Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Position

Any thoughts? comments?

My thoughts are upgrade to 245/40/18's you girl.

It's time for me to get tires too. I had 225/50/17 but was thinking 235/45/17 (I am guessing that they would be about the same heigth) and was looking at the following

Nitto 450 (225/50/17) - $117.00
Nitto 555 (235/45/17) - $117.00
Yokohama AVS ES 100 (235/45/17) - $122.00
Dunlop Sport 8000 (235/45/17) - $141.00
Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Position (235/45/17) - 169.00

I am looking for a tire that will get me off the line quicker, are the bridgestones your talking about, or any of the above worth the extra price when compared to the performance gain. I know I can't afford over 600 hundred for tires, I am needing laughing gas.

I have the Nitto 555's .. they are great for tread wear.. they last about 40k miles.. but i am looking for something more performance orientated..

i checked tire rack's tests and i came up with these..

Pirelli PZero Nero, Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Position,and Michelin Pilot Sport

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/max_max_perf.jsp

Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Position, Michelin Pilot Sport and Pirelli Pzero Rosso

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/bs_s03_rd.jsp

the S03's seem to be the best to me..

i don't mind spending $700 on tires if they are great performers

heard lots of good stuff about that tire... but only con is the tread wear... a bit over 10,000 miles

I love my 225/50/17 Pilot Sport A/Ss. I saw an S-03 the other day and it looks nice.

The Pilot has a treadwear of 400, higher than most mom-and-pop tires.

If you are in it for the look, specifically the wide look, the Michelins look narrow. My 225's don't look as wide as the stock Potenza RE-92s. By eye I would say they are a 215.

I can certianly recomend them and would buy them again.

have you guys check the rev per mile on the tires ?
so your speed wont be off

I just got the s-03's myself, only to find out that the inner lip of one my rims is bent beyond repair so now I'm gonna have to wait to drive the car until I get a new one

S03's are great performing tires, but they are pricey and I think they are the one of the heaviest tires out there...

Sprint,
You may be missing the boat by not looking at the toyo TS-1's. Was never partial to Toyo's till I had some. If I wasn't such a cheap bastard I would have gone with the TS-1's. If you are willing to spend the money then you will never regret the Toyo's. Just can't say enough about them. They should be around the same price as the
S-03's, maybe a bit less. Good luck and enjoy.

I don't even trust the rev per mile count. You guys have it easy in the US. A mile a minute. Cruise at 60 MPH on a more-or-less flat highway for 10-20-30 MARKERED miles and time the run. Do the calc and you will know how far you are off.

My 225/50/17 (stock size) Pilots are about 1% short: shows 100, actual 99.

Yep, have the S-03's on mine for about 9,500 miles now. Excellent performance in the dry, almost as good in wet conditions. Very wide footprint, agressive tread, they do start to get just a little noisy after worn down over half way-but not too bad, which mine are. In fact, with the tread that's left and if they continue to wear at their current rate, I'll be lucky to get another 4,000 miles out of them, and I'm an older, fairly conservative driver. If you can afford to replace them every 15,000 miles, go for it.

Mike

HTR+

I can come off the line at 4500rpms with the HTR+ with barely a squeak. These things stick, hard. At the track I was able to do a 4000rpm launch with minimal spin and got a 2.24 60'. Awesome tires.


Dave

i just ordered these from tirerack on monday.

Straight summer performance tires? or are ypu looking for some all season capabilities as well?

Sumitomo HTR+ seem to do it all,
excellent traction in most weather conditions, ultra high performance all season rating.. 129$ each in 235/40/18 at tirerack.. (i think).

I heard good things about those Pole Positions as well.

i really like the nittos 555's so far..

pilot sport a/s

no

ok

Are these better than the Nitto 450 or 555, sounds about like the price I am looking for. I want a tire that will get me off the line fast, and are not to heavy for high speed sprints.

I'm certain they're better than the hard riding Nittos.

Last time at the track I left my 17s on and the HTR+ were hooking up so hard from a 3000rpm launch that they were causing me to bog and get 2.4 60 foots. I upped my rpms to 4000-4200rpms and they performed much better. A little spin thru 1st and 2.2X 60 foots. This was with 33psi in the tires too. Launching at 4000+ is really no problem at all. I also like the fact that I don't blow the tires off going into 2nd. With the HTR+, I just get a healthy bark. With my 15s, I'll spin dramatically.

Dave

did you ever figure out why they were wearing so much in the centers

Performance + long tread life = Blowtenza RE730

They don't perform as well as the S-03 but if you are going to be driving a lot on the tires, RE730 is the better choice.

S-03's work great on Jane's car. Traction is excellent!

