Bridgestone S04 first impressions

[waygorked]

I just went from 513Ms with Pilot Super Sports to 437Ms and S04s. The difference is pretty significant. The only thing that has really been problematic for me about my F80 is the cabin noise. I'm a former professional music producer, so I have no choice but to be driven nuts by background noise. I was under the impression that sacrificing sound insulation for weight saving made all the road noise inevitable. The S04s proved that to be false.

Car and Driver's comparison review of all the appropriate contenders put the S04 second overall to the MPSS, but gave them the same score for road noise. This is nonsense. I tested my MPSSs with 3K miles on a rough freeway at 60 mph on the way to the shop. My meter averaged 72dB. On the way back, 71dB with the S04s. But my frequency analyzer showed that the SO4s were down by 4-6dB between 300-1800Hz. These are the frequencies where most speech, music, and sanity reside. A simple dB test may have implied that the two tires are close in road noise, but nothing can be farther from the truth. The constant drone coming from the rears is virtually gone in all the frequencies that matter with the S04s. The change in cabin noise was so dramatic that I felt like I drove there in an M3 and drove home in an M5.

As for performance, they seem quite close. I don't feel like I have lost any grip, but I haven't tried to push them yet. The ride is softer, but certainly not cushy. The sport plus damper setting feels like sport did on the Michelins, and no longer makes every piece of trim rattle over bumps. The comfort setting feels like a 335 now. Handling is still very precise, but road feel is down a little bit, probably due to most of the road feel in this car coming through the seats rather than the wheel.

I'm sure that the Michelins are better for track use and autocross, but the S04s seem pretty hard to beat for a daily driver.

[Racer20]

Originally Posted by waygorked

I just went from 513Ms with Pilot Super Sports to 437Ms and S04s. The difference is pretty significant. The only thing that has really been problematic for me about my F80 is the cabin noise. I'm a former professional music producer, so I have no choice but to be driven nuts by background noise. I was under the impression that sacrificing sound insulation for weight saving made all the road noise inevitable. The S04s proved that to be false.

Car and Driver's comparison review of all the appropriate contenders put the S04 second overall to the MPSS, but gave them the same score for road noise. This is nonsense. I tested my MPSSs with 3K miles on a rough freeway at 60 mph on the way to the shop. My meter averaged 72dB. On the way back, 71dB with the S04s. But my frequency analyzer showed that the SO4s were down by 4-6dB between 300-1800Hz. These are the frequencies where most speech, music, and sanity reside. A simple dB test may have implied that the two tires are close in road noise, but nothing can be farther from the truth. The constant drone coming from the rears is virtually gone in all the frequencies that matter with the S04s. The change in cabin noise was so dramatic that I felt like I drove there in an M3 and drove home in an M5.

As for performance, they seem quite close. I don't feel like I have lost any grip, but I haven't tried to push them yet. The ride is softer, but certainly not cushy. The sport plus damper setting feels like sport did on the Michelins, and no longer makes every piece of trim rattle over bumps. The comfort setting feels like a 335 now. Handling is still very precise, but road feel is down a little bit, probably due to most of the road feel in this car coming through the seats rather than the wheel.

I'm sure that the Michelins are better for track use and autocross, but the S04s seem pretty hard to beat for a daily driver.

Keep in mind that the PSS that's on our cars is very different than the off the shelf PSS. The BMW version is probably a bit stiffer for improved steering response, but with a slight trade-off in road noise. That would explain your findings.

[mdrobc13]

I recently added the same tire setup to my '15 M3 and so far I am impressed. Have not noticed a huge difference in my day to day street driving in my car. Did notice I lit up my DSC once during a hard acceleration but maybe the ESS Tune I just got had something to do with that!

http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1170227

[waygorked]

So I was able to drive them on a rough freeway in the rain today. No significant difference in noise vs my wife's A4, which is a dramatic improvement over the MPSS.

The difference between suspension settings is not as dramatic as with the MPSS. And the front end is slightly less responsive (think 2-3%, barely noticeable).

All in all, I'm pretty stoked thus far.

[Kief]

You guys still feel the same about the S-04?

My rears are nearly shot at only approx. 10K--WTF, and on top it, I just noticed a superficial slit on the sidewall of one of my rears. PSS are now back ordered until 12/4 as per TR!

I'm interested in either the S-04 or Cont DWs. Any further insight from those that have tried either would be much appreciated

[mdrobc13]

Originally Posted by Kief

You guys still feel the same about the S-04?

My rears are nearly shot at only approx. 10K--WTF, and on top it, I just noticed a superficial slit on the sidewall of one of my rears. PSS are now back ordered until 12/4 as per TR!

I'm interested in either the S-04 or Cont DWs. Any further insight from those that have tried either would be much appreciated

Doing good so far. Only broke them loose once w/the flashing TC light. My car has an ESS ECU Flash mind you so I am putting out a bit more than stock hp/torque. But otherwise no problems with my S-04's and no huge differences noted between them and the PSS I have stored in the garage now. Haven't done any track work but for almost 99% of my driving; the S-04 fits the bill. Up to you but why wait for PSS unless you're just totally beholden to Michelins.

[Ian1973]

I think racer is on to something. Obviously this car has way more power/torque than a 335, but mine was tuned to somewhere near 420 ft-lbs at the crank, so the difference isn't huge. I was getting roughly 20,000 miles from a set of MPSS's. I look at the rears of my MPSS's now at 7,000 miles and I don't think they have more than 3-4000 miles more. So there does some to be something different in the OE versions versus the over the counter ones.

Keep in mind also I went through 2 sets of Conti DW (s) and got NO better than 9,000 miles on a set of rears on my old E46 M3. I'm thinking you won't get any better with 400 ft lbs of torque.

I know nothing about S04's, but they always struck me as a very short lived tire. They seem to have the same or more grip than the MPSS, but longevity suffers over the MPSS's.

[afadeev]

Everything you want to know about PSS vs. SO4:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=148

PSS is a slightly better performance tire among the two, but both would fall way short of Bridgestone RE-71R's or g-Force Rival's.

a