My tire reviews: RE050/RS3/RE11/S.Drive/P.Zero/AS+

DEpointfive0

This review is based on my own experiences and most tires were only tested for a few thousand miles and most were used and were all used within the middle 50% so I can’t attribute noisiness with the tire being brand new, but I can’t comment on longevity for the most part.
Background: I have a 7AT, full bolt-ons, and I am an EXTREMELY aggressive street driver. I am also not opposed to doing VDC off burn-outs (not brake stands though, so every tire I’ve used has a few of those built in)

• Yokohama S.Drives-

Tires I got with the car. They had a lot more grip than expected, road noise was pretty good for the 370Z, and ride quality was good, no complaints. I ran them for 14,000 miles then did a rear tire flip flop (due to camber wear) and rode them to 22k~ still had some tread on them too, not completely bald, but they were pretty damn noisy. Not bad tires for the price.

• Bridgestone RE050-

Terrible tires. Ride is jolting, when I went from the Yokohamas to them I laughed at how loud they were for being almost new (they had 2,000 miles on them.) The ride on the freeway was way more jolting than the Yokohamas as well. There were some roads in which I could rattle cavities out as well as go deaf on.

• Pirelli P.Zero-

The worst tire ever made. Gained heat, never gained grip. Loud tires, which was expected, I just expected grip to come with the noise. Ride quality wasn’t as bad as the RE050s though. Had them for 5,000 miles before one of the rears committed suicide and I was over it. They SUCK as tires. No reason anyone should ever buy them. You’d have to be clinically insane.

• Hankook RS3-

The grippiest tire I’ve used. I knew they would be loud, and I was prepared to go deaf every day on the way to work. Very surprisingly, they weren’t as loud as the RE050s, I could still hear myself think. I could listen to Pink Floyd at a reasonable volume, I could make phone calls over Bluetooth, but don’t get me wrong, it’s still a noisy car in general. Ride quality was pretty good too, you knew the road was there, but I went in thinking they would be the worst of everything except grip.
When I got them, I was told that they have NO grip when cold, I made the comment “Like how bad? I‘ll have to do a burn out to get them warm enough to go to work.” First morning, maybe 50 degrees, and I couldn’t get up the GENTLE hill leaving my parent’s house, VDC flashed and I was moving backwards. Texted the owner, asked him what to do and he told me to light them up (kinda sucks when you live next to a cop… and a judge…) I took my dad to work one day, he got in, I turned VDC off, lit them up then headed to work, LOL.
They’re really not that bad, they do have grip, but in “cold” temps they suck, I wouldn’t want to drive with them anywhere that gets less than 50. And to get the full RS3 experience they really need to be heated up thoroughly; my 7-8 mile drive to work didn’t do it, but once they are warm, you get great launches, no slip, and grip for days. WEEKS. I was overall very happy with them and I’m sad I didn’t get a new set when on sale. I just thought they were going to be too loud to DD ;-(

• Bridgestone RE-11

… Better tires for DD, I won’t say THE best though. While they are gripper from cold, and carry more grip more times than the RS3s (for me at least) they are noisy. Noisier than the RS3s for sure (even after the RS3s are fully warmed up.) Maybe the ride is a bit better than the RS3s, but it’s negligible; the road noise isn’t. They’ve been on for about 500-1000 miles, but as of now, I’d rather have my RS3s back. I’ll update this last post after I warm them up fully around work and I do a burn out or two.

UPDATE: Grip wise, the tires are great for a street tire, great in the sense that they're prety damn good from cold, and only require minimum warming up before they reach their full potential...
With this update I installed an MFactory diff that is set to 80% lock as well as Whiteline bushings, so I will say that it's much harder/almost impossible to do a rolling burnout because the wheels are locked so nicely and how the tires grip.

The noise though... UNBEARABLE... I want to take the brake fuse out and do brake stands to kill the tires to force me to go to another setup... But they're good tires for the deaf.


Side note:

• Michelin A/S+

My ISF comes with RE050s stock. The ISFs ride is REALLY bad, weird though, jolting but still comfortable, not sure how to describe it. But it’s bad enough that I could count change on the freeway when I ran over it. The RE050s are so bad that when they were on that car I thought they were run flats. Bought the car with 5,000 miles and drove it to 22,000~ miles, so they lasted ok, but all 4 were corded.
Anyways, went to Costco and got myself some A/S+s for the rain in Houston. Great tires. I honestly feel that they have more grip than the RE050s and the ride was much improved. The Lexus is quiet so the sound difference wasn’t much, but I am VERY happy with them. It’s at 45-50,000 miles now and they were driven MUCH harder than the RE050s, so even though the rears are shot. It was a great ride to then. Costco replaced them with A/S+s otherwise I would’ve gone with the A/S3s.



I’m open to questions or comments. These are only my observations with various tires.




All that said, what did I buy?
RS3's. The grip when warm... It's stupid. Job done

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carlitos_370z

nice review dude!!!

shaun66

My Michelin PSS are almost done after 16K what to do what to do.

kfull

I'm gonna be putting on my Michelin PSS's within a month, I'm excited to see if they live up to the hype

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cames4

I had the Michelin PSS installed on my 2010 Z Sport six months ago and found them to be simply outstanding. Far better than the stock tires; more sticky, better handling in the turns, noticeable reduction in road noise, and more comfortable steer. Car was totaled in last Feb and I picked up a 2014 Touring Z Sport. I am now back to the stock tires and can definitely feel the difference. Saving my money to replace them in the next few months. May seem like a waste of money to replace good tires but having driven on them for even a short amount of time, it is worth it. If you buy them you certainly will not regret it; just research and read the reviews.

DEpointfive0

Yep, PSS is my next choice no matter what for the Z. Waiting for costco to put it on sale again. That's it

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cames4

I found America's Tire to be the least expensive in the SOCAL area. I hunted for over a month for the best deal and they had it.

carlitos_370z

for now i think im going with the Hankooks... lets see what happend

DEpointfive0

RE11s are deafening.

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synolimit

Well the rs3 is all that fits so good news for me.

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DEpointfive0

Quieter too, lol

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DarkJak

Nice comparisons! I hope you can write thoughts on PSS's compared to RE11's and RS3's once you get them on. I really like my PSS's but they just don't last long enough for me. The rears last me about 5-7k miles. Fronts probably around 13k.

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DEpointfive0

Check your alignment more!!! Lol
Take ALLLLLL the camber out of the rears too.

RE-11s are so god damn loud. Grip great without having to warm them up too much. But I'm really looking forward to PSSs. If they're MADE for the 458 and good enough for the ZR1, I'm sure it's good enough for the 370Z.

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Zbrah

What sizes were you running the S-Drives and RS3 Andrew?

DEpointfive0

S-drives were 245/275
Everything since has been 245/285.



As an update, HOLY FUCKIN HELL RE-11s are loud... Can't wait for new tires. Very over it... They grip pretty damn well too in the dry, but in the rain, they didn't feel 100%, nothing necessarily wrong, I don't push my car in the wet, but the RE-11s seemed to float a bit more than what I was comfortable with, even compared to the RS3s


EDIT: RE-11s were run as 245/285, then swapped to 265/285

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