Bridgestone Tyres Again
Bridgestone Tyres Again
Author
Discussion

CraigAlsop

Original Poster:

1,991 posts

297 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
Looks like there are no stocks of Bridgestone SO3PP 205/55ZR15 tyres anywhere to be found at the moment (atandard size for Chimaera/Griff fronts & old Imprezas)
Apparently Bridgestone might do a limited run in a couple of months or so.

Anyone found any other tyre to be as good?

Plotloss

67,280 posts

299 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
Do mytyres.co.uk not have any?

(They ship from Europe you see)

Terminator

2,421 posts

313 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
CraigAlsop said:
Anyone found any other tire to be as good?
I've not had any experience with SO3s but I replaced a set of SO2s with Goodyear F1s a couple of years ago. I now run Goodyear F1s on all of my cars.


CraigAlsop

Original Poster:

1,991 posts

297 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
Plotloss said:
Do mytyres.co.uk not have any?

(They ship from Europe you see)
Nope, sadly not - the only tire that they have that I have any experience of is the Goodyear EAGLE F1 GS-D2 - this is a tire that doesn't agree with me on my Impreza, as I find it to wallowy

Plotloss

67,280 posts

299 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
Bugger

I have read very good things about the Potenza RE050

J_S_G

6,177 posts

279 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
CraigAlsop said:
Anyone found any other tire to be as good?

I've found attaching "Best buy" elastic bands to the wheels to be more effective than S03s. Would recommend ANYTHING other than those... Proxes T1S/T1Rs, Eagle F1s, Michelin Pilot Sports, etc. especially. All good tyres.

mrmaggit

10,146 posts

277 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
I like the Toyo Proxes on our Griff.

neil.b

6,546 posts

276 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
J_S_G said:

CraigAlsop said:
Anyone found any other tire to be as good?


I've found attaching "Best buy" elastic bands to the wheels to be more effective than S03s. Would recommend ANYTHING other than those... Proxes T1S/T1Rs, Eagle F1s, Michelin Pilot Sports, etc. especially. All good tyres.


Have to agree. Swapped to SO3s on the T350 when I couldn't get a full set of Proxes. Poor, very poor. Grip in wet conditions was very unpredictable. Even with the T1Ss the T350 had a tendency to snap when provoked but you could feel it....just....with the SO3s, feedback was very poor and you had no feel for when it was going to go. Would never buy them again.

CraigAlsop

Original Poster:

1,991 posts

297 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
J_S_G said:

CraigAlsop said:
Anyone found any other tire to be as good?


I've found attaching "Best buy" elastic bands to the wheels to be more effective than S03s. Would recommend ANYTHING other than those... Proxes T1S/T1Rs, Eagle F1s, Michelin Pilot Sports, etc. especially. All good tyres.
I obviously live in an alternate reality
In my world I've consistently found SO3s to suit my driving style more than Eagle F1s (which I found atrocious)
To me - the SO3s give lots of traction wet or dry, right up to the legal tread limit & a nice razor sharp feel.

I found the Proxes & Eagle F1s to be very woolly - yes they are forgiving on the limit, but the downside is that you can turn the steering wheel back & forth on the limit without much happening. They both seemed "squirmy" to me

Alex

9,978 posts

313 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
I'm afraid you won't find any SO3 tires in the UK, or any other tires for that matter. You may find some tyres though...

HarryW

16,020 posts

298 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
They are still listed on www.buyatyre.com part of bookatrack lot. They will fit at home or track side apparently too.

Harry

GarryM

1,113 posts

312 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
Whether you like SO3s or not seems to be down to the profile of the tyre. I have SO3s on standard Griff wheels and like Craig, I think they're very good. I'll need fronts before long so apart from Toyos or F1s, what else is available?

Nhyde

1,427 posts

277 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
I will not go anywhere near SO3's again . Was forced to go that way on the rears after a puncture trashed a sub 1k SO2 PP . Consequently had to change the pair.

They are DIABOLICAL in anything other than totally dry and "warmed"(On the SEAC anyway ,others may be different).

Can't wait to get rid of them , but can't afford to throw them away .

J_S_G

6,177 posts

279 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
To be fair, the S03s (255/35 ZR18s) run really nicely on the back of the Tuscan. But on the front it was like inviting the grim reaper to sit in your passenger's seat and then vociferously taunting him on the approach to every corner.

GreenV8S

31,014 posts

313 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
My experience with S03s has been good. But they do need to be cured properly, and being stiffer they are more sensitive to having the wrong size for the rim width, and also work best a couple of PSI softer than the equivalent S02.

Nuggs

4,640 posts

263 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
My Chim had Pirelli P6000s on it when I picked it up and was fully intending to change them.

However, almost 6 months of (mostly crap) weather later, I've been really impressed. Good levels of grip in the dry and the wet and when the back does go, it's nice and progressive.

Certainly won't be changing them for a while...

CraigAlsop

Original Poster:

1,991 posts

297 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
Nhyde said:
They are DIABOLICAL in anything other than totally dry and "warmed"(On the SEAC anyway ,others may be different).
Living in Scotland, the "dry" part is obviously rare for me
You're right about the "warmed" bit though - I always make sure I've warmed the tyres up with a few hard accelerate/decelerates before I expect too much from them.

As GreenV8S says, it is pretty important to cure them first & can take a few hundred miles to do...

GreenV8S

31,014 posts

313 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
quotequote all
CraigAlsop said:
it is pretty important to cure them first & can take a few hundred miles to do...

It isn't just the distance, you have to get them good and hot too. Normal driving around won't do it.

TVR-Phoenix

719 posts

259 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
quotequote all
bang on 16" wheels and stick some fat crinkle walls... that short your handling out...

CraigAlsop

Original Poster:

1,991 posts

297 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
quotequote all
TVR-Phoenix said:
bang on 16" wheels and stick some fat crinkle walls... that short your handling out...
Oh, I have a full spare set of wheels, so I could go this route, but I'm from the old school & think that smaller wheels help cars to handle better on the road. In my view bigger wheels should only be used where you need to fit big brakes.
Big wheels look daft, add unnecessary unsprung weight IMHO.