Anyone tried RE71R's

[Wayne Cox]

At 05:52 PM 8/20/2002 -0500, NX 2000 wrote:
>Has anyone ever tried BridgeStone Potenza RE71R's? A search on Google gave
>me a page from some Porsche racing page and they said that and the RE71's
>were the official tires of that series back in 1997.

There was an RE71R and RE71S.  They were made in the regular RE71 [street
tire] molds, and seemed to have the same sidewalls.  But the tread had
about 1/2 of the cross cuts removed so they had really big chunky tread
blocks.  They were a regular street tread depth.  And the compound was
*very* soft.  The S had a DOT tread wear of around 50, and the R around
30.  Story I heard was they were a "spec" tire for some amateur or semi-pro
racing series.  I never heard for sure what that was, but it sounds
reasonable.  If you're not aware, "spec" refers to a racing organization
mandating everyone use the same component, to keep costs down and
competitiveness close to even.

I bought a set of 185-60-14 RE71S on a close out deal sometime back in the
mid / late 1990s for "Fun" street tires for the summer. They are still THE
BEST FUCKING TIRE I've even had on a car for street use (and they would
have been great on the track too) and that includes Yoko AVS-Ints, SP8000,
S-03, BFG R1, and some I've probably forgotten about.  Wet traction was
OUTSTANDING despite the big tread blocks (still tied for #1 with my current
S-03s)  Response and grip were fantastic.  They survived about 5000 miles
of hard street abuse  :)

These would be THE ONLY TIRE I'd recommend and buy If they were still
available.  And there is the problem.  If someone still has them laying
around, they are probably 5 to 8 years old.  They may still be in great
shape if meticulously stored;  or they may be dry rotted, hardened, and
mediocre.  Hard to tell.  They will have a DOT serial number, and that
contains the actual year and week of manufacture, though you'll have to
search around for how to decipher it.  If they have any more in good shape
in 15s" PLEASE let me know!

    -Wayne    '91 NX2k - '93 NK2k - '92 SE-R (parts car?)