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Bridgestone Potenza for Street and Track
This month, let’s take a deep dive into Bridgestone and their high performance car tyres.
Bridgestone Tire Co., Ltd. was founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi. In fact ‘Bridgestone’ is an English translation of the founders family name. Anticipating the growth of the automotive industry, Bridgestone quickly became Japan’s largest tyre manufacturer and shortly after expanded internationally. Upon acquiring the Firestone Tyre and Rubber company in 1988, Bridgestone became the world’s largest tyre and rubber company (apart from Lego).
Bridgestone first brought the Potenza name to market in 1979 with a performance orientated steel-radial tyre. The word Potenza is Italian for ‘Power’ - the Bridgestone Potenza range covers a wide variety of performance tyres from OE available on some new cars through to hardcore track day tires for the highest levels of motorsport.
A popular option within the Potenza family is the RE003 tyre, made popular by the internet automotive YouTube channel, Mighty Car Mods. Coming in a huge variety of sizes between 15-20 inch, chances are there is a size that’s right for your car. The RE003 has a very stiff shoulder to avoid the tyre moving around on the rim when cornering. The center ‘pulse groove’ as Bridgestone calls it, is designed to speed up water drainage faster than conventional tread block designs. This high performance tyre offers a good blend of grip on both wet and dry roads, long lasting tread and even wear characteristics. The RE003 is slightly noisier than other options available on the market, which is something that you may want to keep in the back of your mind if considering these tyres.
The Potenza lineup has been featured by the likes of Ferrari and Porsche as the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A is an OEM tyre on select models. Available with run flat technology, this tyre provides very good wet weather performance while remaining quiet and civil at highway speeds.
Bridgestone recently updated the Potenza line up with the S007A. Released to replace the outgoing RE-11, which is widely regarded as the easiest ultra performance summer tyre to live with day-to-day, the S007A has big shoes to fill. Bridgestone equipped this tyre with 3 wide centre ribs to maximise dry performance. The tread blocks feature rounded corners to aid with water dispersion and stop the tyre moving about under heavy braking forces. Bridgestone has equipped the larger sizes of this tyre with kevlar inserts in the sidewall to resist tyre flex.
Some of the more extreme motorsport tyres in the Potenza range are the RE-71R and RE-11S. The RE-71R tyre has a bare minimum of tyre tread to allow legal street use. As with any ultra performance tyre, when they’re cold and the weather is wet, traction is almost non existent. The RE-11S is a track-only tyre, its uncompromising design comes from years of motorsports experience.
Here at Donnellans the Tyremen, we are expert tyre fitters. If you have questions about which tyres are the best for your performance vehicle, whether you’re into spirited driving on the backroads, or taking your car to the racetrack, it’s best to come chat with the team at Donnellans.
With 5 stores across Melbourne there is one near you.
Drop in today or give us a call:
- Blackburn - (03) 9894 1223
- Collingwood – (03) 9417 5527
- Preston – (03) 9480 0044
- Prahran – (03) 9510 3199
- Balwyn – (03) 9816 9900
