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Switching from Bridgestone RE71R to Nexen N FERA SUR4G.
I’m leaving the Bridgestone family and going to the new Nexen that has been making a solid name for itself in the 200 tread wear arena. I’ve read great things about this new tire and ordered a set earlier this week. I will do a follow up review on the tire mid next week and help out others who have been on the fence about this tire. I told a friend about them and he is now using hem on his Focus ST and thinks they are better than his previous Rival S choice. The new shoes 255/40-17 will be mounted up Sat morning, and will have an autocross on Wednesday this next week. Stay Tuned!
Reason for the switch!
Last edited by Wanted EVO IX; Oct 20, 2017 at 06:59 PM.
I made the same change back in August on my B-Street X. Similar amount of grip, less sidewall stiffness (gotta run higher pressures) but easier to drive with larger 'sweet spot.'
I made the same change back in August on my B-Street X. Similar amount of grip, less sidewall stiffness (gotta run higher pressures) but easier to drive with larger 'sweet spot.'
Any feedback on tire pressure? I was leaning towards 36F 40R. I know the sidewall isn’t the same as the stones in the same tire size. The 245/40-17 RE71R needed much higher pressure than the 255/40-17 because the load range changed.
I will only use them for autocross, my friend is running them on his Focus ST in autocross and runs 37 F 37.5 R and I think he is rolling over the tires edge. It looked like 38 F and 40 R would’ve been better but he didn’t try it. On Wednesday this week I will have a chance to test them out.
Last edited by Wanted EVO IX; Oct 15, 2017 at 09:28 PM.
Any feedback on tire pressure? I was leaning towards 36F 40R. I know the sidewall isn’t the same as the stones in the same tire size. The 245/40-17 RE71R needed much higher pressure than the 255/40-17 because the load range changed.
I doubt my pressures will be applicable to you but I run the fronts at 42 psi and rears anywhere from 36 to 40 psi. At 36 psi the car has slight understeer at entry. At 40 psi the car has nice rotation entry and mid corner but is a bit handful at slaloms.
With the RE-71Rs I ran 38-40 psi fronts, and as low as 34 psi rear.
If you were asking me... no . I only bought them because the RE-71Rs were out of stock and I needed tires badly for the Toledo tour (which I ended up not going... but that's another story).
First impressions of the new Nexens is a two thumbs up! They are awesome and stick as well as the RE71R. The tire never become unpredictable and heated up nicely. The braking was spot on and never felt the tire not capable of what I had to throw at it. Another standout factor of this tire was slip/ slide was perfect and I was more confident each run to feel the car slide predictably.
As for tire pressure I started the day at 38 F 40 R and worked up to 39 F 41R. The tire liked higher PSI for sure. My friend who I mentioned above in previous posts was attending the ev t too and I got him to bump his pressure up to where I was and he was also more confident. I look forward to updating this thread but I feel this tire is as good as the best 200 treadwear tire on the market!
If you were asking me... no . I only bought them because the RE-71Rs were out of stock and I needed tires badly for the Toledo tour (which I ended up not going... but that's another story).
Sorry, I was asking the OP.
It's not often you see someone announce that they're going to change tires before they actually do it
It’s crazy that I have to run higher pressure but the tire felt spot on! It never felt slippery and hooked up on all the runs I had but the first which was cold as expected. I only had 6 miles on the tires so they still had that first layer of grease on them and I lost it on first few turns but by the end of the 1st run it was hot and hooking up. Also I started with slightly lower pressure at first but noticed I had room to change. I can’t wait until our next event and give the tires a lot more runs. This event I debuted them on only had 5 runs. I’ll keep you posted and maybe play around with more temp changes to see if it will help.
was thinking of switching, i heard they run pretty wide.. im surprised at the tire pressures, i've been running 36psi all around for autox, are you guys seeing benefit up closer to 40 for re71rs? they'll probably last me another half season here, then switch to nexens or maybe the bfgs
how are the nexens with heat? i have to start spraying the re71rs pretty much after the second run
was thinking of switching, i heard they run pretty wide.. im surprised at the tire pressures, i've been running 36psi all around for autox, are you guys seeing benefit up closer to 40 for re71rs? they'll probably last me another half season here, then switch to nexens or maybe the bfgs
how are the nexens with heat? i have to start spraying the re71rs pretty much after the second run
It depends on your tire size. One local evo ix owner has the 255/40-17 on RPF1 17x9.5 and Runs 28F 30R PSI. I ran same size wheel and tire combo this season with the 30F 32R was good for me. Another local Evo Ix owner has the 245/40-17 RE71R on Stock BBS Evo Wheels and likes real high pressure, like 39F 42R but that size tire has a much softer side wall than the 255/40-17.
The Nexen is slightly wider and one of the other Evo guys who also attended the autocross with us noticed the Nexen looked larger than the RE71R. This could be because I’m running a 10mm rear spacer too. The specs support the Nexen being wider but it also gains a few lbs per tire too. Compromise I had to make.
Oct 11, 2017, 10:07 PM
. I only bought them because the RE-71Rs were out of stock and I needed tires badly for the Toledo tour (which I ended up not going... but that's another story).
