Wellardmac

I (like many others) will need new tires in the spring. I'm currently on Bridgestone S-03s and am looking for something that performs about the same, but with better tire wear - the Bridgestone RE-750s generally seem to get decent reviews.

Does anyone have experience with both these tires and are they comparable?

The car is mainly street use, but does autocross whenever it can sneek away to play.

If not, does anyone have a suggestion on what is a comparable tire to the S-03s?

Thanks in advance!

Robin 993DX

Couldn't find the SO3s so bought some Bridgestone RE050A for my 99 C4, I was told by Tirerack they were the replacement of the SO-3s.

So far so good, good wet and dry for everyday driving, tires seems to flat spot easily which means a little steering wheel shake in the morning, but goes away after abotu 5 minutes of driving. Normal road noise, too early to tell about the tire wear.

As far as grip, so far I have not been able to set off the PSM on the car compare to the previous contissport contact tires. The tire do squeal a little when pushed hard and when pushed hard during a corner the car feels like is rotating "4 wheel drifting", but the PSM does not fire off.

For the price I am happy with the purchase.

jetskied

My brother has a set of RE750 on a BMW and he does not like them. He said they make too much tire noise. They work fine for wet weather and llast a long time, but he did say the handling is more of a all season high performance tire and not as good as a pure performance tire like the S03.

Paul 996

Agree completly with Jetskied. I have RE750 (came on the car) and they hum like crazy, the grip is ok but yes more of a longer wearing high performance tire (less soft). The SO3's are on a set of track wheels and they give much better grip all around, they do however wear out pretty quickly. The RE050 is the replacement for the SO3 and if I am not mistaken is actually softer yet than the SO3.

arenared

I've had both S-03s and RE750s on the same car Boxster S. They are not comparable, but pretty close. Basically, the S-03s are decent and way better than N-rated tires I've had like Contis and Pirellis. The RE750s are comparable to my PZero Asimms in terms of stick, but they just refused to wear out. The sidewall is a little softer, though, so the ride is better, but the steering is a little mushier. Mine never made a peep. I think, if anything, the reason others may have had noise is that tires that last forever will develop proportionally more feathering due to your alignment. Tires that wear faster will exhibit less of this problem. What you can do is run them backwards to even out the wear, and you should be fine. The RE750s are not as sticky as the S-03s, but darn close and wear way longer. I would recommend them if tire longevity is a concern and they are available in your sizes (not 285/30R18 last I saw for example).

gota911

I had the same issue with the P-Zero rear tires. They wore out in the center of the tire at 9,000 miles but the inner 1/3 and outer 1/3 of the tire still had decent tread on them.

Since the 996 is my daily driver and I put 17,500 on the clock per year, I went through two sets of P-Zero rear tires per year. Once all 4 P-Zeros needed to be replaced, I switched to the Bridgestone RE 750 tires because I was looking for longer tread life. The RE 750 tires are NOT an N-rated tire. They have a tread rating of 340 versus 140 for the RE 050 versus 220 for the P-Zeros.

I have driven 5,000 miles on the RE 750 tires and have not noticed any appreciable tire wear to date. I notice a little tire hum at very low speeds (5 - 15 MPH), but at higher speeds they are quieter than the P-Zero tires.

Unfortunately, the widest rear tire available for an 18” wheel is 265 in the RE 750. I would have liked to keep the 285 size. The other thing about the RE 750 is that the rear tires are a “harsher” than the P-Zeros and I notice the highway expansion joints more than I did with the P-Zeros. I think this is due to the harder rubber compound, which obviously, gives the longer tread wear.

Wellardmac

The low speed road hum doesn't both me, but I am a little concerned about the mushy steering comment - 911, you feel the same way?

arenared

Regarding the mushy steering comment... those were on my 17" wheels. With 18", I think you'd be OK. What sizes are yours?

1999Porsche911

They handle great for me. No mushing feel here. On my 3rd set ready to replace again shortly.

Wellardmac

Thanks! I'm on 18" rims. Good handling is important to me for AX, hence my question. I've been really impressed at how solid my car is, so I'd hate to change that with a bad tire decision.

I'm a little concerned about how quickly I went through the S-03s, so I'm willing to try something different, but I don't want to sacrifice handling.

Wellardmac

Awesome, thanks 911. Just want to needed to hear.

C4 Pazzo

I've got about 8,000 miles on RE750s on my C4, with no noticeable wear. They don't feel mushy at all to me and they are quieter than the P-Zero assymetricos I had before. I haven't done AX with them, but they were fine for a DE day. One additional benefit I noticed is that they don't seem to loose grip as much (as compared to the P-zeros) when temps are lower than 40 degrees . Perhaps the harder compound to begin with is not as sensitive to the temperature drop.

brad@tirerack.com

I think the 750 is a better tire than the S-03 was in terms of bang for the buck. Handles water almost as well, great dry traction, and has about the same ultimate cornering ability as the S-03.

Wellardmac

Awesome - thanks damon. I appreciate your input!