Deanski

Interesting. I always knew of the "N" rating but never really read deep into it. Makes sense that tire mfg work with Porsche to provide the best tire match for each car they make.

Just sucks that Pirelli Rosso's don't have a 305 N rated tire, only 295.

Still not too comfortable with Bridgestone tires. Had their run-flats (run-craps) on my Lexus SC430 and also had an Explorer as well. I know the S-03 Pole Positions were one sticky tire.

Maybe I'll go back to Mich one day.

Thanks!

Deanski

Chris from Cali

I had RE050As on my S2000 ('04) and they were MUCH improved over S-03s I had before. PS2s are worth every penny, IMO (I had them on my S4).

KDWs are a waste of time, unless you like sliding around a lot. I keep having to talk my Evo friends out of these tires.

Finally, I noticed that no one had commented on the Pirelli PZero Rossos. My 997S is the first car I've had with these tires and I love them. Very good grip, good in the rain, not loud. I like them. When it comes time to replace them, I might switch to PS2s, but I'm not sure.

CraigC

I have RE050s on my Subaru WRX STI and the car handles great. I think you would be hard pressed to get a better handleing tire unless it is an R compound. I have about 15,000 miles on mine and they are wearing evenly(rotated every 4000 miles) and should last ~20,000 miles of hard driving. Steering response is razor sharp and dry grip is great. It is not a rain tire or a snow tire. If you live in a dry climate I recommend them.

snarf

My C2S with Carrera sports wheels (XRR, 305 rear, 600 miles to date) came with Bridgestones fitted. I'm unable to comment on them relative to other makes but noise is very sensitive to the quality of the road surface. I'll let you know how I? get on with them.

Tedder Bear

jhbrennan - thanks for the tire rack link. It was very interesting.

ronmart

Cool, thanks for the article. It is good to get the real story on this.

dstrimbu

Select "Show OE Tires" after you pick your car...

Porky

Guys, I am doing a bit of research on tires - looking to change mine within the next month. I am hearing a lot of good things about Bridgestones. Some of you made interesting comments but hadn't done many miles a few months back. Would be very interested to hear your comments now on which tires you recommend. I have had Pirelli - too much noise, Michellin's right now, great tire no complaints but am interested in Bridgestones.

For me wet weather traction is the most important thing, I drive my car rain or shine!

RonCT

I remember reading up on this tire and thinking it was a good option. I've got 4 years on PS2s (was one of the first to buy them for my M3 when they were released) and I still strongly endorse them. I ran One Lap in 2005 and just about every car used PS2s (we had our choice of anything Tire Rack sells).

If you look at the test results, etc. at Tire Rack you will see the PS2s do come out on top - sort of a "you get what you pay for" approach. The Bridgestone is ranked 7th in the category where the PS2 is ranked 2nd. What's ranked 1? Yoko's Neova which does not come in 19".

A few years ago Car & Driver did a test and the PS2 did not win and I suggest that is because they gave points for cost. They even mentioned how expensive the PS2 was. So here's an article about the highest performing tires on the planet and they deduct points because they are better and cost more? They should have had a rating showing price dependent and price independent.

500

The Bridgestone's came on my new 07 S and although I am a big Michelin fan the Bridgestones are very nice.

4thporsche

I have the Bridgestones on my '06 and with 5,000 miles on them I am very happy. Never had the PS2s so I can't make a comparison between the two.

RonCT

It would probably be impossible to tell a difference on the street. I think that to see that extra 10th in tire performance, you'd probably have to be on the track. So the Pzero, Bridgestone, or PS2 for street driving are all probably very comparable. I can say that when I went from PS to PS2 there was a dramatic improvement in street driving - mostly in cold weather grip and in the rain.

Dr_KarlB

I have had the RE050 PP's on my 996 for the last 4 months and 3500 miles.
The car is a DD and has been to the track twice on these. Wear seems fine so far.. perhaps 20-30% worn on the rears.
I had the OEM dunlops on before this and the car was transformed with the Bridgstones.
They seem much firmer than the dunlops of the pirellis so i can feel seams in the highway etc.
Oh, i also blew one out at 75MPH on HWY 101. Except for a big pop sound, i didnt even realize anything happened. They had 10 miles on them so i was scrubing them in and taking it easy... so really stiff sidewalls !!
Good price too from Tire Rack!

Targa Tim

I'm also shopping for 4 tires for my 997S, mainly for street use plus up to 5 track days per year.

Thanks RonCT for his advise to me via PM.

I just got the following quotation from Damon at Tire Rack.

235/35/19: Bridgestone RE050A = $220, Michelin PS2 = $319
305/30/19: Bridgestone = $293, Michelin = $488

Therefore, a set of RE050A is $1026, while a set of PS2 is $1614, Price difference is $588, not hugh but significant.

What do you guys think?

RonCT

57% above the baseline cost of the Bridgestones is significant. With 5 track days a year, I think I'd spend the extra to get the "bones" of the PSCups. I've probably run 4 dry, 2 cold, and 3 wet track days on my M3's PS2s and I really became a believer. I also have probably 15 days on PSCs and at one point I was seriously considering going to 4x 275 PS2s when my PSCs wore out. They are that good. The reason I considered it is we have so many cold / wet track days here in the Northeast and I was using my street tires too often to start (and with heavy OEM wheels instead of my light OZs). The PS2s are very good right down into the 20 degree range (just haven't had them below that).

When I ran PS2s on the track in the wet, I was shocked at how well they shed water. 120 MPH on the race track without any feeling of risk. That compared with others on other brands of tires poking along at 80 and feeling they were on the edge.

I've never used Bridgestones, so I can't give a comparison. But boy, the PS2s have impressed me (can you tell?). One condition with delivery of my car - it had to have PS2s. It arrived with Pzeros and fortunately another car on the truck had PS2s so the dealer swapped wheels and tires.

One last thing... $600 "more" for PS2s may feel less if you consider you may get 3 good years out of them. So that's $200 more a year on a $100,000 car...