Review - Bridgestone Potenza RE910's

["Bill Hussey" <list_squid@hotmail.com>]

Ok,

  So one too many jaunts through CT/PA/upstateNY and I bring the Jetta back 
home with cords showing on the outside edges of all four tires, I SWEAR they 
was tread there when I left that morning, but it was a fun day.  
NOTE-TO-SELF:  If I weren't selling the car in the next few months, I'd 
seriously look into adjustable camber plates.

  As previously stated, the car is going out the door soon, so the 
replacement shoes were going to be cheapos, something where I can say, "Hey, 
I just put brand new tires on the car!".  Since the car's an auto and 
snickered at by most enthusiasts, I figure the buyer will not be of sporting 
nature so I will not need anything fancy on them 15-inchers.

  Check out Tire Rack, reading the reviews of the Potenza's RE910s, they 
score a full 2 points higher in dry traction, 2 in wet traction, and a bunch 
of other much better ratings including wear, so I order up 4 in stock size.  
Get them about 3 days later and mount them in my garage, the following is my 
impressions of these Potenzas with the 2000 miles or so we've put on them:

  Let's get the ultimates out of the way, they have slightly less ultimate 
dry grip than the stock Eagle GA's, but noticibly better wet traction.  
Hydroplaning resistance is about the same as what I remember the GA's to 
have, nothing steller by any means.

  BAD-NEWS:  At the limit, they are a disgrace to the Potenza name 
(top-o-the-line Potenza's are excellent tires).  The sidewall is about as 
stiff as under-cooled Jello which makes for interesting drifts.  You crank 
yourself into the sweeper, and at neutral throttle, there is little, if any, 
under/over-steer.  So you feed on the power, and the front just asks, "You 
want to do what?" as it begins it's wonderfully winter'esque ritual of 
plowing.  So you feed in less throttle, the weight falls a little heavier 
over the front-end, the contact patch up front seemingly doubles under the 
weight, and the rear-end begins to rotate.  So you feed in just A LITTLE 
throttle, in hopes of finding some kind of balance, but nope, you're plowing 
the front again.  So it continues ... plowing, rotating, plowing, rotating 
.... if the turn was long enough, you could get seasick, I'm sure of it.

  As another note, I've been playing with tire pressures at an almost daily 
rate.  I had started with 36PSI, but with the results I was getting, I 
figured more was necessary.  Kept on increasing pressure by 2 to 3 pounds 
... somewhere around 60PSI (no lie), the sidewalls sufficiently stiffened 
up.  At this point however, the center of the tire was bulged out so bad, 
most of the tire wasn't touching the ground, the contact patch was reduced 
so much, that only about half of the normal grip was available.  Best I can 
figure, it's beneficial to just leave them at a wear-optimal 38 - 42 PSI, 
and laugh your ass off when you approach the limits.

  "Feedback" is a word Bridgestone abridged from the RE910's dictionary, and 
you rely on the Jetta's chassis to tell you what's going on.  But of course, 
with the way the Jetta's frame handles high-speed anything, 4-wheel drifts 
at anything over 90mph are so sloppy it's comical.

  When it comes time to stomp on the brakes, all hell breaks loose (and 
occasionally, the rear wheels, more on that later).  I was impressed with 
the way the tires performed at the limits in the wet, so I did a few 
ABS-inducing braking tests in the wet, with decent results, never thought to 
do them in the dry ... big mistake.  A few weeks after putting them on, I 
get into a brake-to-avoid-drunk-in-road maneuver that has my heart pumping 
for the first time since the last time I went to NASCAR school at Pocono.  
The front end swerved, boogied, sloshed, bounced, squiggled, zigged, and 
rampaged it's way over a width range of about three feet while I wrestled 
with the steering wheel in a (thankfully) successful attempt at keeping the 
car in some semblance of a straight line.  This of course, while the 
rear-end of the car jacks itself skyward and dances around in the air, 
almost as if it's a bully in a schoolyard cowering over the scampering 
front-end yelling, "Who's your daddy, bitch!?"

  Awed by such "unique" braking stability, I run the car over to the local 
BAPL (Big Ass Parking Lot), and practice some panic stops.  Using painted 
parking space lines as reference points, and attempting to practice 
lane-changing under threshold braking, I was 100% triumphant in spinning my 
car!  Woohoo!!  Guess there is a first time for everything.

  Overall, they seem to be a decent touring tire.  Very very quiet and good 
ride comfort.  They would be an excellent touring tire if they didn't have a 
phsychotic breakdown during braking, but oh well.

  That's it, sorry for the length, let me know if you have any questions.

Bill
'98 GLX
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