Topic: Tire Review: Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position

[Autos_Editor]

Bridgestone's Potenza S-04 Pole Position is a dedicated summer performance tire, so Haney pushed it to the limits at an autocross event.

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[mixmanmash]

Haney, before upgrading your brakes, when was the last time the fluid was flushed?  You should flush the system and use a good DOT4 fluid (such as Super ATE Type 200).  I bet the pedal travel was related to the fluid heating up.  I recommend and many events require that the fluid was flushed at the beginning of the season.

As for the outer edges of the tires, did you increase tire pressure?  I usually increase tire pressure to the point where it isn't rubbing onto the sides (depending on the car, it amounts to 2-5 psi more).

I use to autocross on street tires and them bought a set of wheels and DOT compliant R-compound tires (Toyo RA1 or R888, Nitto NT01s).  That combines with more negative camber helped my times in a big way.

[Benhaze]

Had Bridgestone Potenzas on my Mazdaspeed 6. Bridgestone makes some of the best summer performance tires for dry condition. The ones on the Speed 6 were great on dry, ok on wet.  Unfortunately, all this dry traction and handling came at great price (literally)...  Had to replace them before 20,000 km and they never saw any race tracks. So be aware.

[jyarkony]

We had Bridgestone Potenzas, but not Pole Positions on the MX-5s for the Mazda rally, and they were awesome in the dry and wet, which included some heavy downpours!

[johngenx]

I've owned quite a few Bridgestone tires, and have found wet traction one of their strong suits.  I had the S-02 PP on a couple of my cars and found them an exceptional tire with great wet traction, but the thing I valued most was how progressive they let go when you did reach their limit.

The old S-02s wore out fast.  Very fast.  And based on the traction and performance they gave, that was just the price of said performance.

[Snowman]

I've owned quite a few Bridgestone tires, and have found wet traction one of their strong suits.  I had the S-02 PP on a couple of my cars and found them an exceptional tire with great wet traction, but the thing I valued most was how progressive they let go when you did reach their limit.

The old S-02s wore out fast.  Very fast.  And based on the traction and performance they gave, that was just the price of said performance.

Had them on my 2006 WRX Wagon and agree, what a great wet and dry tire.