Polymeric technology secret sauce in Bridgestone Potenza Sport AS

ATLANTA—Every once in a while, you have the chance to be part of something special, something game-changing.

And this tire, the Potenza Sport AS, is one of those things. At least from Dave Severyn's point of view, it is.

He knew it long before Bridgestone Americas Inc. showcased its latest rollout during a ride and drive event at Atlanta Motorsports Park. And he felt it all over again as he watched the tire traverse the wet course—pushing though standing water and gripping the pavement through every slalom, sharp turn and sudden stop.

"It's a paradigm shifter," said Severyn, who served as lead design engineer on the all-season replacement UHP tire that hit the market Sept. 1.

A paradigm shifter because it represents the future of Bridgestone tires, of what they can be—more sustainable and more sustainably made—and do—push performance parameters farther.

But don't just take Severyn's word for it.

Ask others in the Bridgestone family, and they'll tell you the same. There's an excitement around the launch of Potenza Sport AS because of the big ideas and big technologies behind it—in it. It is, after all, just the second tire to use the company's patented PeakLife polymer—part of the Enliten suite of technologies—in its compound.

And that's significant because PeakLife allows the silica to more effectively bond with the synthetic rubber in the tire's compound. That means Bridgestone can pull better rolling resistance and wear life—two coveted qualities as EVs emerge—from its tires.

"Enliten, put simply, is maximum performance (and) maximum sustainability," Bridgestone Americas Communications Director Davis Adams-Smith said. "… It is everything from polymer science and chemical science to new compounds, new tread patterns and everything in between."

Everything.

Including PeakLife.

And when that polymeric technology is combined with some of those other sustainability-enhancing, performance-driven technologies in the tire maker's Enliten toolbox, Bridgestone can build a tire that meets the evolving expectations of enthusiasts and everyday drivers. Even those in the ultra-high performance segment.

And it can do so with all-season reliability.

Because PeakLife.

"If we just wanted a tire that wears for 100,000 miles, we can put five more pounds of rubber in it," Severyn said.

But what good would that do? It's not cost effective, and it certainly isn't sustainable.

PeakLife, though, is both—economy and sustainability—wrapped into greater performance.

"With the PeakLife polymer, we can maintain less raw materials going into the tire, still deliver that longer wear performance … (and) depending on the market segment, we can optimize the tire for that segment's parameters," Severyn said.

Take the UHP arena, where all-season performance matters. PeakLife allows the Bridgestone teams more flexibility in design because they know they won't be sacrificing on key performance parameters that extend the tire's life and minimize its carbon footprint.

"We can put more void in the tread pattern, which is taking away wearable material from the tire, but we can do that because of the PeakLife polymer," Severyn said. "We can improve the hydroplaning resistance, improve the snow performance."

Improve it, of course, with that tread design.

After all, said Dale Harrigle, chief engineer for consumer replacement development, "a highly designed tread compound needs a highly designed tread."

And the Potenza Sport AS, he added, has both.

The tire is especially designed to handle rain and snow with a solid rib for better handling when compared to its predecessor, the Potenza RE980AS+. The newest iteration also has open shoulder slots for improved water evacuation and full-depth 3D "ultra thin" sipes for greater winter performance.

And for Severyn, particularly, the tread pattern itself is proof of how far Bridgestone is taking its products.

"In a sense, some of the technology that we have in this product was probably developed on the road of, like, eight years ago and then continuously refined," Severyn said. "The original RE980 was the first product where we had the 3D sipes, for example, and now we have refined that formula to ultra-thin 3D sipes. (We are) just stretching that performance as we improve our manufacturing processes and the entire tolerances in manufacturing. Thinner sipes really optimize that performance."

Perhaps one of the reasons the Potenza Sport AS feels so big—so special—is the story behind it.

This tire is more than three years in the making, and has its roots in those uncertain, early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were in place.

"We started working on this through COVID," Harrigle said, "so there was a lot of difficult challenges in terms of we had to reinvent the way we did some things."

One of those things was virtual modeling.

Throughout the last several years, Bridgestone has bolstered its virtual tire design and virtual modeling capabilities, allowing engineers and design teams to better understand the intricacies of the tire they build. And that was certainly true for Potenza Sport AS.

"Honestly some of that virtual modeling was out of necessity," Harrigle said, noting the pandemic was the catalyst that pushed his team to lean more heavily into the predictive technology. "We couldn't just hop on a plane and go to Texas and test a tire. We needed to come up with some other methods."

What they did, Harrigle said, worked. And the result is a tire that both he and Severyn are proud to put their stamp on.

Bridgestone too.

The Potenza Sport AS is the first North American product to utilize the company's high-contrast sidewall technology, which uses lasers to create a clean, dark design that allows both the Bridgestone and Potenza monikers to stand out.

Potenza Sport AS launched initially with 48 sizes. As early as next year, the tire will be available in 76 sizes for rim diameters ranging from 16 to 22 inches, serving drivers who look to maximize the performance of vehicles including sports sedans, sports cars, CUVs and SUVs.

"(This tire) is going to give you the benefits that you love," Adams-Smith said. "It's going to last longer than you expect, and it is also future-proof for EVs and their applications."