Bridgestone Potenza Tyres
 

My MY05 WRX is shod with Bridgestone Potenza tyres.

I am told on this forum that these tyres are crap. However those that say this never go on to elaborate as to why the tyres are rubbish.

Can anybody tell me why these tyres are no good?

You need to say which model number of the Bridgestones you've got - the "Potenza" range covers several models of tyre.

They're not rubbish, they're OK, but they do have a few downsides:-

1) Incredibly stiff sidewall. I checked my tyres and found they had 22 PSI in them and not noticed before.

2) Very suseptible to Tramlining

3) Not very good in the wet.


My OEM 17" STi wheels with the Bridgestone RE 040's are summer spares. :)

Surely the 'incredibly stiff sidewall' leads to better turn in and feed back??

All wide tires are susepticle to tram lining??

Not good in the wet but very good in the dry - hence why they are fitted to the STi's to help compete against the Evo's no?? I'dimagine Bridgestone could have changed the tread pattern to allow better water drainage, but at what price? Heavier wear and less grip.

After oem bridgestones tried Pirelli P Zero and was diappointed, poor steering and handling, car wallowed too much. Fitted new age 17inch wheels with bridgestone RE011's to my classic and was very pleased with handling and grip, wet and dry. The stiff sidewalls are much better suited to the Scooby than Goodyear, etc. They just wore out and I tried the original Pirellis (both sets nearly down to the canvas), result - similar grip wet and dry but Bridgestone wins hands down steering, handling and stability.
So I just got a set of RE050's, the GZ variant (215/45x17) is designed for the Scooby and suits it well.

Think its the RE070 on from factory i think!!

My 05 wrx has 050's I think...

Don't bother what anyone else says about them. Its whats you think of them that counts. Tyres choice is very personal.

BTW say Potenza is meaningless you might as well say they are Bridgestone Bridgestones.

If they are RE070s you might want to think about swapping-on some more winter oriented rubber. Great summer tyre though.

I put a set of RE 050's on my classic and i can't recommend them highly enough. :thumb:

There good in the wet or dry and the wear rate is low. I've done two track days (one wet and one dry) with them and they preformed excellently. ;)

Nothing wrong with RE070's in winter, better than you think acutally! its snow that they are not good on, acutally, no non-snow tyre is good on snow or ice ;)
Think this guy may be talking about RE050's, not sure though.
Personally, i like the bridgestone tyres, they have a lot of give in them, unlike some which are all or nothing, makes driving more "interesting :D"

Tony

I do agree my new re070's are doing much better this year than my re050's.
The re070's seem to be stickier even around freezing and do fine even with a covering of snow.
I'm so impressed that I've put my winter tyre idea on the back burner :eek:

dipster

I have a set of these for my track tyres. I've used them on the road getting to and from and they're as you describe, however, get some heat into them (on the track) and they're superb. What chassis set-up have you got?

Hmm that's interesting as I have RE070's (have never tried RE050's). I was thinking of changing them for 'winters' as that seemed to be the consensus on SN and I have had a few small twitches and slides, but now you and Tony are getting me thinking again ... as does the bill for getting them done ... c.£500 for four with fitting.

I suspect the key is whether the 70's can be warmed up enough to perform as I do find that makes a big difference in both the wet and the dry (when they are truely awsome - combined with ASTs, the car just goes round corners as if it is on rails). We haven't had snow 'down here' yet so can't tell what they are like in it but I suspect I'll hang on a little longer and re-assess when pay day comes around again and if I get any other 'interesting moments'.

Thanks for the information.

It would seem from the majority of comments that Bridgestone tyres are far from "crap".

Mine are RE050's by the way.

I should have learned by now to take most of what is posted in some threads on here with a pinch of salt.:rolleyes:

Have RE 070'S ON MY WRX03 FANTASTIC GRIP WET OR DRY STIFF SIDEWALLS IMPROVE FEEDBACK/TURN IN

ALTHOUGH VERY NOISY AND TRAMLINE NEED REPLACING SOON HEARD GOOD THINGS ABOUT VREDSTIEN ULTRATRAC ANY ONE HAVE COMMENTS OR RECCOMEND ANY OTHER COMPARIBLE TYRE.

NOTE WANT GOOD SIDEWALL STRENGTH AS I LIKE THE RESPONSE AND TURN IN OF THE RE 070,S BUT NOT THE NOISE

You or the tyres? :D

Apologies for SHOUTING !!!! i am so used to SHOUTING over the noise of the tyres

Standard UK MY99 setup.
I must admit when I had them they seemed OK, just the opportunity to compare them back-to-back with similarly worn Bridgestones showed up the weakness.
Many people on here rave about soft walled tyres (Goodyears, etc) but all admit the looseness took some getting used to (i.e. when you have forgotten what better tyres are like you learn to cope).
Just my opinion..................

