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Bridgestone Potenza RE003
Donnellans is your local Bridgestone specialist tyre retailer, servicing the great South-East Melbourne region with 4 locations. In this article, we’re looking into the Potenza RE003 tyre and how it has shaped the tyre market for motoring enthusiasts.
Bridgestone’s premier street performance tyre has been sold in Australia since 2015, the RE003 is the most recent tyre in Bridgestone’s Adrenaline Series.
Bridgestone's performance tyre lineup
Bridgestone has a vast history in developing tyres for motorsports use, with experience in road racing, Formula 1, Moto GP, and more.
Bridgestone’s experience in motorsport applications trickles down into the tyres you can fit on your vehicle today. Bridgestone divides their tyres up depending on their characteristics, with their range of tyres including:
- Potenza - Summer performance tyres that work in wet and dry conditions
- Dueler - 4WD and SUV tyres for any terrain
- Alenza - Premium and quiet tyres for large luxury vehicles
- Turanza - Tyres with wet weather performance and shorter braking distances
- Ecopia - Fuel efficient tyres that offer low road noise
We’re going to look at the Potenza Adrenalin series, which is a tyre designed for performance, without being too hardcore for everyday use.
Tread details
When it was first released in 2015, the RE003 was a revolutionary tyre, featuring many groundbreaking tread features, as it was designed to work equally well in dry and wet conditions.
The RE003 is designed with wide centre ribs that resist sideways deflection, this provides great steering feedback and precise handling.
The sides of each tread block are reinforced with curved geometry, allowing water to evacuate while preventing unwanted sideways movement, building on the rigidity from the wider tread blocks.
The patented and easily identifiable pulse groove in the center of the tread works to remove water from under the tread blocks quicker and more effectively than a standard tread groove. The thinner and wider portions create a scavenging effect, increasing aquaplaning resistance.
Aside from the tread geometry, the compounds that the tyre is made of also aids in wet weather performance. The Silica compound, as Bridgestone calls it, helps the rubber perform consistently across a wide range of temperatures, resulting in a tyre that performs well on a cool day as well as in hot weather.
Some users have reported overheating these tyres on track days or come-and-try motorsports events, but the same can be said for any tyre in this category.
The Potenza Adrenalin Lineup has been the focus of incremental changes in the tread design, all building upon the previous generation and the lessons learned while the tyres have been fitting to enthusiast’s vehicles.
Shown are the RE001, RE002, RE003, and RE004 (currently not available in Australia).
Popular competitors
The Potenza RE003 was designed as an all-weather performance tyre, and performs well even amongst modern tyres such as the Michelin Pilot Sport 3 and the Pilot Sport 4.
The general consensus is that the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 is overall a grippier tyre, but feels lazy when it comes to steering inputs, with vehicles taking longer to respond to quick changes in direction.
The thicker tread grooves in the Potenza and the stiffer shoulders transmit more feedback through the steering wheel, giving drivers a much more intimate feel for what the car is doing, as well as providing confidence on exactly how close you are to the limits.
What if I want more performance?
While the RE003 is classed as a summer performance tyre, they are designed to be durable and long lasting. If your priority is maximum performance at all costs, tyres such as the Bridgestone RE-71 and RE070 offer more dry weather grip, at the cost of durability, while being much louder tyres.
Other maximum performance tyres you might consider are the respected Pilot Sport 4S. The PS4S offers a stickier compound than the regular PS4 that competes directly with the RE003 tyre. Of course, the ‘S’ tyre won’t last as long and will be much louder. Important considerations if you’re fitting these tyres to your daily commuter.
What’s next for the Potenza Adrenalin line-up?
The Bridgestone brand is synonymous with technological innovation, so when the brand makes a significant leap in tyre and material design, that technology is rolled out with a new tyre as soon as possible. If an older tyre is still extremely popular and selling well, the tyre is then sold under the Firestone brand, a subsidiary of Bridgestone.
Currently, the Bridgestone RE002 tyre, long since discontinued, is still available as the Firestone Firehawk Sport 01.
In overseas markets, the RE003 has already been moved across to the Firestone Brand as it is being sold as the Firestone Firehawk INDY 500 while a RE004 is currently on the market.
The RE004 is not available in Australia and Bridgestone is staying Mum when it comes to confirming rumours of a local release, with a lot of auto enthusiasts keeping their fingers crossed that Bridgestone Australia announces that it will hit our shores this year.
Bridgestone Australia’s official stance as of this article being written is that the RE003 is the latest Potenza Adrenalin tyre, but if you want a more recently released tyre, take a look at the highly anticipated Potenza Sport which has recently been released.
Contact Donnellans
If you’re in the market for a sporty performance tyre for your street car, but you don’t want to sacrifice wet weather performance and grip, come see the team at Donnellans today for a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE003 tyres today!
We have 4 convenient locations offering the best range of tyres to suit all applications. Come see us about your car, 4WD, SUV or ute today.
Contact us today!
Images thanks to Bridgestone Australia and Singapore.
