The Potenza RE050 features a high-grip tread compound molded into a directional tread design. A continuous center rib, large tread blocks and stable shoulder elements provide responsive handling, high-speed stability and traction on dry roads, while circumferential and lateral tread grooves are aimed to pump water out from under the tire’s footprint to minimize hydroplaning and aid wet traction. The tire’s internal structure includes twin steel belts reinforced by spiral-wrapped nylon to stabilize the tread area and enhance handling, high speed capability and ride quality. The fabric cord body and hard rubber sidewall filler helps blend uniform ride quality with steering response and lateral stability.
Founder at Tiresout. Used to be working as an engineer at Bridgestone Tires Akron Technical Center. The responsibilities included but were not limited to technical computing, indoor & outdoor testing of new tires.
OEM on my Honda S2000. Excellent traction and stability. Directional rotation tire in different F/R sizes and cannot be rotate. Although I am meticulous about tire pressure and drive in a relaxed style on back roads, one rear tire suffered an internal belt separation and destroyed the shoulder of the tire at 19000 miles. The front tires would possibly make 21000 before total wear out. A tire body failure is so rare with modern tires I would not purchase this tire again.
OTHER VERY TRUSTED NAME BRAND TIRES THAT PERFORM BETTER, LAST LONGER AND RIDE MORE QUIETLY ARE CHEAPER. GUYS AND LADIES PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF SOME MONEY AND DO SOME READING BEFORE YOU BUY ANOTHER SET OF THESE. In spirited driving on winding roads(I took the car up to Asheville and Deal’s Gap area shortly after purchase) I didn’t have a ton of complaints. Communicates what the front end is doing pretty well, the Fiesta ST they came mounted on has a very quick ratio steering rack and the tires applied steering input to the ground better than I’d expected OEM tires on a fwd hot hatch to. The noise coming from them while cruising, even on the smoothest roads, was just inside the tolerable level and the wet grip was much less than stellar. The deal breakers are that they are down to 2/32 or 3/32 tread remaining after 13,500 miles and are getting louder and worse in even damp conditions by the day and they are far from cheap. On this very website 215/45/17 Michelin Pilot Super Sports can be purchased for $50 less…….. PER TIRE!!!!. And they IMO have noticeably better dry performance, much better wet performance and lasted about 30,000 miles on the mildly modified 6.0L 400 hp Pontiac GTO I drove the on. 4 Pilot Super Sports (one of the factory tires on some Ferrari’s for goodness sakes) were $200 less than the RE050A out the door. I’m not endorsing Michelin as the end all be all of spiritred driving tires, I’m just happy I did a little research before I just went with a new set of OEM’s
tire wore quickly, from regular highway driving, for the price of the tire and the lack of miles you get with it, its not worth it.
Definitely heed the warning about ice and snow. This tire put me in a ditch during a mild snow storm. Very dangerous. Wet traction is so/so, dry traction is superb. heed my warning.
Treadwear and noise horrible. Probably the worst tire I have ever owned