Anybody seen these yet? They look like they are brand new tires:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

For the 245/275 tire combo for our cars it was $600 total. Tire has an interesting tread pattern (hint hint, Bridgestone - yes I know they are the same company) similar to an RE tire. They are unfortunately 2-3lbs heavier per tire than a Michelin PSS.

Not many reviews yet up on Tire Rack and I haven't found anything online about them. The price is tempting for daily driving the ISF. Not sure how they would hold up to track conditions.

 

They're an Ultra High Performance tire not a Max Performance tire. Therefore they are not on my radar. It's still the Bridgestone S-04 for me IMHO, a great compromise between price and performance.

Lou

 

I have those Indy 500 tires on a 93 Mustang Cobra and I have tracked them several times. On the street and highway they are fine. On the track they squeal quite a bit with moderate traction (part of that is the "interesting" suspension of the Mustang). Longevity is good. For street and moderate track use I'd say it would be ok.

FWIW I used RE50s and MPSS on my ISF at the track and MPSS are the clear winner in traction and longevity. A buddy in the Porsche runs 2 seconds/lap faster lap times in the MPSS over some Toyo or Falken track-only tires.

 

These have been out in Japan for about a year now branded as a Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE003. It is beyond me why they chose to brand this as a Firestone in the US but they did. They also chose to keep the same exact name as the tire old tire it replaces (firehawk indy 500) which will cause a lot of confusion considering they are *completely* different tires from a different lineage in Bridgestone's tire family. I plan to pick up a set to try out for giggles. So far the feedback in Japan looks really good, they should be a little more aggressive than most other tires in the max and UHP category and they should be able to handle some track use without chunking (unlike most other tires in the max and UHP category). They kind of remind me of a baby Potenza RE-11. If you follow tires closely these are actually in the same family as the Bridgestone Potenza RE760 sport, (aka Adrenalin RE001 in Japan) just two generations newer since they never brought the last generation tire (Adrenalin RE002) over to the US.

-Matt M.

 

That is good to know Matt! You're right - they did brand these tires with the same name as the old ones. That is definitely confusing. If you look at reviews online, they come up with the old tires with a completely different tread pattern. They should've used a different name.

 

So how do you know if you are getting the old version or the new version. Could it be that they are lower priced right now because retailers are getting rid of old stock of the previous version?

 

I'm glad there's a performance tire that is a little bit less expensive than the alternatives. I just got S04s on my car and they're great but they were also like $950 lol.

 

I'm running the Ohtsu FP8000 (I believe they are the former Falken FK452/FK453 --- same company). For street use they more than fit the bill at about 700$ for a 235/265 combo. When it comes time to track though, I'd be switching to some lighter wheels, wider footprint, and stickier tires anyway

 

The new ones have a drastically new tread pattern vs the old ones. The old ones looked like all season tires. The ones I posted in the link on Tire Rack are the new version of the tire.

 

correct. like it was stated in an above post, this tread pattern looks almost identical to the RE-11.

 

I thought I was a tire nerd, but you win!
That is interesting, the tread pattern looks out of place in the UHP category, HUGE side blocks. I'll have to keep my eye on these for sure!

 

I'd be concerned with these tires for a number of reasons. The tread design notwithstanding:

1. As I indicated above they are a UHP not a MP tire.

2. The traction rating is "A" rated and not "AA" rated.

3. The tread wear rating is 340, rather longish for a performance tire. That indicates, at least to me, that the rubber compound is designed for wear rather then traction.

Lou

 

Busted! I love tires It is amazing how the characteristics and personality of the entire car can shift simply by swapping a set of tires.

I compete in a lot of time attack events and so keeping up to date on the latest and greatest tires is important to me. So much so that I keep multiple sets of wheels and buy different sets of tires to do my own testing. Also depending on the series and car I'm driving, I am often limited to a true street tire 140-200UTQG EHP tires are mostly. Side note- pretty much all EHP street tires are now labeled 200UTQG to comply with some of the new tire rules many series started adopting based on UTQG. Some of the series will require tires above rated above 200UTQG for their "street" classes and so I also like to try out max performance summer and UHP summer tires which is why I know about these

These are out of place in the UHP summer category but tire manufactures can call it whatever they want within reason. In this case Bridgestone already has a premium summer tire in the Max performance summer category (Potenza S-04 pole position) so they just call these a higher tread wear rating (UTQG) and put them at a different price point in a different class to fill another spot in the range. It's gotten to the point where UTQG ratings and temperature grades mean next to nothing anymore- they definitely don't carry any weight with me. For example Bridgestone's S-04 is a 280 UTQG max performance summer tire which should be grippier and faster (in theory) to this new 340 UTQG Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 (Bridgestone Adrenalin RE003) but I would be willing to bet almost anything the 340UTQG Firestone is the sticker/faster tire by some margin. Even the old Potenza RE760 sport (two generation old predecessor to the new Firestone) is/was faster/grippier than the S-04 and it was better at dealing with heat. So this tire with ~10 years newer technology to the RE760 sport should be a big step forward in that department.

People also get caught up on sizing which can mean very little as well but thats another story for another day

-Matt M.

 

Looks interesting . Tread pattern looks like the shoulder have some sporting intentions. I have learned A LOT about tread design and characteristics over the last 2-3 years. Not available in my size and Im sticking with the Yokohama AD08R or moving up to the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 or Pirelli Corsa tires ( tread wear is 60 I think lmao) . I dont mod my car much so I just **** the money away on tires TRUTH LMAO . I am finding that there is nothing new coming in my 255/295 sizes

 

Matt

I guess I'm a Tire junkie too. But I must take exception to your above statement. Tire Rack's user experience simply don't bear this out. See Attachments.

I am the happy user of S-04s and I can tell you that they are a GREAT Tire and that like some other things in life, size does matter. I am running the 255/295 combo on RCF wheels and the change in handling from my stock wheels with PS2 through S-04 in a 245/285 size to my current setup is night and day.

The RE760 is a Great tire in it's class, but certainly is not in the same league as the S-04.

Lou