TCL

The November Road & Track has test of the G35 coupe and it pulled 0.92 lateral g's on the skid pad. This number was considerably higher than that of the Z so I began to look for differences since the platforms are similar. The G35 was wearing Michelin Pilot Sports (same tire sizes as the Z Track model). Given that tires are often a major factor in lateral grip, these might be a desirable replacement when the stock rubber wears out.

I have to believe the Z is capable of more than .88 g's without changes to the suspension.

Brad4rdHay

The track model comes with the Bridgestone RE040s, not the michelins.

SKiDaZZLe

mine comes with PP S03's

roberto350z

sooooooo, do the pole positions make a big difference?!?!?!

What the heck, you gotsta post a review!!!

I have the 17" and I feel like I slide alot when taking aggressive turns...is this the nature of the 17" or is it just my imagination. The tires do not squeel when I feel this sliding, so maybe its just side wall flex. any commnets people?!

SKiDaZZLe

here is the best way to describe them....

S03's and the road are like the 2 sides of velcro...

zwindsor

iTrader: (6)

Did you notice any change in the ride quality itself...softer or harder then the 040's ?

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

I have to agree. I've tried a lot of tires and the S02 just plain rocked. I've never owned a set of the newer S03 model, but I'm assuming they are at least as good as the S02.

Darkwing

jreiter, the S03 have actually been known to have worst dry performance than the S02 but 03s have been known to have much better wet performance. I noticed the S03 was much harder than the S02 and S02PP, but the wet traction on the S03 is a tottally different world. That from my expeirances on my friends stang, tirerack actually gave the S03 better rating but after talking to reps from bridgestone they also said the 02 was a better dry grip tire, but if you want an overall performer for the street where you will encounter rain and such to sacrifice the slight bit of dry grip and to go with the S03. and actually bridgestone in japan actually doesn't even show the S03 as performace tire, they show the S02 and some tire we don't get here in the US. Man I need to get another set of bridgestones, I'm on some crap fulda tires right now and the word grip shouldn't even but put in the description of these tires.

Hope this helps some of you guys, If your also looking for another sticky tire for the dry the Toyo T1-S is great too.

edit: just finished some grammatic errors and made my first sentence a little clearer.

Karim

Jason

S03s are the ISH.

When I put them on my Spyder I was shocked how much better they gripped than the Yokohamas.

Jason

Almost everybody I know whith an S2000 (S02 tires stock) has spun their car in the rain. Two of those people have totalled their S2000s in the process.

The S03s in the wet, feel like my old Yokohamas in the DRY in my opinion.

Darkwing

also for those on the RE040's I highly reccomend switching to the S03 for a street tire. The difference will be huge. The S03 is a much stiffer tire and grip is a whole world better than the 040s, we put them on a friends car and swear to never go back.

Karim

Darkwing

yeah sorry i don't know how clear i was but i was trying to say the s03 is much better in wet.

fyi everyone I know with an s2k has spun it in the wet on the stock tires, it's not even funny how many times i've been in the car when it happened too, fun experiance though, I drove a friends s2k in the rain and i actually had a blast breaking it loose in a wet parking lot on those tires.

LS350Z

Bridgestone S02 - Great Dry traction - decent wet traction
Bridgestone S02 Pole Positions - good/great dry traction - good wet traction (not S02 grip in the dry or S03 wet grip but a good mix of both)
Bridgestone S03 Pole Positions - decent dry traction - great wet traction

ratings used:
great - best in performance on the market today (in top 3 tires on market)
good - not the absolute best but above most in their group
decent - it will get you by but don't count on it for spirited driving or to get you out of trouble

These are my own person ratings based off of many testing sessions on each tire.

TCL

Yes. I was suggesting that since the 350Z Track model has a different set of tires than the G35 coupe, the 350Z may do a lot better on the skid pad if its Bridgestone's are replaced with the Michelins used on the G35. This because they both use the FM platform and it's hard to imagine that Nissan would have tuned the G35 for a higher degree of handling than the Z.

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Ah, thanks for the info on the S02 and S03 differences. I had the S02PP tires on my car (until I wore them out... they are quite soft), and they were indeed great in the dry. I get a little wimpy in the rain, so I guess I never pushed them very hard on those days. (I've always been hesitant to really push my cars in the wet unless I'm in a safe, closed area.)

RxO

Last best number from Phoenix was just over 1.0 with a better set of tires in all four corners, (someone said Bridgestones).
Not a factory supplied compound.

z461

Umm... What about Toyo T-1S tires? I've had wonderful results from them

pacco

Wheelbase is 8" longer, which the article implies helps the handling, it calls the G35 neutral and the Z twitchy. It's not a 'feel good" article for Z owners

However a seperate 1 column story reports on the Z33Gt Racer Nissan's $75,000, ready to race car. 2420lbs, 450bhp. 3.6liter, I freaking can't wait to see this thing on the track.

A number of folks have mentioned Toyo's but they don't make a size to fit the Z!?
Cheers,
pacco

acid burn

I had the S02-PPs on my last car, and they did stick like glue.

When I first got my Z, the RE040s were quite slippery. After scuffing them up a bit they started to grip a lot more. I am still learning the limits and behaviours of the car, so I can't say how much better the S02-PPs are. When I get up to the level of 4 wheel drifts, then I can tell you.