Tires!!

[roketman]

I spoke with Bill last week to order tires for my 2006 GT and my Carbon series GT.
He informed me that Radial Tire has a bunch of fresh build date Bridgestone tires available!
I have no financial interest
Just trying to help out my GT brethren
Ask for Bill703-554-4803 cell
Or office 301-585-2740
Get ‘‘em while they are available!
I preorder and have him ship in march when it warms up here in New England!
I also think he has the best pricing. If not I believe he will match.

 

[nota4re]

Just a few additional words about the Bridgestones that many of you may not know....

In 2004, I purchased a tire mounting machine and a tire balancer and since that time I have always mounted tires for all of the cars in the household - and several friends. Mounting and balancing many different brand tires over the years can give you a different perspective about the quality of some of the brands. It is my humble opinion that the Bridgestone brand tires are really exceptional when it comes to manufacturing a balanced tire. Each time we mount/balance a set of the Bridgestones on an OEM GT rim, I am just blown away at how little wheel weight is required. There have been MANY times when we have balance out a wheel with less that 20 grams of total weight added. For the size/width of the tires (especially the rears), this is really exceptional. I recently purchased a set of Bridgestone tires for my 2016 Touareg - these too are quite large at 275/40-21. Mounted to factory, high-quality rims, the amount of wheel weights required is so small it almost defies logic. There's no other brand of tire that has given us such consistent results.

And, yes, I do have a tire machine fetish. After almost 18 years with the same machine, it was time to upgrade... and upgrade we did!! This weekend we installed a Corghi Artiglio Master J touchless machine which is widely considered to be one of the best tire machines on the planet. There's going to be a learning curve, so we'll practice on race tires for the Spec Miata but this coming weekend we've got to install some tires on a GT3. If any of you share my same fetish, here's some porn for you... Corghi Artiglio Master J

 

[TO AWSUM]

Wow, that's a really nice machine. You'll have fun remembering all those procedures. Laminate an abbreviated checklist you can hang on the machine as a quick reference.

 

[GTMD]

So cool.

 

[2112]

On my last mounted set of Bridgstones, one of the rear tires took only 7 grams (1/4 ounce) to balance.

I threw a weight during HPDE day at track on a front tire. I cannot feel any difference with out it. I am not even inclined to bother with it.

Coming from oversized truck tires, that can take internal welded weight patches and pounds all over the wheels, this is no less than amazing.

 

[GT@50]

I started with balanced rears. After a day of driving the tire had rotated 4" on the rim. I can tell there's a slight off balance so I'll redo them for what it's worth.

 

[HOOKED ON GT]

I had an old set of B-Stones on my 2000 M5 and decided they needed to be burnt up.
Dropped the clutch and and of a sudden I hear "thump, thump" and I think Ive lost pressure or somethings broke.
I look and find that Ive torn the middle strip of the tire partially off (about 12 inches long flap) and that was doing the wheel well bashing.
There was probably many ounces of rubber missing..
I cut if off and then drove it for about 350 miles and car felt fine and no "out of balance" feel at all.

 

[nota4re]

As we all know, there are THOUSANDS of aftermarket rims out there and I hope we can all agree that MANY of them are just crap - from a manufacturing process/quality control perspective. As such, the wheels themselves are often contributing to an imbalance - therefore making it virtually impossible to know if you've got a good (balanced) tire or not. With the GT and the BBS rims.... you can count on a balanced, high quality wheel, so when a good set of tires is mounted, very little weight is needed.

 

[John B]

I've been on Goodyears mostly, then tried some Pirelli's, but the sidewalls were too soft which created a high-speed wobble under power, which was not fun. I went back to Goodyears for my last set, which was a while ago. They're still round and black, but they're bricks. Last time out my car was spinning tires in 3rd way too easily. I'm joining the bandwagon and just ordered a set of the Bridgestone RE050A's (F 265/40-18 N1. R 345/35-19 Scuderia) from Bill at Radial Tire. He picked right up and is a super nice guy. He even called me back with the date codes, which were 4 months old r, 15m old f. He said Bridgestone recently releases a batch of rears and he grabbed them all! I'm really glad there's a guy like Bill watching out for us GT guys.

 

[2112]

Man are you in for a pleasant surprise.

 

[roketman]

I've been on Goodyears mostly, then tried some Pirelli's, but the sidewalls were too soft which created a high-speed wobble under power, which was not fun. I went back to Goodyears for my last set, which was a while ago. They're still round and black, but they're bricks. Last time out my car was spinning tires in 3rd way too easily. I'm joining the bandwagon and just ordered a set of the Bridgestone RE050A's (F 265/40-18 N1. R 345/35-19 Scuderia) from Bill at Radial Tire. He picked right up and is a super nice guy. He even called me back with the date codes, which were 4 months old r, 15m old f. He said Bridgestone recently releases a batch of rears and he grabbed them all! I'm really glad there's a guy like Bill watching out for us GT guys.

That’s me watching out for you guys I was the one who told him to grab every tire he could from Bridgetown. But I agree Bill is a great guy and I’ve done business with him for a long time

 

[Specracer]

I understand, completely I got a Corghi 5000 touchless ~3 years ago.

And, yes, I do have a tire machine fetish. After almost 18 years with the same machine, it was time to upgrade... and upgrade we did!! This weekend we installed a Corghi Artiglio Master J touchless machine which is widely considered to be one of the best tire machines on the planet. There's going to be a learning curve, so we'll practice on race tires for the Spec Miata but this coming weekend we've got to install some tires on a GT3. If any of you share my same fetish, here's some porn for you... Corghi Artiglio Master J

 

[Anthony]

Thanks for this tip! I happen to be right around the corner from Radial Tire. Anyone use their shop for mounting/balancing?

 

[07XL0027]

I understand, completely I got a Corghi 5000 touchless ~3 years ago.

Andy, Drink more Rose’ and install less tires.

 

[Kpgarage]

I worked my way through school in a tire shop and you’re correct that you can really get an idea about tire quality from that different perspective. The balancing machine is very telling. IMHO, there is nothing close to Michelin. I’m however very pleased with the Bridgestones that I have on the red GT. Due to sizing can’t get Michelin for it at the moment. I’ve had mixed results with Pirelli. But, the new Michelin cup 2s on the GT500 are just amazing when warmed up. Wish they’d size for the GT.

 

[roketman]

Thanks for this tip! I happen to be right around the corner from Radial Tire. Anyone use their shop for mounting/balancing?

Ask for Bill. Tell him your a ford GT forum member.

 

[texas mongrel]

FYI, I was at the track last weekend and got a big rip in one of the rear sidewalls. Just spoke with Bill at Radial Tire and he had them in stock, so they're on their way. Great service and easy. For a comparison, I've used both Tire Rack, and Simple Tire before (this is my third set of rear Potenzas); Tire Rack was on back order and Simple Tire was quite a lot more expensive. I'm sold on Radial Tire.

 

[Stef]

It's been a few months now using the Bridgestones on my 05, and unless they start making a Michelin Cup or something like them in the right sizes I would use nothing else but the Bridgestones. What a difference!
As others have mentioned
It is truly remarkable how little balance weight was required.
Here is what I did with a set of standard wheels.
Two part matte epoxy (Hot Rod) Black.
Masking was tedious. Put the option wheels with Goodyears away incase I ever do a concours or something.

 

[2112]

Welcome to the church of Bridgestone.

 

[PeteK]

Looks good! I do like the base wheels and “spinners”.