Bridgestone Potenza Sport Reviews - Page 2

Fitted these to my i30n on a 4 for 3 deal to replace my worn pzero's. What a night and day difference.

Positives, The tyre immediately feels very direct and sporty and it's easy to feel what the front end is doing. Grip in the dry was incredible for a road tyre the just go and go, though they definitely need a little heat to work it's best. More on the feel I found the grip to feel very intuitive and I could tell when that "endless" grip was running out with the tyres breaking away progressively. The star of the show was the wet grip, I don't see any tyre ever wowing me more when I first drove them spiritdly in the wet. They just cut through the water and make it feel like you're in the dry, obviously there's a limit and I have aquaplaned on some deeper standing water but otherwise superb.

On to the negatives, the first this I noticed is definitely the road noise, the i30n is never a quiet car but I can manage to hear them over my exhaust cruising at highway speeds. They're also very firm, South Sydney speed bumps and poorly paved roads have never felt worse, that being said definitely something I could put up with being younger and with all the other positives. Last thing was the wear, on road they held up well for approximately 20,000km with many spirited drives through the twisties and the occasional launch control from a stop light. However one track day at pheasant wood circuit and they were toast, I expected some heavy wear going in but yikes! Front left tyre had some minor delamination and the tread on the front was gone particularly on the outside of the front tyres, the culprit being overheating according to my mechanic.That being said a proper alignment and maybe more careful monitoring of tyre pressures and temperatures they may have lasted better. Because otherwise they did feel great on track!

After said track day, they still felt okay with grip being about the same but of course replacement was in order. Unfortunately no 4 for 3 deals this time around and having being bitten by the track bug I will not be using them for my next with some Conti SC7's replacing them.

All in all definitely a great sporty tyre meant for enthusiasts. Maybe not the best for track days in a heavy fwd car but certainly a good tyre for some spirited driving and a sporty feel. Hopefully when the Potenza Sport Evo's come to Aus in my size I can grab a set and see how they fair as I really liked the feel of these Potenza Sports and without the track wear I'd definitely get them again!

Having come from other bridgestone tyres (turanzas and potenza s001) the potenza sports were a real surprise. Where the potenza s001 didn't feel significantly better than the turanzas, the potenza sport felt MILES ahead of the potenza s001.

Driving in wet and damp, it turns in very nicely on spicy entries into a roundabout and gives you enough feedback to let you know when you are close to the edge. In the dry, they feel almost difficult to push into understeer even intentionally (this is on a mini cooper S with a stage 1 tune, so usually very keen to understeer on both braking and acceleration round tight corners). I was incredibly surprised at how direct they are on turn in and how well they hold at the limit.

I'll definitely be sticking with these as they are also generally easy to find at a decent price compared to the more popular PS4/PS5s that are typically the go to for enthusiast drivers and offer exactly what I wanted for my mini to enhance that gokart feel.

I went from worn Continental Sport Contact 6 to new Bridgestone Potenza Sport and felt the improvement in comfort as soon as I drove out of the garage. I also noticed the Bridgestone looked chunkier on the wheels. They run wider on the wheels which give better rim protection but if you're running a modified set-up, bear this in mind if you're already close to the arch. I went from Continental with no arch rubbing to the same size Bridgestone with very slight rubbing. I used RO1 (Audi Quattro) spec tyres on my BMW and I later came across non-oe spec tyres and could see the sidewalls on the non-oe were more rounded so maybe I should have used non-oe tyres and would have got away with arch issues.
I also noticed the RO1 tyres had less tread depth than the non-oe or other brands. The RO1 tyres only came with 6mm new. Generally most brands come with around 7mm or more.
When I first put the tyres on, I took it easy for the first 500 miles. At around 500 miles I started testing them and was disappointed. The traction control light came on unexpectedly and when I wanted to put some power down they'd wheel spin. The was at the end of Autumn and beginning of Winter so the temp was around 10 degrees celsius. It was at 750 miles when the tyres transformed. Now they were great. Once they are warmed up they have no problem at 10c. Grip and handling is excellent even in the wet. But on lower temperatures around 3c they still lose traction plus if it's wet too then they feel unstable.
Bridgestone prices seem to be lower than other premium brands right now so my overall conclusion is try them if you're making a good saving. It's a decent tyre. If you live in a warm climate they'll be superb but in the UK just take it easy during the colder months.
It's difficult for me to judge the wear as I've only done 6k miles on them and am now taking them off as I'm going back to Continental to stop the arch rubbing. The Bridgestone still have 4.5mm tread depth after 6k miles.