Read your warranty:

Wear Item Limited Warranty
Wear item coverage for all models is 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first. Items covered include brake pad/shoe linings, clutch disk linings, and wiper blades.
*See your Subaru Dealer for complete details."
http://www.subaru.com/owners/care/wa...sp?pageID=2004

As for the review, I'd ask, AntiRe070 whether any non-R compound tire can withstand your pushing the car that hard? I was at Summit Point last weekend and my tires look fine.

As for the comfort level of the tires -- hey, this isn't a BMW.

 

So the brake pads are under warranty until 36K ????? I thought they weren't covered that long.

 

All:

Thanks again for the positive feedback on my review, and on welcoming me to the forum...

I was in Vegas last week at the SEMA show. In between searching for the next "big thing" for Jeep and off road (for buisness), I had a chance to see (and discuss) a few STi related things at the show.

"RDiamond" asks if I think any non-R compound tire will withstand that sort of hard running... If really pushing, without suspension modifications, my gut feeling is still "no". Summit Point (on a hot day) is track that works a car pretty hard. Having driven quite a few cars on that track, none of them (over the years) ever felt as unwilling and over-burdened through turns 6,7 and 8 as the STi on the Bridgestones. The poor manners, terrible noises, lack of grip and little chunks out of the RE-070's outboard giant tread blocks pissed me off.

At SEMA I was bending the ear of one of the guys working at the SPT booth about my experience with the tires...

He inquired as to what sort of temperature difference I had been able to measure from the inner portion of tread, out to the outer portion. In the interest of full disclosure, I admitted that I never did use a pyrometer on the car that weekend.

To an engineer like him, my complaints (based on little scientific merit) were met with advice that I probably had used the wrong tire pressures... And that these tires are better than I think. According to him, if one gets a temperature change of about 4 degrees inboard to outboard, the tire pressures are then correct. I walked away thinking that I should have been more analytical about it, and that he probabaly knows what he's talking about...

But homeward bound on the plane, I was thinking about the fact that I did tinker with pressures that day. Starting with about 35psi and then adding 1-2 pounds in increments to see if would improve. (My on-track baseline pressure usually consists of adding 4-5 psi to the street pressures to compensate for sustained high speed loads). Nothing helped on that day. OK, so I'm not a tire engineer, but my driving experience gives me a rational expectation of performance from the tires that come on Subaru's highest- performance car EVER... They aren't up to the tasks I demand.

Regardless of the discussion, the body motion of the stock springs easily overloads the Bridgestones on a challenging road course. I think the most "fair" conclusion here is that my driving demands "track tires for the track". I push the Bridgestones too far.

Add that to that fact that the RE-070 is so damn noisy on the road, and it makes the tire essentially worthless to me. Your results may vary...

Update: My half-way "winter" package...
After a couple hundred miles (Yesterday) on the Pilot Sport A/S for the street "winter combo", I can say that they give up less dry performance than expected, while being much less harsh on our Pennsylvania roads.

 

Ok, here are two more images from that day.

Including a better "side-on" view with tires working hard, and then a shot of the epic battle with the well-driven big-horsepower Firebird of my pal Mark that I mentioned in the review.

Again, with STi Spec C springs & Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Tires in 225/45/17 (stock size) as the ONLY modifications besides a K&N Filter element.

Enjoy!

 

The Firebird Battle:

Once he stopped blocking, I was LONG GONE.

 

wow! that's a pretty viscious amount of body lean. Anyway... What are your thoughts on the supersport ABS and it's effect on Trail braking? Thanks for the writeup

 

Hmm,

To be candid, the 2003 "Supersport ABS" doesn't seem to be much smarter than the ABS on my 1995 M3... If anything, the ABS is still too sensitive, making non-assisted threshold braking a more challenging proposition. Perhaps not as sporting as the name would suggest...

Can't say I noticed ABS doing anything different out at the back as opposed to up front. Front brakes still do the lion's share of the work. I imagine that the stock bias/proportioning would never allow a rear to lock before a front if ABS were somehow turned-off.

I did notice that some trail-braking blended with the DCCD at 65% rear (max rear) made for the best amount of rotational sideways-style fun on three of the turns at Pocono North Course.
It was fun to wag the tail and power out. Like having cake and eating it too.

Anyone else have a chance to do any of that non-sense?

- Dave

 

I just have the WRX, however, I noticed the same problem w/ ABS sensitivity during trail braking, and also on the same track.
Coming out of the short shute after the high banking, the ABS would kick in prematurely (at least to me). Once I pulled one of the fuses, the problem went away and I had more control through the trackout.