Does anyone know how the stock Dunlops compare to the stock Bridgestone Potenzas as far as handling, being pushed to the limit, and sidewall is concerned?

Are they nearly identical as the Potenzas in performance, or slightly worse?

EDIT: I understand that there are a couple threads about the Dunlops vs Bridgestones, but none of them ever really addressed the performance of the Dunlops. Basically you just had a bunch of people stating that the Dunlops have a higher tread rating and can last much longer than the Bridgestones.

 

I guess since we got either the Bridgestones or the Dunlops as OE tires, it's pretty hard to compare them from personal experience. The Tire Rack lists both tires, but while the Bridgestones are listed with other tires in the customer surveys, for some reason the Dunlops weren't. Still, when compared to all other Ultra High Performance Summer tires, the Bridgestones were pretty dismal, scoring 45th out of 46 tires listed. Dry performance wasn't too bad - wet performance was pretty mediocre - but comfort/noise/treadwear were dismal.

Ultra High Performance Summer survey

You can also check out the "Read all reviews" links from the individual tire listings:
- Bridgestone listing
- Dunlop listing

ps - I got the Dunlops, and was very pleased with their performance for Autocross and track.

 

Potenza suck and extremely noisy at just 15K kms

 

Stock tires are never any good, especially performance ones. Burn them off or keep them for when you safety and sell your car. Manufacturers order thousands of them and negotiate discounts. The tire manufacturers make cheaper versions of their performance tires to accomodate the discounts given.

That's why they are called the Dunlop 8090... and not the 8000's or the new 9000's which are much superior tires. The 8090 tire is not nearly as good as any other tire in the Dunlop high performance category. There is no 8090 available from Dunlop becuase they don't want to sell you that tire as aftermarket. That 8090 tire is only available with new cars (or as replacements via the dealer).

 

I love my stock Potenzas, don't care about the road noise because I always have the stereo on, and mine will make it to 25k. While I agree that this is pretty shitty mileage to get out of a tire, I am not going to sacrifice performance for treadlife. Lastly, Tire Rack's reviews are biased as hell.

Oh well. I tried.

 

Um, see the link I showed above. The 8090 is available from the Tire Rack for $257 --> Dunlop SP Sport 8090