Neil

I can't hear any noise from my RE070s .... its the exhaust I hear !!

I'm on cusco zero 2rs, f and R with lower 4-point braces, ALK, bump steer, drop links, and whiteline ARB and geo so I guess my experience with cut slicks is going to be very different to a standard 6 year old UK car.

Were the bridgestones road tyres? Remember the Corsa just dont work very well at all when cold. First couple of laps at track days they feel shocking and I have to be very carful not to get out of shape. Third and fourth laps and the grip is amazing - you can't get any were near these kind of heat levels on the road. Stop for a minute at traffic lights, junctions etc, the tyres return to luke warm and the feel goes again. Did you ever track the corsas?

https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b...orsa_ci1_s.jpg

https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b...orsa_ci2_s.jpg

All jokes aside please . . .Still relatively new to this , but could someone pls explain what "tram lining" means????:wonder:

Basically it means that your tyres will tend to follow road contours, in particular ridges and white lines. So the steering will pull one way or the other as you drive in a straight line, makes holding a straight line difficult on not very smooth roads.
Scooby's are prone to this particularly under braking (when suspension compresses) as was mentioned on original road tests. Larger wheel diameter and lower profile, stiffer tyres make it worse as can misaligned wheel geometry.

Thank you . .MaTIE!!!!:)

I must admit to having never driven a performance car before and having only used RE050s on my 05 WRX, but I find the grip to be very good indeed in the dry and more than adequate in the wet.

At about 12000 miles the fronts on mine, in particular the front passenger side, looked like they needed replaced. But this included a dry track day at knockhill, which is about as right handed as it comes, which had pretty much melted the shoulder on the passenger side. Unfortunately at this mileage I also got a puncture on the rear driver side that was irrepairable. The tyre itself looked almost good as new. Luckily I had a full set of spare MY05 wheels and tyres that were only 10 miles old and so swapped all my wheels over.

I've been using this set for 8000 miles now. I've done 2 trackdays since then, but I change the front left for the old left rear and the front right for the previous front right when visiting the track.

In these 8000 miles the tyres really don't show any signs of wear. I'm no nutcase on the roads, but I'm not famed for hanging about either. Worth noting that about 4000 of these miles have been done with Whiteline droplinks all round and the more aggressive prodrive geometery, all without ill effect. I had Tein springs fitted yesterday so we'll see if they cause any issues in the future.

My intention next year is to go for Toyos as everyone seems to recommend them and I think it would be worth giving them a shot, but I'll certainly be keeping a set of RE050s for track abuse.

In my opinion ive had 2 newage cars 03wrx with reo50s 04sti with reo40s standard fitment.treated both cars to new wheels and tyres,03 car 18s with t1rs,ionly realised how badly these tyresgriped in all situations when i put back standard wheels and tyres.04 car 18s with t1s no where near as bad as the first combo,no tramlining like it got with reo40s but where the bridgestones hardly ever lost grip the toyos do,but i will add they do slide progressivly.Ive got used to the way the car slides about now and i suppose its more fun.One final point that was always at the back of my mind with the reo40s is ifthey did letgo would it all be to late to save it.Hope all this makes a bit of sence.Jason

I went from Std Potenzas on my MY99 to Eagle F1s and to be honest I was immediately more comfortable with the F1s I've not yet had a chance to use them in anger, but initial impressions confirm better ride, less road noise, reduced tendancy to tramline and better traction in the wet. They do feel softer somehow, but its not to their detriment in terms of steering feel or confidence IMHO.

NS04

Excuse my ignorance, what are std Potenzas?

Depends on the year and model. My originals were 215/45x17 RE011's on wheels from a new age WRX. I believe some were fitted with RE050, which I have just had fitted (the RE050 GZ is designed for the Impreza). I believe current STi's have 225/45x17 RE070 which are very performance orientated.

Apologies, my fault for not being specific enough! Std Potenzas on a MY99 are RE010s I believe in 205/50/16.

NS04

I quite like the RE050 to the point that when I change I will definately consider the same again, although I would like to try one of the soft compound Yokohamas or equivalent and sacrifice some of the longevity (13500 miles and still loads of tread left) Had some Yokohamas (A510 I think - now long discontinued) and they were amazing but only lasted about 5000 miles.

Don't much like the idea of the soft sidewall characteristics that people describe. With my current chassis set up th RE050s give pretty good feel and consistency although from other threads the Michelin PS2 seem the best but they aren't done in 215/45 17.