Hey guys I've searched the topics on the Bridgestone S03's for the Type R. From reading them and listening to advice from people in person that have them, I've decided to get the 195/50/15 for my stock type r wheels. My last set of tires were a new set of RE010's and they lasted just 7k miles I know this topic has been covered before, but if you guys could post any advice/comments on these tires I would greatly appreciate it

 

Why not the 205/50/15's?
In my opinion the 195/50's are too small and may have an insufficient load rating.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by zygspeed &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Why not the 205/50/15's?
In my opinion the 195/50's are too small and may have an insufficient load rating.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Go read up. The load ratings are perfectly fine with the 195/50's. The only way you could possibly exceed them is with 4 passengers and a crap load of heavy gear.

FYI there is only a 242lb maximum load reduction for the ENTIRE front end (both tires combined) of the car by going with 195/50's.

195/50's are cheaper, lighter, give you higher FD for better acceleration, and provide crisper turn in on stock wheels.

 

Also tirerack is having a special for the 195's right now ($85 a piece)

 

There's lots of good information in this topic.

The S-03 should last somewhat longer than the RE010. Still, I don't know how you could get only 7K miles from the RE010. That's less than half what most folks get (and a quarter of what I'm getting from mine). Did you start out with new tires, and drive them until the treadwear indicator bars were flat across? Did you check the air pressure once in a while? Your car may need an alignment; otherwise it may eat other brands/models of tires as well...

 

I just got some SO-3's put on my stock rims and I love them. I went with the 205/50/15 since thats what was on my car when I bought it. Im very happy with them so far especially in the rain. For a daily driver it is a very good choice IMO.

 

Get what you want, but I personally think the 195/50/15's look dumb on the car since the sidewall is so short. Yeah, they will provide better gearing and crisper turn-in feel, but you're still giving up contact patch over the 205's. Also, the 205/50's are still a tad shorter than the oem 195/55's.

The 205's will give you a slightly more compliant ride as well.

 

Do the 195's really make the car look too weird? Won't the 205's make the car sit even higher than the 195's? I know that 205 azenis make the wheel gap huge on stock suspension. How do the 205 S0-3's compare to 205 azenis when it comes to fender gap? Just trying to get a perspective

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DoughBoy387 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do the 195's really make the car look too weird? Won't the 205's make the car sit even higher than the 195's?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Let's look at the (calculated) differences in sidewall height, which account for the differences in ride height:

195/55-15 (stock) 4.22 inches
205/50-15 4.04 inches -.18 inch
195/50-15 3.84 inches -.38 inch

So the answer to your question is that, yes, the 205/50-15 don't lower the car as much as the 195/50-15, but the difference is one fifth of an inch - less than the difference between the tread on a new tire and on a tire that's worn to the treadwear indicator bars.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DoughBoy387 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I know that 205 azenis make the wheel gap huge on stock suspension. How do the 205 S0-3's compare to 205 azenis when it comes to fender gap?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've never heard that stated before. The 205/50-15 RT-215 (formerly Azenis Sport) are well-known for being wider in treadwidth than other brands of 205/50-15 tires. I don't recall anyone claiming that their outer diameter is different, which is what would make the sidewall height different. (If I'm wrong about that, someone please note how much difference there is.) If their outer diameter is the same as other brands of 205/50-15 tires, as you can see above, they would increase the wheel gap by only 0.18 inch, which isn't very much at all and would not likely be visibly noticeable. So, if you make the same assumption - that the outer diameter of the 205/50-15 RT-215 is the same as the outer diameter of the 205/50-15 S-03 - both tires increase the fender gap by the same 0.18 inch (less than one-fifth of an inch).

 

The square shoulder on the 205/50 Azenis give the appearance of an increased wheelgap over the oem 195/55, even though it is only .18" difference.

But again, I think a 195/50 looks comical on the ITR because you're adding almost a half an inch of wheelgap. It will look like a stock GSR wheelgap.

 

I had thought about getting a set of the SO3's also. I read the reviews on Tireracks website and it gave me second thoughts. I saw a couple reviews stating problems after 5-7k with vibrations, and wheel balance. You might want to read a couple if you haven't allready.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Todd00 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The square shoulder on the 205/50 Azenis give the appearance of an increased wheelgap over the oem 195/55</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wouldn't a square shoulder give the appearance of a decreased wheel gap, because it would fill in space that would be open on a more rounded off design?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cod Sac &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had thought about getting a set of the SO3's also. I read the reviews on Tireracks website and it gave me second thoughts. I saw a couple reviews stating problems after 5-7k with vibrations, and wheel balance. You might want to read a couple if you haven't allready.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I know a lot of people who are using S-03 and love them. They're excellent tires. Not inexpensive, but excellent tires.

The problem with the reviews on the Tire Rack website is that they give people a place to gripe, and those who are happy with tires aren't as likely to post comments. Look at the tests, not reviews, on their website if you want to see tires get compared with each other, side by side on the same vehicle. You'll see that the S-03 is one of the highest rated high-performance street tires around.

 

I've along with a lot of other friends have run the s03 without any problems. Nothing but props minus the expensive price tag

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B2FiNiTY &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've along with a lot of other friends have run the s03 without any problems. Nothing but props minus the expensive price tag </TD></TR></TABLE>
How does the dry traction compare to the RE 010's or Azenis sports? Since moving to Germany I need something that will get decent wet traction. You never know when it will rain and the roads suck here.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxtasy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Wouldn't a square shoulder give the appearance of a decreased wheel gap, because it would fill in space that would be open on a more rounded off design?

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not really IMO. The rounder the shoulder and the further tucked in the tire, the lower the car looks.

I lowered my RSX on the oem rubber/wheel and it looks a lot lower on those than it does with my 225/45/17 Azenis and 17x7.5" wheels.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cod Sac &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How does the dry traction compare to the RE 010's or Azenis sports? Since moving to Germany I need something that will get decent wet traction. You never know when it will rain and the roads suck here. </TD></TR></TABLE>

The dry traction of all three of these tires (S-03, RE010, and Azenis RT-215) is excellent.

The wet traction of the S-03 is slightly better than the RE010, and both are significantly better than the Azenis. (Which, BTW, is exactly what you would expect, based on looking at their tread patterns.)

 

For me and in my car with my RE-010 and S-03 I had, the S-03 was much much much better (traction, braking and lateral grip) on the wet, even when the RE-010 was new and even when the S-03 was almost worn out.

I now have the S-02pp in stock size, and on wet it's in between the RE-010 and S-03.