Bridgestone Praised in Independent Tests

Bridgestone’s Potenza RE050A, which Bridgestone reports is from the same high-performance range as official F1 tyres, was a top performer in Evo magazine’s 2007 tyre test, while the Turanza ER300 was also praised in the annual Auto Express tyre test.

The RE050A performed well across all nine disciplines in the Evo test, and was particularly strong in wet braking, and curved and straight-line aquaplaning. Evo personnel used quantitative and qualitative data to analyse the performance of nine different tyres from leading manufacturers. The RE050A finished with an impressive 92.7 per cent overall score, less than four per cent behind the overall winner.

The magazine described the RE050A as “on the pace in both the wet and dry tests,” with driver Jethro Bovingdon particularly impressed with its “very predictable” performance on the dry handling track.

In the Auto Express test, the Turanza ER300 scored a 98.81 per cent rating, winning the dry handling test outright and also performing well in the dry braking, wet cornering and rolling resistance tests.

Andy Lane commented: “We’re delighted, but not entirely surprised, that both of these tyres performed exceptionally well in these two tests. Evo and Auto Express are just the latest in a long line of magazines to praise our tyres in tests of this kind, and this demonstrates that Bridgestone can more than hold its own despite strong competition from rival manufacturers.”