[utenigma]

Ordered new tires today - Bridgestone RE-11A's in 245/40/18 (I've got the 18x8" sport non-staggered rims) Been autocrossing on the 225/45/18 Pirelli P7 Low Rolling Resistance All-Seasons, and they're performance has been... let's say less than impressive. Saw a banner in Costco, $70 off a set of 4 Bridgestone's and I was like "this is a sign" ...literally. Turns out Costco was $20 a tire cheaper than tire-rack even before the coupon - who knew

Really looking forward to seeing how much of a difference an extra 1.5" of tread-width + a sticky compound will bring

Warning - tire pron coming up

[buildbright]

Awesome. Those tires should be more grip then you should need. Which is a good thing!

[scott@bmwhn]

FAP!

[Alpine F31]

A humongous improvement over the stock rubber. Cool tread pattern too!

[shivaswrath]

Yeah I saw a dude running those this past weekend and he was...lets just say ecstatic!

Will that size fit the 8" wide rims well? How's it sit?

[utenigma]

It'll defiantly fit an 8" rim, approved by Bridgestone to fit 8-9.5". As to how it sits, we'll find out tomorrow as the guy from Costco called about an hour ago letting me know they came in

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....num=44WR8RE11A

I'll take before/after pics and post them here tomorrow after they're mounted.

[utenigma]

These tires are SICK - feels like I'm driving a different car!

I swear, it's like the car feels lower even though the tire change is <1% difference in height - so stuck to the ground

Here's some before(left)/after(right) pics - sorry the angle's aren't perfect, but you can get the idea

The tires are very square now - straight up and down instead of stretched like they were OE



The extra 20mm width acts from the outside like a 10mm wheel spacer



Here you can see in both the front and back there's a straight line between the top of the fender, the side wall of the tire and the rim of the wheel - basically completely flush



Lock to lock, no rubbing and I don't anticipate any issue at high speed with the car leaned over while autocrossing. I'm going to mount my GoPro pointed at the upper edge of the wheel and test to make sure - also to see if there's still enough clearance to drop it 0.7 in with H&R Sports.

And the tread looks HOT

[FotiosF90M5]

It looks much better. 245 squared. What a great alternative. Nice and fat with oem 18's. thanks for posting it. Was always curious.

[bananachipz]

awesome... I'm putting on a set of Michelin PSS 245's. I was worried about rubbing, so thanks for posting!

[MiamiF30]

That size will be when my Conti's wear out, great post!

[utenigma]

Driving around on these today - all I could think about was one of the opening passages from Snow Crash

You want to talk contact patches? Your car's tires have tiny contact patches, talk to the asphalt in four places the size of your tongue. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. The Deliverator is in touch with the road, starts like a bad day, stops on a peseta...When the Deliverator puts the hammer down, shit happens. - Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

[SergioK]

Awesome.

I have a spare set waiting in the garage. Almost the same size too. 245/35-18.

[shivaswrath]

Those look flush!

Since I have a staggered setup, I might try 245/40-18 in the front MF 265-40-18 in the rear vs the stock 225/255 front rear stock stagger.

[utenigma]

Originally Posted by shivaswrath

Those look flush!

Since I have a staggered setup, I might try 245/40-18 in the front MF 265-40-18 in the rear vs the stock 225/255 front rear stock stagger.

For staggered, do 245/40r18 in front 265/35r18 in back. the 35 aspect on a 265 is a closer match than the 40. Oddly enough, both the 245/40 and 265/35 are way closer to the rolling diameter of the 225/45 than the 255 stock tires. I really didn't understand why BMW went with 255 in the back instead of either of these other aspects-like somebody messed up the math.

[shivaswrath]

Originally Posted by utenigma

For staggered, do 245/40r18 in front 265/35r18 in back. the 35 aspect on a 265 is a closer match than the 40. Oddly enough, both the 245/40 and 265/35 are way closer to the rolling diameter of the 225/45 than the 255 stock tires. I really didn't understand why BMW went with 255 in the back instead of either of these other aspects-like somebody messed up the math.

Thx Man, I'll do that for sure...I think the S001's will last barely this season, so I'll drop those on this fall...any updates on them, how do you like them thus far?

I actually looked at sizing, there are no 265/35's in the RE11...boo!

[utenigma]

I haven't autocrossed them yet (next weekend), but I have REALLY high hopes considering how they work on the street.

