Bridgestone RE11: After 12K Miles, theUndisputed KING of street tires. Review inside
 

Ryan@Forged and I have been preaching the greatness of the Bridgestone RE11 almost from the moment the tires were released. Based on the370z.com best tire pole, many of you agree.

I wanted to share you with my direct experience with the tire after 12,000 miles of street use, and 3 full track weekends on this tire. In addition to daily driving my Nismo 370Z, I also did a weekend at Sebring, and two weekends at Road Atlanta with the car. The only mods to the car are wheels, tires, Tein Mono Flex Coilovers, and a Stop Tech Trophy BBK. Everything else is stock.

Keeping in mind, my front camber is at -2.7 since I don't have adjustable arms on the car, the tire wear after all those miles is unbelievable. There is a hint of inside tread wear due to the camber, but the rest of the tire barely looks worn. With camber dialed in to spec, I would expect an easy 20K+ miles out of these tires. The rears look terrific as well.

From a track performance standpoint, the RE11 back to back with the R Compound Toyo R888 at Sebring, was only 1.2 seconds slower than the sticky R888. In addition to the same day test on the 370Z, we also did a same day test on a customer's GT-R and discovered the RE11 on the GT-R was also just 1.5 to 1.8 seconds slower than the Toyo R888 R Compound tire.

I've also had a chance to do some casual wet weather testing of the tire, and even 1-2 inches of standing water, and a torrential downpour doesn't disrupt the straight line stability of the RE11.

It's very rare to experience a tire that can "do it all". But this one does.

1) Awesome dry traction under breaking, cornering and acceleration: Near R compound levels of grip
2) Outstanding wet weather stability and control
3) Superior tread wear rates
4) Priced inline with most Ultra Performance Street Tires.

I think this makes the Bridgestone RE11 the tire of choice! :tup:

http://onfinite.com/libraries/1619054/adf.jpg
http://onfinite.com/libraries/1619055/96e.jpg

WOW Looks like I found my New tires :)




DAN

these tires are awesome. i used to work for firestone and they sent me to some thing to test some tires out. and one of the tires were the RE11. they were awesome!! all the runs were done with water on the ground and it was hard to tell if it was really wet. Also with the RE11's after u get down to half tread or 1/4 tread the compound becomes more sticky. thought that was kinda cool. Just my $.02

That's pretty damn impressive for also including 3 track weekends. I was thinking about going with track dedicated 18" wheels/tires, but I might just replace my V12's with the RE-11's when the time comes.

One reason a lot of people like the V12's is how quiet they are compared to stock. How do the RE11's sound compared to the RE050?

Let me guess; you're a Bridgestone dealer now....




:D

JK man. Thanks for posting this up, it's good to know. I'll have to try them out on the Z next time. Right now I'm just using the RE050A's but in larger than OEM size to fit my Volks.

They buy the V12s because they are cheap compare to the RE11.

RE11s are way quieter than the RE050 and Toyo R888, maybe not V12s

nice review Sharif. Was already planning on getting these for the Nismo, just one more reason to do so now. :tup:

PS--are you running the stock tire sizes on your nismo or did you go wider?

Just to get 12k out of the rears with that amount of track time also is saying something. I bearly got 10k with no track time on my KDW's.

I have Volk RE30's 19X10 and 19X11 on my Nismo and running 265 fronts and 305 rears. I will go 275 or 285 fronts next time as the car pushes a bit more than I like.

We only recommend the best. We are sponsored by Toyo and Hoosier, but still recommend the Bridgestone for street, and no we aren't dealers nor do we get any special pricing from them. Much quieter than the re050 too.

I only got 6K out of my RE-11's but I had more track time. Still wore better than other street tires I'd used in similar conditions in the past.

Right edge of the tire looks like more than a hint of wear but what do i know

The RE11s will be my next tire to throw on the car, nice to see them stacking up nicely after many miles and some track use.

It's definately worn more, but that's due to my extreme camber. If this was a set of T1R's you'd be looking at cords in 7000 miles.

I just had RE11's installed and have around 1500 miles on them. Works well in both wet and dry conditions: Florida heave rain and standing water no hydro. Seems to make more tire noise then the DW's that replaced them but transmits less road noise. DW's were down to 3/32 in the rear and 7/32 on the fronts.

I did go up to 265/35 in the front and 305/30 in the rear. Steering is heaver but it's a lot more tire.

26" tall VS 26.7", some speedo error now confirmed by GPS.

All noise measurment were conducted at the same location, time of day and temp, with a cell phone app "something db meter".

All in all, the tires stick like glue as the traffic circle at work is almost a perfect skidpad test area. I have a phone app for G-force but it's hard to drive and watch.

DW's were good but the RE's are better.

THe only other tire that I looked at this time was the Pilot Super Sports.

I'm planning on going to 265 front on my next go around. Might be awhile for my front seem to wear slow. Even with track days and 2.3 camber. Steering might be heavier but for track use it will defiantly give better steer in being are cars are heavy in front. Another reason I'll be buying power sterring cooler.

