Has anyone tried these fairly new tires that came out from bridgestone? iam going to be needing some new tires for the R. 205 50 15. I was thinking about these since they have a 100 visa card promotion right now. Does anyone else have any input on other tires would br great.

 

never tried them

 

My cousin uses them at the track. He says that they aren't as good as S tires or the RE01R's but they're pretty good. Compound and the walls are pretty hard

 

I feel better your response since I bought RE01R in last summer and now Tire rack is having close out at $103 a piece for 205-45-16's. I was kicking myself of not waiting for RE-11 since now it is all over Tirerack's catalog cover. Last year when I was in Japan, it was quite expensive for 215-45-16 at 18,900 yen each at Yellow hat plus it would be hell in trying to carry on the plane!

 

We used Yokohama A048 S tires on our Mini Cooper. I can't believe how much grip these have. Its like having glue on the tires. But since they are medium-soft track tires, they wear pretty quick, but they are amazing. They feel like flypaper when they are hot. I want to get a set for the R, but it'll set me back about $1200 for a set of 4.

 

The RE-11 should be even stickier than the RE-01R.

Those are R compound track tires - great for the track, not for the street. Like most R comps, they won't last long, and they need to be heated up with a hot lap or two on the track to reach their full adhesion.

 

As Ken said, the RE-11 should be stickier than the RE-01R. I have both in my garage, and have the RE-11's freshly mounted on a spare set of wheels. Whenever I get less-lazy I'm going to through them on the Integra and give em a shot.

 

keep us posted on how you like them once you take it for a rip

i picked up a set of the RE-01R in 16's for a great price since they're blowing them out. Can't wait to try them out over the RT615's.

 

Well I personally don't use re-11, so I am just repeating what my cousin told me. He's ran both RE11 and RE01R, and says that the R's handle a bit better, But the difference wasn't much to rave about. Either tires are good.

Personally however, if you plan to do some track events, I definitely recommend Advan A048 or A050's. The difference is night and day, even with the RE01R. They are basically the closest thing to slicks you can get. Definitely not for the streets though, unless you don't mind replacing your tires every 1000 miles

 

R compounds for novices are never a good idea....

The RE-11 sold in the US was redesigned from the one sold in Japan, and according to Bridgestone the US version is a better tire. Since I don't have any of the Japanese market ones I can't test that.

 

R tires aren't "novice" tires, rather streetable track tires or trackable street tires. When I go to the track, almost everyone there are either using RE01R's or S tires. RE11 are still fairly new so they haven't really caught on, but I suppose I will see them more.

And of course Bridgestone will say that their latest product is the best, otherwise they won't sell.

S tires will beat RE01R and RE11s anyday

 

Well the design is clearly different between the US and Japanese market RE-11 (why they didn't pick a new name I have no idea), so the tires are in fact different. I have both RE-01R's and RE-11's so I'll eventually get them mounted, I need to install some new UCA's so once they come in I'll probably switch tires then.

The reason I mentioned that R comps weren't good for Novices was more for the OP, not for you, since neither of us has any idea of his desire to track his car, nor his experience on track.

And of course R comps are better than RE01R's and RE11s.

 

Mirai, your terminology is totally different from what is used in North America, and this may be the source of your statements disagreeing with ours. I think you would probably agree with most of what we are saying if you used the same terminology.

For the purpose of this discussion, there are basically two kinds of tires: street tires, and track tires.

Street tires are designed for use on public roads. The stickiest street tires are the tires we're talking about here - the Bridgestone RE-01R and RE-11 - as well as similar tires like the Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec, Kumho Ecsta XS, etc. Your description of these tires as "streetable track tires or trackable street tires" is appropriate, as these tires are often used for dual duty (i.e. street and autocross/track).

In North America, track tires are called "R compounds" and are designed for use on the racetrack and in autocross events. R compound track tires include the Yokohama A048 mentioned here, as well as other tires like the Hoosier R6, Toyo RA-1 and R888, Nitto NT-01, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup, BFG g-Force R1, etc.

It sounds like you are referring to street tires as "R tires" and you are referring to R compounds as "S tires". We don't have anything called an "S tire".

 

Okay...yeah its probably the terminology. I'm using Japanese terminology which is often a bit wacked. S tires are track only tires (close to slick tires.)

At any rate, RE11's do sound interesting but I think my plan is to use my RE01R's as street tires (transport from home to track) and get a set of S or "R" tires. After using the A048's, the RE01Rs feel like absolute crap to me, but the downside is that R compound tires are like pencil erasers. They only last a few laps and are very expensive.

 

The Toyo RA-1, Toyo R888, and Nitto NT-01 in 205/50-15 all cost around $140/tire. On my ITR, the RA-1 lasts 1500-2000 actual track miles, rotated front vs rear. In the past I've used the Yokohama A032R and got 1200-1500 track miles on those.