@Occhis The Potenza Sport are great. I highly recommend them for street use for a performance-minded driver.
Compared to the Tesla-spec Pirelli PZ4 the car came with, which I swapped from at about 1k miles, the Potenza Sport have much more grip dry and wet, and they're much quieter in hard driving where the PZ4 would get pretty squeally for a summer performance tire. No hydroplaning issues with either tire (but I'm not driving hard through standing water). The Potenza Sport are slightly louder than the foamed lined Tesla-spec PZ4 when cruising on the highway, but still not bad for a performance tire, I've had much louder (on other cars).
Compared to their predecessor S-04 Pole Position the new Potenza Sport are clearly way better. I was never that impressed with the S-04, they were passable but not great. I've only used the S-04 on a different car, so this isn't a direct comparison, but it's obvious the newer Bridgestone is much better.
Compared to the good ol' Bridgestone RE-11...okay that's not a fair comparison.
RE-11 were an amazing, unique tire and in a different category, and the car I used them on was lighter with a better-sorted suspension. And RE-11 would've been overkill for only street use, even though they were excellent on the street. (That was their magic, unlike most dual use street+track tires.)Compared to the old Michelin PS2 I think these are better, as they should be for a much newer tire. Not a direct comparison as I've only used the PS2 on our big soft air sprung S P85. PS2 were a good street tire for their day though.
Compared to the Michelin PS4S that are super popular here (and were OE on older M3P!) I can't say, I've yet to use those. I was actually going to try the PS4S first but they were on indefinite backorder in this size. The Potenza Sports are so good I might just get another set when these wear out, but maybe I'll try the PS4S for comparison's sale, if Michelin gets their supply problems under control and I can actually buy them.
More general notes on the Potenza Sport:
- Steering response is excellent. Despite much taller sidewalls than stock, I couldn't feel any loss of steering response or precision, not in the slightest.
- Keep in mind I'm still on 100% stock suspension and bushings. The car has the usual M3P softness and turn-in delay, it just didn't get any worse. It's plausible to me that a well-sorted Model 3 with better suspension and stiffer bushings could expose smaller tire response differences that are masked by the stock car's mushiness.
- For reference, my stock M3P setup was 235/35R20 PZ4 stretched onto 20x9" wheels. The new setup is 245/45R18 on 18x8.5" wheels.
- These tires grip well when cold before warmed up from driving, as any tire in this category should.
- "Cold" still means above freezing of course.
- After 40 miles of tearing up the twisties these tires still feel good, no issues with getting greasy or overheating in that situation. Again, this shouldn't be an issue for any tire in this category.
- My efficiency went up with this wheel+tire change. I'm chalking that up to the lighter, smaller-diameter wheels / taller sidewalls, not to the specific choice of tire. These Potenza Sport stick for a street-focused tire and I doubt they're any more efficient than the PZ4, but at least they didn't kill my efficiency either.
- Obviously ride quality is much better thanks to the size change, but that's not a fair comparison either. The sidewalls feel very sturdy, I'm sure you can find smoother riding tires, at the cost of steering response and precision especially during cornering.
Final final words: This is based on street driving only, including lots of miles on very twisty, low-to-no traffic rural mountain/hillside/canyon roads, as well as occasionally pushing the car's limits on empty highway ramps in the middle of the night. Track use is much much harder on a tire (and car), I've no idea if these would hold up to any track days, and personally I wouldn't bother with any "max performance" tire (300-ish TW) for track use. In my limited experience nothing with more than 200 TW really holds up on a racetrack, unless it's your first track day and you're just getting your feet wet of course, then run whatever.
