ragtophardtop

I'm interesting in finding the contact patch measurements for the OE AP2 tires.

Are the BRIDGESTONE POTENZA RE050 OEM tires? Tirerack doesn't list these as OEM nor do they have the front tire, but discount tire does. No one seems to have the contact patches for the front tire either. Anyone know them?

s2000Junky

Yes the RE050 are the oem tires for 04-05 and am not sure but think the same from 06-09. I know with the CR they moved to the RE070. Anyway the RE050 do run a bit on the narrower side especially so up front with the 215's. Couldn't tell you exact tire width, but id think would be available with a google search. If you go with most any extreme summer tire option, you will likely end up with a slightly wider contact patch in the same oem size up front, and close in the rear.

ragtophardtop

I learned a bit more after a convo with tire rack today. They advised looking for the least difference between the section width and the tread width, but couldn't identify what a contact patch was. Unfortunately bridgestone's website doesn't carry this info and tirerack doesn't carry this tire info either, tirerack is missing it, and firestone retail stores don't have it either.

I'm going to assume the Potenza S-04 is pretty close, and use this measurement for the contact patch ratio is close to OEM, someone please advise if they have different info. Following the S-04 front and rear numbers is the pilot super sport in stock sizes for comparison:



It's clear that the MPSS rear tire in the stock 245 40 17 size has 1/2 in smaller tread width. As I understand it, upsizing the stock sized rear MPSS tire to increase the rear tread width closer to 9" would yield a similar handling balance to OEM.

So can we assume in all cases that if you want to keep the OEM handling balance, when shopping for new tires, if the section width is the same, we can use the tread width comparison to determine whether or not to upsize in the rear?

sam_spider

There's a stickied thread at the top with the info you're looking for - https://www.s2ki.com/forums/wheels-t...-sizes-326003/

The Bridgestones fitted to AP2's was different than the "normal" specs for the same sized tire. I've always used the tread width on TR's site when selecting tires, not the section width.

ragtophardtop

Thanks, I'm not sure how I missed that, I've been through the stickeys. Yikes, the OE tire is narrow up front....

sam_spider

No worries, there's also a lot of older threads discussing it, but the search only goes so far back in time unfortunately.