Bridgestone Potenza S001 Reviews - Page 12

My wife's A3 was originally fitted with standard 16" wheels with Pirelli P7's 225/55R 16 91W. In fairness, this wheel and tire combination provided a very comfortable ride and was fine & economical (£70 a corner, P7's) for general family motoring. However, when pulling away on wet roads these narrow tires would some times spin even with the modest power of the 140bhp diesel, and didn't insprire confidence when pushing on.

I therefore upgraded to Audi's 17" 5 spokes thinking these would still provide a reasonable ride with the car's standard suspension, and widen the contact patch from 205 to 225. I'd been told 18" could make the ride very harsh/choppy on the standard Sport Back suspension.

After reading a number of EVO magazine tire reviews I went for Bridgestone Potenza S001's. While EVO did rate the Continental Sport Contact 3 above the Bridgestones, I run Potenzas (RE040) on my Nissan 350Z and had always been very pleased with them on both road and track. With some hard negotiation I got them for £103 per corner all in which was far cheaper than I could get the Conti's reduced to. The Potenza S001's have a blocky tread pattern not dissimilar to the Conti's, and also a prominent rim protector ridge on the side-wall which is useful on the Audi 5 spokes as that design does seem a bit prone to the curb!

I have to say I'm delighted with this wheel & tire combination, it really has unlocked the potential of the car when you do want to push on.

Clearly it's impossible for me to give a like-for-like comparison given that I've gone up a wheel size. As you'd expect, the ride is firmer and there is more road noise than from the narrower 16", but to my mind still perfectly acceptable for a family car. The A3's clearly not a 'drivers car' but feedback through the Potenzas is near telepathic; grip in both dry & wet is very good and has eliminated the wet pull-away slip. You can corner in confidence within the limits of the standard suspension set-up, and braking is significantly more confidence inspiring.

I'd certainly say these tires are well matched to the A3 Sport Back and give a good combination of comfort and performance.

I can't give any feed back on wear on the A3 yet, but if my experience with the 350Z is anything to go by I'm expecting my wife to get a descent mileage from these tires. They do have an 'outside' face which means you can't rotate left-to-right to balance wear, which is a shame given the A3's tendancy to wear nearside rears.