Tire Rack Consumer Review of the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position

Switched out OEM Dunlops for these on my 2010 G37xS. So far they have 31K miles, mostly highway but a fair amount of city, too; mostly dry and wet conditions, rare but heavy snow falls, ice, slush, etc. On my previous G35S, drove with Bridgestone RE050s for 12K, Goodyear Eagle F1s for 15K, Kumho Ecsta LX Platinums for 35K, after having driven Michelin Pilot Exaltos on a 1990 Maxima for years. The Kumho Ecsta LX Platinums are the quietest, most comfortable tire I've ever driven, period--amazing. The Goodyear Eagle F1s were complete trash--wandering all over concrete, loud like a helicopter after 10K, horrible wet traction, but I think GY may have updated the tire. The Bridgestone RE960AS now have 31K--they barely just passed state inspection and I was planning on replacing them very soon, when hurricane Sandy just hit. For the past two days, I drove through 50 mph wind gusts and torrential rains at speeds up to 90 mph ON TREAD THAT'S ALMOST GONE--WOW! I only risked the speeds because there was no one in sight on I95 south of Philly--wanted to see what the hydroplane threshold would be. These things are incredible. Every other tire I've ever driven, with this little tread, would never have been safe beyond 75mph in heavy rain. These things just plowed through, handled lateral acceleration fairly well up to 65mph, got me home safely with minimal triggering of AWD. From the standpoint of a father and husband, these are the tires I want on my wife's car when she's driving my daughter in the rain.

From the beginning, their dry traction has been incredible--steering response, turn in, feel, and high speed stability hardly second to RE050 max performance summers at 130mph. Only dedicated snow tires get anything higher than a 6 out of 10 for winter performance, but I did drive these through the horrendous east coast snow storms of 2010--they easily held their own. I'm upgrading to RE970AS today, but these were well worth the money.