All Season Tires: Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS+

[spcmafia]

Saving this for the new tires being installed next week.

Coming from Michellin A/S 4s, Im mostly interested in noise levels and also with the upcoming fall/winter months, rain/light snow performance.

Tire size will be 222/45R/17.

[spcmafia]

Initial thoughts;

Given how the tires have less than 50 miles, things are going to change.

Initial impressions are good, compared to the Michellin A/S 4s, they are quieter.
With the current alignment settings which have a focus on Auto-X (-3.5 Front / -2.9 Rear), steering is super sharp to the point where I had to relearn how much input I give the car when turning or switching lanes.

Grip is good, but it doesn't inspire too much confidence compared to the Michellins, probably because how sharp steering is.

It does also take the car a little longer to get up to highway speed as if the tire needs additional time to warm up and grip, whereas the former tires, by the time I got the highway, I could get on the gas and hit 75MPH in a heartbeat.

On the topic of sharpness, it could be that this tire does not like aggressive camber and it could probably improve once I got back to a more OEM alignment.

Cruising speed at 70-75MPH is soft and quiet, it can also develop more speed without feeling to many vibrations as compared to the former tires.

There is no rain forecasted for a little bit so I'll have to wait for that.

[spcmafia]

100+ mile update.
Could be the break in period, but dry grip or power to wheels transfer is still pretty lacking.

It did rain quite extensively but not heavy. Surprisingly, acceleration is somewhat better and steadier than dry environments. Car felt firm, even quieter than dry conditions. Tested a 75+MPH run on wet and I the only other time Ive felt as secure behind the wheel was with CECS2s.

Will continue reviewing as time goes by, but so far my biggest gripe is lack or loss of acceleration on dry/warm conditions.

Every other aspect is miles ahead of the Michellins A/S 4s

[spcmafia]

Just for the hell of it, I might bring them to my next autocross and see how they perform. Mostly because I really dont feel like switching tires again. It sucks lol.

[cmiovino]

Originally Posted by spcmafia

Just for the hell of it, I might bring them to my next autocross and see how they perform. Mostly because I really dont feel like switching tires again. It sucks lol.

I ran my Conti DWS06's at a 'fun' event because I didn't want to change them after a 10+ hour trip down to Tail of the Dragon and back.

The high performance all seasons were fine for The Dragon because you're not going 10/10ths. You're basically at 7 or 8 out of 10 on the intensity scale, so you're no where near breaking them loose. However for autocross, I was a good 3 seconds behind on a 35 second course of where I should have been with 200TWs. I wasn't going for times at this event.

They 'worked' as in they didn't totally disintegrate and I stayed on course, but I certainly couldn't go WOT through elements I normally could have more like slaloms and transitions). Sweepers especially suffered too, but I wasn't at risk of hitting cones there.

Eh. I likely wouldn't run them again unless I had to. It was a bit frustrating.

[spcmafia]

I've put quite a few miles already. New camber settings (-2.5 F, -2 R, 0 Toe) have helped with steering input and made it more grounded instead of driving with a mouse set to high sensitivity.

Road noise is about the same. Still quieter than the Michellins AS 4s. Dry grip and power transfer is the same, kind of sucks, takes the car a little bit to develop speed. Cold weather grip is about the same, but rain performance is pretty good.

Could be a contribution of different factors, but these tires feel hard, like they don't flex and therefore the car feels like it is understeering.

Would I recommend these tires?

As strictly commuter tire? Yes. Quiet, grounded, good rain performance and okay winter grip.

Spirited driving/ occasional mess around at Auto X? Absolutely not. Lack of grip and perceived understeer would make our experience unpleasant.

[spcmafia]

Speaking of MPGs. The Michelins had slightly better performance for some reason. But this could be because I didn't want to be that guy screaming on the highway with my old exhaust setup (Uncatted Front Pipe). I was at around 27.5 MPG

I'm at 26.9 MPG currently, but because I went back to the OEM Front Pipe, plus the quiet nature of the tires, I am cruising at higher speeds and therefore using more gas.