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

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.
:tiphat:



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

nice review dude!!!

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

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

Michelin PSS
 

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.

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

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.

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

RE11s are deafening.

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

Quieter too, lol

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.

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.

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

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

huh, that's odd.. but considering RE11's are a pretty dated design, perhaps the S04's might beat it out on street even from max performance stand point.

guys should also check out the continental DW. they're kinda ugly sidewalls, but they are a good match for the Z.

I think it is not going to be fair review of the tire if you are comparing used versions of each. Too many variables such as how the previous owner used them or the age of the tire which can greatly skew the results.

I used to always buy used tires as well and had such a good experience after running a new set on my Z for the last year I have no plans of ever running used again

I don't think how the previous owner used them skews it too much if I've been using the middle 50+% and all the tires have been less than 3 years old. Of it makes a difference all the used ones were DD, and the RS3s were used by a tracker

I haven't been buying used tires and I really never would on this car, I just keep buying new wheels that have tires on them, LOL

Maybe, I just know that I don't really care for them on a DD, and I'm not super anal about it, but maybe the overhype killed it

Cuntynentals can stay on Mercs. They're not bad, but I'll stick with Michelin from here-on out

I see that you haven't tried them on your Z don't knock it until you try it.

I just have no reason to. Costco doesn't sell them, which means I won't buy them, lol

Of course it skews it, you have no idea what real condition they are in since it sounds like you're just guesstimating their condition

If you're going to make a review such as this and expect to be taken seriously you would need to eliminate the unknown variable of previous owner and buy them all new

But this is just your general observation so no real harm in the thread

Continentals are great tires BTW, give them a chance!

Dunlop Dirrezza z2 !!

Bump updated RE-11 thoughts after a few k more miles

^that's weird since the noise hasn't bothered me that much although I agree they're loud enough to notice. But I love my RE-11s and will never go back lol

The noise will only get worse

Yeah, from loud, to bad, to WTF? Is there a 747 behind me?!?! My RE-11s are at... 30-50% tread and it's BAD. Worse than the RS3s at that tread.

Guess I never noticed cuz I'm too busy paying attention to my exhaust note :)

:gtfo2: You with your G25s... Lol

I'd like to listen to my exhaust, but sometimes I can't, lol.
Maybe I drive way shittier roads than the rest? Or a bunch of concrete roads? Or forever on the "musical road". But... It's bad... Nothing I WANT out of my DD, again, why I bought 8 RS3s, and why I plan on buying 2-4 more just to keep in stock

Yup, on some concrete roads the noise does become unbearable...

When they are new, they are quieter than the stock RE050. It's just after half way, they just get extremely loud. The RS3 is probably noisier than the RE11 new, but the RE11 is f-ing loud after a few thousand miles. I used to wear headsets.

I'm glad I'm not crazy and it's not just me. The RE-11 seems so have a stiffer sidewall too because for me the the ride is more harsh, I do get better turn in, but marginally (or marginally for a guy who doesn't track like you guys. Lol) but the level of grip on the RS3 makes up for it IMO.
I just don't think the RE-11 is the savior the forum makes it out to be

I cant compare the ride since my RS3 are small

I just remember the RE11 rode better than the RE050 too. I remember I bought the car new, put a set of RE11 on the car before 1000 miles. I had 3 sets before I moved to the RS3.

Since I never used the RS3 in the east coast, I can't directly compare both tires. It wouldn't surprise me the RS3 is faster. One thing I can say for certain that RS3 can handle abuse a lot better. I can overdrive the car and the tires won't overheat. The RE11 would give up after 2 hotlaps at best. The tires were also okay in pouring rain, but it is not a tire I want to put on my daily driver

Hell yeah they can take a beating :)


And it's my DD, lol

I didn't have a problem in the rain really, even close to bald, then again I'm not speed racing in the rain and my TC stays on

Which tires are youu referring to? RS3 or RE11? Im needing a new set for rear soon, my car is my dd, so im looking for stires that would perform and be safe in any weather condition.

I took it as the RS3s.

If you wanna wait. I should be mounting my set within a week, you can drive my car again to check it out

:excited:

LOL, I bought so many sets I might as well just mount them to every set of wheels I have

I may jump aboard and get some 305s.