Bridgestone Adrenalin RE001 vs PP2 vs rest?

[Charlie Brown]

I’m coming in a bit late here. There's a lot of good informative comments, especially from Guran and others that are spot on.

I don’t subscribe to the theory that manufacturers put low inflation pressures on their plaques to make people buy their car because of a “better, softer” ride and I don’t subscribe to the theory that because 38psi works fine for PP2s on a Camry it must be OK to run PP2s on a MX5 at those pressures.

Vehicle weight - overall and front to rear, suspension design, roll centres etc., etc., will effect the pressures selected by the vehicle manufacturer to obtain maximum performance and ride.

Car manufactures don’t give a rats about tyre wear. The Bridgestone Turanza’s fitted to my wife’s Mazda6 were gone at 24,000 kilometres. The Mazda service manager said he’d seen them last just 12,000k so we did well.

Remember Tyre manufacturer will adjust their recommended pressure for the same vehicle depending on the height / width ratio of the tyre. So a 205x50 tyre might have a recommended pressure of 30psi and a 205x45 a pressure of 32psi when fitted to the same vehicle type.

When I ran PP1s on my NB I set the pressures at 31psi for the road and 37psi for the track. I did the same for the NC.

You can’t run 37psi in a MX5 on normal Australian roads with standard suspension and expect it to get through a rutted corner without skipping around. It’s too hard. The suspension can’t take an increase of almost 30% in pressure. Your tyre acts as the first absorption point in the suspension. Take that away and you mess up the manufactures’ design parameters.

Track conditions are different as stated by others above. On the track I get my first timers on road tyres to put in 36 or 37 psi to start. After that adjustment is by 0.5psi to change the balance of the car. NEVER let the pressures get above 41 hot as grip drops dramatically.

Back to the original query on PP2s or RE001s.

I fitted RE001s to the NC. Now with almost 3,000 kilometres up I can say that these tyres scare the hell out of me in the wet. Anything resembling a wet tarmac and it’s an excuse for them to spin up or slide under a normal sedate driving style. My old T-1Rs that were hard and down to within a mm or two of the indicator bars were far superior and I thought they were bad. I have yet to extend them in the dry. I probably should go to the Marulan Driver training track or find a quite back road with plenty of run off and test them out before passing a dry road comment.
Maybe they just don’t fit into the manufactures specs for the NC and should be avoided.

[JBT]

I fitted RE001s to the NC. Now with almost 3,000 kilometres up I can say that these tyres scare the hell out of me in the wet.

Hmmm....this seems to be a common complaint with the RE001 on many forums.

[bensale]

I fitted RE001s to the NC. Now with almost 3,000 kilometres up I can say that these tyres scare the hell out of me in the wet.

Hmmm....this seems to be a common complaint with the RE001 on many forums.

+1 Absolutly rubbsh in the wet... Very scarey! Coming out of any corner with even the slightest amount of throttle is pretty dicey... Although they seem ok into corners and under straight acceleration and brakes. I would not buy them due to there wet performance alone, if you're using them for track days good luck if it rains! Thankfully I live in melbourne and it never rains down here...

[Old Dude]

Hi guys a bit of factual info from the tyre companies this was copied from one of their web sites

Generally, the optimum inflation pressure is about 90% of the maximum level. For high-speed driving, drivers are recommended to use a higher than normal pressure.

If 40 psi is the general maximum as on most tyres, that equates to 36 psi as a general rule of thumb.

Obviously you need to set it at what works for you and your style of driving.

Old Dude

[JBT]

The Bridgestones on our NC are rated at 51 psi max and the C drives on the Astina at 50 psi. Don't think I'll ever be setting 45+ psi.

The Hankook website states "The optimum tyre inflation pressure is indicated on a vehicle placard" as well as "Generally, the optimum inflation pressure is about 90% of the maximum level. For high-speed driving, drivers are recommended to use a higher than normal pressure." They are mutually exclusive statements unless the placard pressure is about 90% of the max pressure.

