Bridgestone Potenza Sport vs Bridgestone Turanza T005

Both the Bridgestone Potenza Sport and the Turanza T005 are high performance summer tires, where the Potenza Sport is a max-performance tire that relies on its denser tread pattern to certify awesome traction while driving over paved tracks in warm weather, and the Turanza T005 offers deeper tread providing better resistance to hydroplaning.

Both tires offer a confident driving experience in the summer months along with an attractive fuel average and tread life owing to their unique design and compositions in their tread (which we have analyzed in details below).

Let’s dive in, but before make sure you also check out Bridgestone Turanza vs Goodyear EfficientGrip, before moving forward, for better understanding.

Bridgestone Turanza T005 vs Potenza Sport

Bridgestone Potenza Sport has an asymmetrical densely designed tread in which three ribs are alternatively arranged among four circumferential grooves and arc-shaped sipes are marked over their edges.

As its central ribs are wide, bulky, and completely lack lateral voids, the contact patch of the tread is significantly increased.

The width and depth of its grooves is lesser than its competitor and have minimal space for water channeling. Its shoulder blocks are large and flat and possess narrow lateral grooves on one side and wider grooves on the other.

On the other side, Bridgestone T005 specifies a relatively aggressive and open tread pattern which includes three central rows of blocks spaced by lateral voids, and among them exist four grooves running longitudinally.

Its shoulders have slender blocks with numerous lateral grooves present at short distances among them.

Its contact patch is comparatively smaller because the tread blocks are less wide than the competitor.

However, its water holding capacity is greater in comparison as its channels are broader and deeper.

Road Grip Comparison

Bridgestone Potenza wins the game while competing for grip on dry road due to relatively larger contact of tread with the road.

Its ribs are not only wider but also run continually over the circumference of the tire which provides a better contact patch to hold on the dry surface.

It shows a better grip on wet tracks also as its central grooves and sipes remove water while the broad ribs grip over the surface firmly.

Bridgestone Turanza T005 offers a confident ride on dry track owing to its densely arranged tread blocks, however, its performance is lesser in comparison as it has got a relatively high void ratio.

Reduction in contact patch minimizes tread’s grip on the pavement.

Its resistivity against aquaplaning is comparatively higher because water moves out quickly through its deep voids and the risk of slipping over a wet path is markedly reduced, nonetheless, a lower contact patch makes its wet grip lesser than its competitor.

Handling Comparison

Bridgestone Potenza performs beyond its competitor in terms of steer handling on a dry paved road due to its massive shoulders.

While taking turns, much of the burden comes on the shoulders and bulky marginal lugs of Sport can effectively take this load and hold on to the underneath surface strongly, leading to a stable and fully-commanded cornering response.

When the vehicle turns about on wet roads, frequent horizontal grooves wipe off water and assist the shoulder lugs to ensure a controlled steer response and stabilize traction while cornering.

Upon rotating over a turn on a dry track, Bridgestone Turanza T005 shows reliable cornering stability yet its ability to do so is ranked lesser than its competitor because its shoulder lugs are comparatively smaller.

The lower contact patch also presents troubles when it comes to handling over the wet road where deeper grooves offer excellent hydroplaning resistivity still wet traction is marked comparatively lower as less surface area of the tread is in contact with the pavement.

Hydroplaning Resistance 

Bridgestone Potenza exhibits a good ability to prevent hydroplaning due to the presence of curve-shaped siping along ribs’ edges and longitudinal as well as lateral grooves.

However, its ability to prevent hydroplaning is lower due to its bulkier tread. It has a lower void ratio, moreover, its tread depth is lesser than the opponent’s, resultantly, its voids offer decreased capacity to collect water, and the film of water in between the tread and the road may cause sliding.

On the other side, the grooves of Turanza are wider as well as deeper and offer supreme resistance against aquaplaning.

These voids can accommodate a large amount of water in comparison and efficiently channel it out in a backward direction, hence, the risk of slipping during rainy weather is effectively reduced.

Rolling Resistance

Increased rolling resistance comes across Bridgestone Potenza while it moves over the paved surface because more of the surface area of its tread is touching the ground and a large amount of energy is dissipated to rotate the tire.

More fuel is consumed to provide the required energy; thus, its fuel efficiency is lesser in comparison.

Bridgestone Turanza experiences lesser friction while rolling due to its reduced contact patch. Reduced contact of tread and road enables it to roll easily, producing only a minimal amount of hysteresis (energy loss).

Decreased energy loss reduces fuel requirement which makes it a fuel-efficient tire.

Comfort and Noise Comparison

Road trips over Bridgestone Potenza are more comfortable than its competitor as its compact tread produces lesser noise.

Its voids are comparatively narrow as well as shallow and only a little space is offered for resonation and revolution of wind particles, as a result, less tire noise is produced.

Driving comfort is further enhanced by its first-class traction performance on hard pavement.

Bridgestone Turanza T005 stands behind in the competition regarding comfort level as a high void ratio not only leads to reduced on-road traction but also causes loud noise while rolling.

Broad and deep grooves provide much space for air particles to travel, reflect and resonate through the tread, leading to a lot of noise.

Moreover, reduced contact patch accounts for relatively lesser traction and in turn decreased comfort.

Durability and tread wear

Potenza lasts for a long time but comparatively, it scores lesser in terms of durability.

Its tread is internally constructed from 1 ply of polyester rubber casing which is reinforced by Nylon Aramid hybrid cap ply and also employs twin high strength steel belts.

Nonetheless, its rubber has lesser chip and wear resistance and scored 300 on UTQG tread wear scale.

Turanza stays functional for a longer duration as its robust tread rubber wears down relatively slower. Its tread employs a similar internal construction of a polyester casing and steel belts assortment. It’s UTQG rating is 320, which proves its supreme durability as compared to its competitor.

Which offers better value to money?

Potenza is priced higher than its counterpart but the additional amount is well justified by its superior grip and handling abilities on dry as well as wet roads.

Conversely, Bridgestone Turanza T005 sounds more suitable financially as it not only costs less but also has advantages of better fuel economy and longer tread life.

Take Home Points:

Both tires are very high performing as overall, there’s only a little difference if we talk about dry pavement traction.

But on wet asphalts, it’s a different story, as the Bridestone Potenza offers you with more siping, which suck the water in efficiently. (That’s what sipes do, they create vacuum as the tire rolls and this squeezes in the water particles, and sprays out as the tire rolls over).

On the other hand, the Bridgestone Turanza offers a better tread life and less fuel consumption. So besides getting a not-so-expensive tire, you save money in the long run as well.