I just put my a520's back on. Such lovely, smooth rubber.

if i cared about treadwear i would buy nittos again

Seriously look into Toyo Proxes T1-S. I have them on my Maxima now, I will be replacing the P-Zeros on my other ride with them. You won't be sorry.

Doug, I mounted a set of S-03's on our 330i last weekend. They are nothing short of amazing. Super quiet and smooth for a Z rated tire and they stick like glue.

Check the reviews on Tire Rack, I think they get like 9.x out of a possible 10. Can't find any other tire that comes close to that kind of rating.

yeah i am pretty much set on them.. my cousin i live with has them on his GS.. he was raving about them last night

I second that. They are rated just as high as the the S-03's (check www.1010tires.com , the only site i can find them both). Treadlife is better and they are much lighter than the S-03's.

I want a tire that will help with off the line launches, basically just traciton in a straight line, but also light enough to do well at high speed accleration, I am on a budget >500 so this is what I have come up with.

235/45/17

Sumitomo HTR+ = 458.00
Yokohama AVS ES100 = 477.12
Nitto 555 = 468.00

Is there any other option I should look at, I am kind of leaning towards the Yoko's, but am open to suggestions.

Just got off the phone with Tire Rack, this is what they told me for my price range (>500) and my needs (traction with no worries about wear.)

They don't carry Nitto, and recommended the Sumitomo HTR-Z, and I asked if they gave better traction than the HTR + and they said yes (even though the traction tests on the sight do not agree)

I called Discount Tire Direct (they do not carry Sumitimo) and told me the Nitto 555 would be my best choice.

Both of these guy's recommended their choices over the Yoko's I was looking at, so it looks like it's back to the drawing board, I have no ides where I am going to go now.

Sprint, as I always do with others, I HIGHLY suggest the Toyo Proxes T1-S. They are, by far, better than any other tire I have owned. Ask Bags533, Micah95GLE, my 300ZX buddies, they absolutely are a killer tire.

I've had Sumitomos HTRZ-II and HTR-Z in the past. I've got HTR+ on my 17s and they stick just as well as my Zs did. The Zs are awesome tires, but they are only summer tires. You really can't go wrong with the HTR+ at all. Look at the Tire Rack reviews and notice how close the HTR+ are to the Poles. Why someone would want to spend and extra $200 for tires is beyond me.



Dave

Everything seems to point to over-inflation which is weird because I was only running 33-32 in them which was during November thru late March (ie cold weather). I put about 4500 miles on them at that time. I've lowered my PSI to ~30-29 and I will closely monitor the wear. If they continue to wear quickly in the middle, I'll probably be able to get about 20K miles out them. It's only the central tread block that showed the excessive wear. The middle/outside of the tires had little wear. If I can correct the wear problem, I'll probably get 30K out of them.

I can live with getting 20-30K out of a W-rated ultra-high performance tire that only cost $100 each.


Dave

TOYO'S
You will absolutly LOVE them!

I agree with the S-03 recommendations, they are awesome tires and perfoem very well while remaning pretty damn liveable- size I experienced was 245/35-19 frt and 275/30-19 back right after some Pirelli Pzeros- these suckers are awesome

now if you want ultimate performance, try to find a set of S-02 pole positions, tread wear is horrible but they are even better from what I've heard- I have them in 245/35-19 frt/rr and I can say these are some of the grippiest tires I've ever ridden on, short of race tires

anyways on the budget side, I really love my Sumitomo HTRZ-IIs (CA has no need for all season!) in 245/40-18 and for a new set, I'm thinking Yoko AVS ES100s, my friend took them to the track and we were really impressed with them, his size was 225/50-17

good luck let us know what you choose!

Go with T1-S or S-03. You can't go wrong with either of them. They are very similar in every performance aspect, except for weight. The T1-S is 4-5lbs lighter in any given size than the S-03 is.

you can get 225/45/17 BFG G-force T/A drag radials for about the same price each if not less if you shop around and that will definetly get you off the line quicker...I know cause I use them myself and they rock!

I am leaning towards the Nitto 555's (235/45/17), I have the 450's (225/50/17) and have been pretty happy (I pulled a 2K2 with stock Michelins off the line) but the 555 seem to be geared more towards what I am looking for, and the contact will be wider with the new size.

I am not dead set on these if someone can give me a suggestion on another brand that would cost the same, I looked up BF Goodrich and with shipping came out to be about 170 each, where as the Nitto's are 117, can anyone give me feed back?

The HTR's I am nervous about because the Tire Rack guy said for my goals that was not the tire for me, but I trust the exprience of those on the org. more than him, so I am still open to those who have exprienced either.

the Sumitomo HTRs are great tires for all season performance, I really dont like Nittos... if you ask me they all suck


with the Sumitomo HTR one thing I was told is that in 18"s... you can still feel sidewall flex which is kinda disconcerting, thats why I went with the HTRZIIs