Little differences from the P7 A/S's, they're quieter most of the time. I'm not sure if they're measurably quieter than the P7's, or if their tone just blends into the wind noise of the car at speed better - but from my seat they seam to make less noise. I say most of the time because they are louder when hitting really aggressive expansion joints - they make a "thum thum thum" sound more like the beat of a drum than the sharp impact/crashy noise the P7's made - that's defiantly louder, but also more pleasant - makes me think of all that rubber down there

One "down-side" is they're so soft and sticky, they pickup everything. There's a number of houses in my neighborhood still under construction, and driving over the sand/gravel around them the tires grab hold of whatever's on the ground and release it into my wheel well. It's only noticeable at slow speeds (I'm sure over ~20mph stuff's flung off way before it gets trajectory to hit the inside of the wheel well) and not really bothersome

Other things to note, turns at speeds that used to make the rear end step out or the front of the car push a little don't any more - at all. The same turns at the same speeds the car just turns, like I was driving the car like a reasonable person. No screeching from the tires, no slipping, just turning - I swear I can hear the tires yawning at me

The biggest difference though (and honestly the most un-expected) is the change in steering weight and feel. Even in comfort, the steering is heavier - which makes more sense since it's turning bigger tires. Much more like my old E46's level of boost - and there's a little more feel as well. I'm guessing the wider tires give the bumps a little more leverage to twist the wheel, which pushes a little more force up the system. It's defiantly not E46 steering feed-back, but better.

I have nothing but high hopes for my times next week-end

[utenigma]

Originally Posted by shivaswrath

I actually looked at sizing, there are no 265/35's in the RE11...boo!

The RE-11A's are new this year - 245/40/18's the only size in an 18" rim at the moment

I'm sure there's more sizes coming, but that's what there is for now.

If I needed staggered, 245/40, 265/35 R18 tomorrow, I'd probably get the Hankook Ventus R-S3's - they're extremely popular autocross tires down here. Or the same sizes in the Dunlop Direzza ZII - one of my buddies runs these on his WRX and likes them.

[lazycat]

Hi all, I am running re-11A 245/40/18 all round on my f30 335i (ER DP JB3) with 18X8 rims. I have been tracking this car since Feb at the Sepang International F1 Circuit. Before the Re-11As, I was running Pilot super sports, also 245/40/18 all round.

The square set up is perfect for removing the under steer of the f30. Handling is very neutral now and you can easily transit under to over steer in the corners depending on how you push.

My lap timing dropped from 2.46 to 2.43 (3 secs per lap reduction) while running the Re-11As coming from the pilot super sports. The re-11As are much more heat resistant compared to the super sports (PSS lasts 1 hot lap while I did my PB on my 3rd hot lap with re-11A).

The Re-11As have about 20% better dry grip compared to PSS. Wet grip of the Re-11A is also very good and I have not experienced aquaplaning even at speeds above 110kmh in very wet conditions.

Most notably, the re-11As are only very slightly louder than the michelin pilot super sports and the noise difference becomes indistinct with the radio on moderate volume. In my opinion, Re-11A is definitely the best all round tire for a fast street/ occasional track car like the f30 335i.

Tire wear of the re-11A so far is outstanding, 2 track days (250km of track mileage) + 5000 km of daily driving and it seems I still have 50+% life.

[Seagull]

Originally Posted by utenigma

Driving around on these today - all I could think about was one of the opening passages from Snow Crash

Good book!

[krnnerdboy]

That's amazing that you were able to drop 3 seconds from the pss. My only gripe with the re11 is that they're sensitive to camber. The corners chunk off with too little camber.

[lazycat]

The corners seem to wear fine for me and i'm only at -0.3 camber front. Re-11A are a compound update to re-11, maybe that helped?

[utenigma]

Same for me, haven't noticed damage to the corners on the RE-11A's

One thing I did notice though - when I was rotating the tires a week or so back, I looked at them when they were off the car and they looked like they were sitting at an angle when standing upright - like the outer diameter was smaller than the inner diameter. I rolled them to verify and sure enough the tires turned toward the outside around the smaller diameter side.

This is interesting as this isn't wear (the tires then still had 9/32 tread) It looks like the asymmetric design includes the inner diameter being slightly larger than the outer diameter Effectively Bridgestone has basically built the equivalent of a little negative camber into the tire's construction.

Neat