[Okibi]

Can someone confirm there is no left hand / right hand for these tyres? (just inside/outside)

I want to make sure I don't have 4 left ones.

[marcusus]

If you're talking about the Bridgestones, then yes, there is only inside/outside. I was rather confused as well when I bought them due to the asymmetrical pattern.

[SPy vs. SPy]

Can someone confirm there is no left hand / right hand for these tyres? (just inside/outside)

I want to make sure I don't have 4 left ones.

Sorry Dave, I can't confirm, IIRC my Michelins only came labelled "right side up" with another sticker "no namby pamby pressures" both of which have worn off, so I have no empirical photographic evidence as proof. The only person I personally know of trying tyres "wrong side up" was iChop, but he was on Falkens or some such *&^%$$#!#ish at the time, also there's conjecture as to whether he was running "namby" or "pamby" pressures at the time. Also IIRC correctly his alignment was measured as -1 degree camber with +5 deg caster on the FR and +22 degrees camber with -17 deg caster on the FL, total toe was ~17 feet, we didn't get the rear measurements as that half of the car was in a different State.

SPy

[Okibi]

Yup sorry I meant for the Bridgestones, I was worried i've been given 4 left ones

[AJ]

PP2's are just marked with an "outside"...........so not uni directional, unlike SPy, who can only drool uncontrollably when he get's within 3 feet of PP2's, I read the sidewall info

dunno about bridgies but

[Charlie Brown]

Yes the Bridgestone’s RE001 only have an 'outside' and are unidirectional, which may be why they are so skittish in the wet as on one side of the car they channel the water away from the tyre while the other side channels to the centre of the tyre. Strange but true.

[SPy vs. SPy]

Yes the Bridgestone’s RE001 only have an 'outside' and are unidirectional, which may be why they are so skittish in the wet as on one side of the car they channel the water away from the tyre while the other side channels to the centre of the tyre. Strange but true.

Lifted from here

Asymmetrical

Asymmetrical tyres are those which have a tread pattern that is different from one side to another - ie non symmetrical. Tread patterns vary, some giving particularly good dry grip, some have characteristics designed to enhance wet performance. An asymmetrical tyre offers the best of both worlds by combining the two patterns across the width of the tread.

The outside of the tread pattern consists usually of larger stiffer tread blocks that help with cornering performance whilst the inner blocks are particularly suited to wet performance. Very often, asymmetric tyres feature a continuous central rib in the pattern that aids straight-line stability. Asymmetric tyres must be fitted with the correct side facing outwards - this is marked on the sidewall of the tyre - to get the best performance. Some asymmetric tyres are also directional and in these cases the vehicle will have specific "left" and "right" handed tyres. Tyres such as this are usually only found on ultra high performance vehicles.


Directional

Direction tyres are those that have a tread pattern that is designed to operate best when rotating in one direction. The tyre pattern is usually chevron or arrow shaped with grooves running from the central portion of the tyre to shoulders. Generally acknowledged to be derived from wet racing tyres these directional road tyres have excellent wet weather performance due to their ability to remove water from the road surface.

Directional tyres will usually have either an arrow or other symbol indicating the direction they are designed to run.

Strong point of a directional tyre is its ability to resist aquaplaning. However, due the fairly aggressive tread design they are generally thought to suffer from noise generation than non-directional tyres. Care must be taken to mount the tyre correctly on the rim as performance can be reduced dramatically should the direction be incorrect - spare wheel, if fitted with a directional tyre, has a 50/50 chance of being the wrong direction of rotation when used!

[AJ]

what sort of pressures are you running in them?

[Stu]

Ok, so I understand asymetric and directional tyres; can I get more wear out of them by turning them inside-out?

My current tyres are Goodyear Bald-Eagle F1 GS-D3 . I do not like them. They seem to walk sideways as I go around corners. I can't wait for them to wear out. I might try turning them inside-out.

I am experiencing the same issue, won't be going Goodyear again

[PUR157]

It's only too high if you feel it is?
Tyre pressures are a very personal thing...

Get a bike pump and have a play I reckon...