Potenza RE-11 vs. Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec
 

I know that neither is offered in the States yet, but if anyone got a chance to try either one, I would like to know which is better for agressive street driving.

For those never heard of these, both of these tires are upgraded versions of Potenza RE-01 and Direzza Sport Z1 currrently offered in the States...

Its hard to say but my gut feeling is the RE11 will be better. Their racing heritage in F1 and many other platforms is greater than Dunlop. Seeing as the Z1's are basically the same as the current RE01R and the RE11 looks to be a stepup...I guess we will see. As soon as the RE11 comes out I will have them in 255's

Just ordered some RE-11s. Should be here in a couple of weeks. Will report back once I break them in

I'm so jealous in sinning.........:crap:

I got Dunlop Direzza z1's sittin in the garage but thread on rims is not close to being done yet. Thinking about getting rid of them :(

I will put money that the RE-11's will rock socks. Direzza's wont be far behind.

A$$hole :D You are required to post pics and review. Any word on when the US is gettin them???

they do not have them here either so I am importing from Japan :eek: will definitely write a review once I put them through some abuse {thumbup}

so how would i go about importing them from japan? PM me por favor :D

Well, the Z1s are superior to the RE-01Rs in terms of outright grip and ability to sustain grip after heating up. This was confirmed again this weekend at the SCCA San Diego Tour with the Z1 cars mopping up. The RE-01Rs are great, but they are a step behind. The Star spec Z1s are even softer and will be faster, but it's hard to say which will be "better" between those and the RE-11.

I have been looking at the SCCA forum and noticed that Z1 looks like the slightly faster tire (vs RE01R). I also looked at the lap differences between direzza vs. star spec on dunlop site and re01r vs re11 onbridgestone site. Should be a pretty close call between the two. From my research, the RE-11 is supposed to be considerably better than RE-01R, where Z1 * Spec provides a significant improvement only on the first lap when the tires are cold

BS suggests that RE-11 is over 1.0-1.2sec faster than RE-01R on a 68-69sec circuit.

Dunlop suggests that Star Spec is around 1.2sec faster on a 1min52sec circuit on first lap and only 0.25-0.35sec faster on the rest of the laps.

I would also like to know how and who to contact in order to get my grubby little hands on these Bridgestones as well.{thumbup} I tried the supplied link in this tread and did not find the RE-11 on the website.

The star spec is still 200utqg. How is the tread going to be much softer. It likes like the exact same tire as the original Z1?

I tried local tire dealers but except for one guy, none of them went through the trouble of importing tires. that one guy could only import the regular Direzza. In a last minute attempt, I contacted a friend who has a shop that deals with rally cars. luckily, he was already having a shipment on its way from Japan. he got a quote from his japanese supplier (which was more expensive than online price but cheaper than my first quote for the Direzza's). we will combine our orders and I will share shipping costs, etc.

If you have to have these, I would contact tuners (that deal with japan) in your area and see if they can import. it might not be worth the trouble for you, but in my case I was not in a hurry and the guy is my friend