The Tire rack specialist favors the Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position (5050A) over my Conti's aand the Mich. Pilot Sport Ribs.


Do you agree?

 

The Tire rack specialist favors the Bridgestone Potenza 5050A Pole Position over my Conti (2's) and the Mich. Pilot Sport Rib.

Do you agree?

 

I am happy with Potenzas, despite an almost pathological tendency to toss Michelins on almost every vehicle I have ever owned. (I skipped them on the 47 ******)

 

I've got a couple thousan miles on these p-zeros and so far I like em. I've had michelins ps2's and I loved em for the balance they give. Meaning, I tracked em twice, drove the car 365 days a year and they lasted 20,000 miles. I'd say that's pretty remarkable. I'm curious to see how the p-=zero's hold up to that pattern of use.

 

I've found Michelins to be the most DELICATE of all tires I've tried. They usually break before wearing out, at least in my case.

 

I've had pzeros. When new they were great. They were worn out in a few months and then were noisy and lost a lot of traction when wet or even cold and damp. At the track they started chunking apart when the got to the wear bars. They wear out to fast.
I just put on some dreaded non N rated tires. Kumho ECSTA SPT.
I've only had them for a few weeks and 1000km. They have actually more traction in wet then the pzeros but less traction in the dry. They have little road noise so far being new but are quite squawky when pushing it around corners but they seem to have just as much grip as the pzeros.
As a daily driver the tire is more then fine. I doubt many people even push as hard as I do on the streets and this tires seems to be able to take it.

 

I love Bridgestones - I put them on a past BMW, I put them on my 19" rims on an S500, and I will switch to Bridgestone (from Pirelli) if I still own the car when it needs new tires.

 

I was much happier with those than with my prior "summer" Michelins. Northern California isn't that wet, but I was much happier with the P Zero Nero (M+S) when there was any water on the road. However, they're backordered right now, so when I had to put on new rears on Friday I switched to Kumho ASXs. So far so good, but its only been a few days and about 100 miles, ask me again in a month.
My main gripe with the non-all season tires was that the rear end would just get too squirrelly too easily on wet surfaces compared to an all season tire,and since I'm not tracking or anything I'd prefer more wet traction in return for giving up a bit of dry performance. Maybe that's just me.

Bob

 

The RE050A is definitely superior to the Conti 2 in grip. I can tell you this from personal experience. Tire Rack told me it is superior to the Pilot Sport Rib as well. I do not know if it is superior to the Michelin PS2.

 

I second that - I have 19s, which accentuates noise issues - my PS2s (235/35 and 295/30) are much quieter & smooth riding than the previous P Zero Rossos I had...as far as mileage, I may have gotten 16K or so in the front, but went through 3 sets of rears in that time span (this was the Pirellis, the PS2s have only a couple thousand on them).

I've always had the best luck with Michelins, both the old Pilot Sports on my previous M3 and now the PS2s.

 

I have a new set of Bridgestone Potenza S-02 N4's I will be putting on my 1999 C2 in the next day or two. They will be replacing the Pirelli P-Zero's that were on the car when I got it. I managed to get around 20,000 miles out of the Pirelli's and had no complaint about handling in wet or dry. But the noise was bothersome as they wore down. The rears are completely gone and the fronts might have about 20% left.

I have had the Bridgestones in previous Porsches and always preferred them for being quiet. They also replaced Pirelli's on my 1995 993. Between the two, I will always opt for the Bridgestone just based on the noise level.

My car gets used mostly for a long distance high speed commute, so I think that really prolongs tire life. I also give a break in the winter and run Blizzaks which don't seem to wear much at all. They probably have more than 20,000 miles on them, but appear to have enough tread to do one more winter.

 

Very good price.....were these 17" or 18"???

 

Are the RE050A better than the S02-A ???

 

I could very well be wrong, but I thought the REO50A replaced the S02-A.


Anybody....?

 

I don't know if it is a direct replacement. However it is newer, and it's intended to be superior in performance. I think any Bridgestone dealer will tell you it is superior.