Bridgestone Potenza RE050A UHP Summer 245/45R18 96W Passenger Tire

Ford equipped my Fiesta ST with Potenza RE050A tires and they are awesome. They have plenty of grip and they held up to autocross and performance driving experience events. The first set was worn to the wear bars around 12,000 miles so this is my second set.

OE set on 2009 Pontiac G8 T Panther Black: These are the first set of truly HP tires I've ever owned, so I'm making no comparisons. The subject car was and is operated with traction control engaged and is periodically tested in wet conditions and has functioned as expected. As far as wet traction on these tires, only once did the traction control engage to save from hydroplane effect and that was within the last 1000 miles (the tread wear bar is now showing). These tires came OE on this G8 GT and I am the original owner. The car has ,on a few occasions, been driven in a performance but rarely overly aggressively manner. This car is driven in the southern USA on well maintained U.S. and state highways. Rarely have these tires been driven on poor and degraded roads. The tire set has only experienced 1 flat and that was due to a screw impaled in the tread causing slow leak. Due to improper tire sensor reset, the wrong tire was monitored and the actual "screwed" tire leaked down and was driven for two weeks in a flat condition and without catastrophic failure (these tires are not runflats). Proper air pressure was always maintained in these tires ....37psi Frnt and 39psi Rears. The set was however not regularly rotated but on the occasion that it was at dealership for other maintenance or repairs. Suspension alignment was never an issue with this car. Tires have worn evenly across the tread. There has never been any vibration or balance problems. These tires have been run at and above their 'W' speed rating on occasions without issue and absolutely no shimmy or vibrations what so ever. As far as noise, I did not experience any, but perhaps it is the sweet music of a singing HIGH PERFORMANCE tire. Needless to say, I have been impressed with these tires over the past nearly 8 years and 60k miles, so much so that just today I ordered a new set. I would have preferred to to run them to the exact 60k odometer reading but these tire dealers won't fix the one tire (the one with the screw) because of the minor sidewall seam separation due to flat run. These are some great tires!! I'll be back to remark about the new set of Pontenza RE050A's as soon as I can.