I tracked my last car with these tires and Im not planing on getting anythiong else

So what were the db measurements between these and your old tires?

Since I am coming up on 15k miles on my RE-11s, time to heap some praise on. That's 15k miles, more than a dozen days of autocross, AND almost a dozen days on the track. I've driven 700 miles to VIR and been lapping on the same tires that months later would drive 800 miles to Homestead, right onto the track, and precede to embarrass slow Porsche Turbo drivers. With everything they have been put through I'd credit them for well more than 20k street miles.

My rears will need replacing soon, but even with the tread nearly gone they are still handling the constant NoVa rain right now. The fronts might get another 5k miles if I had some camber to play with in front.

+1 for RE-11s (265, 285 on Nismo)

How are the RE-11s in noise? I drive Bridgestone S04 Pole Positions which are VERY LOUD. Really need some quieter tires.

Better than OEM, but its not quiet

so i did the math on tire thickness which I assume would affect ride height. The second number (275/40/19) is thickness as a ratio to width right?

so stock 275/140/19 would be 110mm thickness
re-11 285/35/19 would be 99.75 mm thick

stock 245/40/19 = 98mm thickness
re-11 265/35/19 = 92.75mm thickness

which means I will be losing about .5cm F/1cm R in ride height, correct?

And if I was to go with stock sized fronts, I would just lose the height in the rear and not in the front. Will this uneven drop make any difference?

Just wanted to make sure I got it right also. My exhaust canisters barely scrape on my apt parking structure speed bumps after gettign springs. An even lower ride height has me worried now.

I think your math is off... my 285/35/19's are clearly a taller tire than the stock 275's.

is it? I thought it was 275 (tire width) 40 (ratio to tire with ie. 40% of 275) and 19 (wheel size)

I don't really know, trying to figure it out. Please let me know where my calculations are off.

There is a considerable amount of rounding that happens since profiles are only in 5% increments. The best bet to go by tire diameter on the specs page from tirerack or the manufacturer. Take diameter, subtract wheel size, divide by 2 and you have profile height (in inches).

I think I found my error. i was calculating the stock rears as 275/40 when they are actually 275/35, oops. sorry guys

there's actually a .4" height increase which will be great for my exhaust scraping problem, now if only my stockers would wear out faster

My RE11s at 15k
 

I've been very happy with mine. Looks like I'll get about 25k out of them with the outside fronts showing a little more wear than the rest of the tires. Increased my front pressure to compensate. At 15k they are about at the same noise level as the OEM tires were new. The PS2s I used to run on my 350 made less noise but it's hard to be objective because as we owners know our cars let a lot of road noise in the cabin.

I got these tires as a replacement of my stockers based on the recommendation of this site and they've turned out to be as good as the PS2s in terms of handling and wear. I never thought I'd say that another tire works as good for my driving habits as the PS2s but it's true, and cheaper to boot.

I used the stock size on the fronts but kicked up to a 285/35 in the rear to fill out the sport wheel a little bit. Bottom line, these tires definitely converted this long time Michelin guy.

After reading through the thread and really only seeing good things I decided to order a set of these today. I picked up my base model Z last week but decided to order some 19" wheels. Playing it safe with tire sizes and decided to just order the stock Nismo Z sizes. So I'll be running 245/45 fronts and 285/35 rears.

I feel like it's a crime but I doubt the car will ever see a track day, but I'm sure I'll still get to enjoy the extra grip around a few corners in my area.

I just ordered 285-35-19's for the rear today as well. Fronts still have a lot of thread left so I'll wait until the fall to get them... Hope the car drives ok...

How do you like the 265's on the front? That's a tad smaller than stock.

It is impossible not to crack a smile when you look at this tread.

http://i45.tinypic.com/24w6ooi.jpg

To clarify, the stock front width is 245. The total circumference of the 265s are only a few % less. I think 2 or 3% more revolutions per mile, not noticeable.

I'm still on the same tires, still need to replace them soon (after I toast them on track) but there is usable tread left past 15k miles.

My thoughts exactly! I was smiling so hard when I saw the tread when they were mounting mine, they are quieter than the stock RE050s, grip like crazy, are very progressive at the limits, and wear well for what are likely the best street tires out there.

^This. You will notice though that the car does tramline slightly more than stock, but it's nothing dramatically different than stock.

This is with 285's in the rear, 20mm spacers and 2 degrees of negative camber:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._2209_3966.jpg

sex

I have 10k on my tires and about 50% tread remaining.... Maybe 40%. One auto-x day and a ton of 90-100mph 2.5hr drives to Orlando.

I have always said, if you want grip with no gripe, then go with RE-11's. 265/285 FTW.

how do you think these compare to the new Michelin Pilot Super Sport at the track. Im sure the RE11s are stickier but how much of a difference between the two.

The PSS get a lot of talk and there great. But the price is a no go for me. I love my RE 11's but going with AD 08's next and see how they do.