Russ's Little Subie Page

How about them tires?

Bridgestone Potenza RE71, best tire (ok, just my favorite) on the planet!!!

Not everybody knows it, but Huggy Bear is my first car. That being the case, I'm learning for the first time that your tires probably have more impact on the behavior of your car than everything except whether you have gas and whether you have a working engine. Mod your engine and suspension all you like, if your tires are crap your handling is crap, and your fuel economy is probably crap too. So here are my stories. In case it's helpful to you, my tire size is 195/60R15.

MultiMile Grand Am (sold by Les Schwab for $59 apiece)

Notice there's no link to a site that will tell you about this tire. It's not that I don't want to put one there. I CAN'T FIND ONE ANYWHERE. This tire is so research-unfriendly I can't find words for it. My experience with having the tire on Huggy is probably why.

When I bought Huggy in August 1998, the dealer had installed brand new tires on the car. OOOOO!!!!! I didn't even ask them, they were just there. Since my Dad told me I should be careful about used tires on any car I bought, I was happy. Well, within three months I had two sidewall bulges. Hmmm. I figured I hit something. Les Schwab replaced the tires, but I wondered.

I also had this annoying problem that looked like bad wheel alignment-- the car kept drifting to the right. I had the car aligned not once, not twice, but three times, in three different shops. It got better, but the car still wanted to pull to the right. We checked the tire inflation. Perfect all around. We rotated the tires... front to back, side to side, X-rotations. No effect. Hmmm... must have been the alignment right? I learned to countersteer to the left.

And then there was water. These tires did NOT like water. Put a 1/2 inch of aqua on the ground and the car went flying. Driving down Interstate 5 was particularly trecharous-- the lanes had ruts worn in them, and I just glided across them like some kind of water skiier. Now I had to learn the ancient art of SubieSurfing in addition to Chronic Countersteering. In mid-1999 I decided enough was enough: time for some Aquatreds or something, it rains too much here in Portland to drive on tires that only work on perfect-dry pavement.

On December 10, 1999, the Grand Ams left my car (except for the one tire I put on a steel wheel for a full-size spare). Much to my surprise, along with the Grand Ams, THE PULL TO THE RIGHT VANISHED. I had to unlearn my countersteer!!!

Make no mistake-- I will NEVER buy Grand Ams again, or anything else from Les Schwab (because they got pissy about my not wanting to buy some other cheap tire off of their rack when I wanted Pirellis from them-- which they claim to be a dealer of just before they tell you they won't cover them under road hazard).

Bridgestone Potenza RE71 V-Rated (sold at Tire Rack for $75 apiece, shown at top of page)

I actually had no plans to buy this particular tire. I was looking at Aquatreds and the like. But this guy (closet gearhead, business partner, and guy who has my back) said he put these on his Acura and that I would never look back if I put them on my Subie. He said he had never had any issues with waterskiing-- my first prerequisite. Then I saw that I could get them V-rated. You may ask, why V-rated tires on a Subie wagon? You a speed freak in a midlife crisis? NO!!! I'm just a guy, and it appeals to my Guy Vibe!!!!

So I checked them out. $75 at the Tire Rack. $150 (!!!!) at the local Firestone shop. I bought them from Tire Rack, had them shipped home, paid the local shop to mount, balance, and road hazard them. I've been in dreamland ever since:

- The tires do NOT hydroplane. EVER.
- My drift to the right is GONE.
- The car HUGS the pavement in the dry.

My only beef: treadwear. After 5000 miles I had knocked off 3/32 out of 8/32 of original usable tread (that's 37.5%). But hey, what do you expect from a performance tire?? And oh yeah, this ain't a snow tire... don't try it unless you want to test your ABS!!!

Unfortunately, I probably won't be putting another set of RE71's on Huggy. The directional tread is the coolest thing since sliced bread. However, it also means I can't shift my tires to the other side of the vehicle without having the tires removed from the rims and remounted. If my wheel alignment was cool that would work... but it seems I have a tendency to wear out the outer edge of my left tires, probably due to bad camber, and the rear wheel can't be pulled back into spec. Ah, RE71, I hardly knew ya.

Next stop: Firestone Firehawk SH30s. I like the Bridgestone and Firestone line and they're well-reviewed on the Tire Rack and on Tire Reviews. I'll let you know when I put the new tires on, probably in Fall 2000! And I *will* be buying them from the Tire Rack.

This page last modified 6/18/2000!