I Love My Summer Tires

Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R tires provide oodles of grip.

I absolutely love “Extreme Performance” summer tires! Last year I put my snow tires on early after noticing the extra wear on my summer tires, hoping to save the tread for this summer. I finally got my set of Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R’s back on last night and I am absolutely floored at the difference in my car. I completely forgot the level of grip these tires provide. It is literally a night and day difference, every aspect of my car’s performance has improved. The stock alloys my Potenzas are mounted on are lighter than the snow tires’ steel wheels, so the car accelerates faster. The lateral grip blows the snow tires out of the water (comparison accelerometer log coming soon!) with an amazing improvement in steering response and highway straight-line stability courtesy of rock-solid sidewalls. But most importantly, the car now tugs at your face a bit in a hard stop.

If you’re driving a performance car without performance tires, you’re absolutely insane. It’s impossible to describe the feeling of confidence you get in the car when you can feel it so firmly planted to the ground. Imagine running around wearing bowling shoes versus a good pair of tennis shoes. That’s how drastic a difference I feel with these tires. Now I just need the money for R-compound tires…