 10-foot long nail was inserted in the tread to promote Uniroyal’s self-sealing Tiger Paw Nail-Gard line.
In 2003, a million-dollar structural overhaul saw the tire restored to its current form. The big tire is to the Detroit area as the Hollywood sign is to Los Angeles, so look for it the next time you’re in the neighborhood. Indeed, it’s pretty hard to miss.
Fun Facts:
+ The big tire displaces 120,576 cubic feet in volume, or around 93,000 cans of Fix-a-Flat. Tread depth is six inches.
+ A car built to scale for the tire would be over 200 feet tall and 720 feet long.
+ In 2003, the 10-foot long, 250-lb. fake nail was removed from the tire and auctioned on eBay for the Allen Park, Michigan Historical Society.
Photo gallery below.
Great story about one of my favorite Detroit landmarks. There was a plastic toy version of the Tire when it was the World’s Fair Ferris wheel. It was probably originally sold at the Fair. The toy is hard to find, but you can see one on TV by catching a rerun of the “American Pickers” episode shot around southeast Michigan…it shows Mike buying one from my collector friend Jim.
I grew up riding my bicycle around it and got to see inside once when workers were there tending to it . residents of Allen Park Michigan brag there from the home of the Big tire on 94
I was certain that I had seen another big tire in Akron but can’t find any evidence of it on the web.
That nail was in the royal seal tire. I was a tire dealer at the time and we used to put the nail thru the tire with air in the tire and then pull the nail out with a vise grip pliers. The name of our store was A-K Tire. My license number is A-K TIRE in Illinois.Given by our state senator at the time.