Bridgestone Potenza S001

You’d expect the Potenza S001 – launched only last year – to work well on Bridgestone’s own proving ground, where it has been tested and refined. So this result is a bit of a mystery.

Still, ‘home’ advantage shone through in the dry, especially on the sweeps and hairpins of the handling track, where it felt sharp and agile. It was easy to place in turns and hangs on well as speeds rise.

The Potenza also showed its preference for dry roads in the braking test, where it was only 20cm behind the winning Continental. And it finished in the top three in our noise test.

But when the heavens open, the S001 trails its premium rivals. It needed three metres more than the winning Pirelli in the brake test and was close to the bottom of the aquaplaning table.

It didn’t feel so far behind from the driver’s seat, showing good traction out of the slower turns with a safe, progressive breakaway. The rear does move off throttle in curves, but is controllable. More worrying is the rolling resistance result.

Our verdict

While it’s great for dry road performance, this will prove expensive in the long term.

Contact

Bridgestone: http://www.bridgestone.co.uk/