RE950 Impressions

[Kevin J. Hart]

Been a while since we have had a tire impressions submission.

The Bridgestone Potenza RE950 in 185/60/14 H  are some of the best tires Ive
driven on so far.  Last set on the car were Pirelli P4000's in the same
size.  They had a soft sidewall but rode really well on the highway.  These
have a much stiffer sidwall but yet ride very well.  Noticeably stiffer but
not to the point where its anoying.  Noise is much less, which I was
surpised by.  It is a directional pattern with the Aqua-Tred thing so I
figured it would be pretty noisy.  The tread pattern looks not so
surprisingly like a set of Pole Position S-03's.  Very similar but the
S-03's do have meatier blocks for dry traction.

Dry traction is much much much better than those P4000's or even the D60's
that were on the car when I bought it.  These things grip so much its scary.
The S-03's are defintaly more grippy but then again they are a bigger tire.
Ive yet to push these tires to a squeel cause my stock suspension.  But when
you are pushing them hard they do start growling a hair.  Ive taken tight
cloverleafs faster than I ever did, and didnt get any growling yet.

Wet traction is insane.  Like the S-03's these are wet tires.  Man they
grip.  Ive yet to get a slide, or even a tire to break loose in the rain.
Yea I know automatic, but I used to be able to spin them up on ramps in the
rain if I wanted, but Ive not done that yet.  No slides and Ive been scared
a few times in traffic that it would but nope.

Apperance.  Sweet.  Nice design, sidewalls look good.  And the directional
tread looks like it belongs on the car.

Recomend, yes.  If anyone is running the stock 14's then Id recomend them.
I got mine for about 72 a tire localy.  Which was 10 more than TireRack.com
but shipping ended up costing more.  Id look around cause one dealer wanted
99 a tire, then I found one that knocked off 24 a tire, or there abouts.
TireRack has them for 63 last time i checked.  So if you got a hook up on
mounting and balancing then you will have a steal.  If you have a 15" rim
then Id go with S-03's or something better, but the 14"s are running out of
choices for tires since the RE-71 died out.

Kevin
93 classic (Automatic, Stuff)
happy new tire owner