hisvett

Please use the following as information based on fact, not opinion. I'm not looking for a debate.

Today I was prepping my '12 GS for our fall road trip. As part of my DIY service, I record the tread wear. After 20,714 miles of primarily highway miles, my tread depth is as follows;

Tire Tread Depth Outside Center Inside

Right Front 0.225 0.230 0.230

Left Front 0.230 0.230 0.225

Right Rear 0.190 0.190 0.190

Left Rear 0.210 0.195 0.200

New tread depth is 10/32 (.320)

A little back ground; the car has a Manual Trans, Stock Motor, No track days, some town but mostly highway driving....and I have never smoked the rears but I do enjoy a spirited drive on twisty roads every so often.

I purchased a Firestone lifetime alignment when I purchased the new Bridgestone RE050A Pole Position tires and had the alignment set using the following numbers and rechecked about every 10K.



I've found that GM uses an aggressive camber to help obtain the "1G" number for advertisement purposes. For street use, the aggressive alignment will wear the inside of the front tires (speaking from experience). After a little trial and error, I have found keeping the front camber at -.5 works very well in keeping the wear even across the tire, as seen by my numbers.

Hope this helps answer any alignment issue questions or if your perhaps thinking of buying a new set of shoes for your baby At $1600 for the set, the Bridgestones have been a very good bang for "MY" buck

Guard Dad

Thanks for the detailed report.

You mean -.5 CAMBER correct?

How do you like the Bridgestone's, any thoughts?

hisvett

Thanks, small case of Lexdexic

I spoke to a few guys in the club that are running Bridgestone's and they all have positive things to say. After installing the new set, the new tires did seem a little quieter than the OEM GY GENII's. I also noticed a little with less grip in cold weather (below 45 degrees). I feel this is a small price to pay when living in Texas (where we have "Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer and Christmas") and I can get twice the mileage for less $$$ than OEM tires.

I put a sound meter app on my phone just to check the noise level. At 65 MPH on good pavement the interior level runs about 68 db to 71 db. With all that rubber on the ground, you can't expect to to be at the same level as my Chrysler 300S that runs at 10 db less.

I haven't received any dependable reports on anyone getting much more that 35K out of a set of tires on a GS....so until then, I'm planning on replacing them with another set of BS's.

stp357

Do these tires have slightly less width than OEM tires?

not08crmanymore

Are those the "PFADT" alignment numbers? If not,how did you come up with them??I think BRIDGESTONE will be my next set of tires....or Michelin...

wlean99

Thanks for the imformative report. I will flag this post for future use.

ben dover

Good info, thanks. I also have Bridgestones.

DenverdansC6

According to Tire Rack's spec sheet, the Stones are .8" wider (tread) on the front and .2" wider on the rears; the Stones are also 2 lbs. heavier on the front and 3 lbs on the rear. The OEMs have 220 tread wear rating, the Stones a 280, the highest available in those size RFTs.

stp357

Excellent! Looks like Stones are in my future!

hisvett

You know I had to go out and check for myself; the Bridgestone's do have a little smaller footprint than the OEM GY GENII tires.....did not know that

hisvett

No, PFADT (street) numbers are to much like GM specs; still too aggressive and will wear the inside of the front tires.....again from experience. I believe I read a thread long ago of someone stating to keep the caster at -.5 MAX for good flat tread wear. I've been running that number now for 20K miles and it has worked just fine for me.

hisvett

FYI; they make several variations of this tire. Make sure the sidewall reads "RE050A Pole Position" (Run Flat).

Seadawg

A very good factual tread. I'm on my second set of Pole Position runflats. Search my posts, and you will see more positive facts about these tires.

stp357

A smaller foot print is the last thing I want. Anyone know if a wider sized tire will fit my stock wheels? If so, any drawbacks to a wider size?

hisvett

If you are looking for a tire to use 1/4 mile at a time, the Stones are not for you; BUT if you want a really good street/highway tire that will give you a lot of miles for the buck, then this is a very good choice.

Not sure why you are more concerned about tire footprint when it's the tire compound that makes the difference. Case in point; the C7 with a much smaller footprint is pulling numbers as good if not better than a C6Z.

stp357

My concern is purely cosmetic. Why would I want a skinnier tire on a GS?

Huskerman

Very well done....turns out I have done about the same for my Potenzas RFT's and currantly have close to 14K on them and they look great......I will run them again when the time comes......

Seadawg

I have them, and they stick amazing well for very hard launches. Many Z06 guys use them too, if they want to stay with runflats and get good traction, wet or dry....