tire insight.... (nitto specific)

[Wraith_2006]

All,

So here is the deal, I have been running Nitto 555 Extreams, stagerd, 275/40 in the front and 285/40's in the rear, and I tell you what the performance that I have noted are amazing, results. I have however ran the edges off of the outer edge of my fronts. (lack of proper air pressuer) SO i dont want to jump to R compound tires. but I want something a bit stickier. So I am at a toss up over the Nitto NT 05 or ... the Nitto 555 RII Can anyone tell me if they have had experince with these??

 

[TroyV]

The 555RII is an old tire. It is essentially the same as the 555R drag radial, except with what I would call a marginally stiffer side wall. The drag radials in the 17" sizes were pretty stiff as they came. Before the RII came out, a lot of folks were running the drag radial at four corners because it turned out to be a good AX tire you could street drive. There are many newer tires out there that can just about match that performance without giving up wet weather/street driving capability.

Direzza Star Spec is a good choice... Kumho XS, Falken RT615, Sumitomo HTRZ2/3, Hankook Ventus RS3.. There is also a Toyo street tire I witnessed over the weekend at an AX event on a C4 corvette, that was much quicker than it should have been, though I didn't get the model of that tire.

There are other options out there. In your shoes, I probably would not run the RII, and would either opt for whatever the hot street tire is, or move to a dedicated set of track rubber for those days when you are wanting to compete.

 

[Ciotti]

I ran Kuhmo XS's for last year's entire season and the first 2 events of this season, between that and daily driving duties they are pretty much dead now but the grip they're given has been INSANE. Grassroots Motorsports did 2 tire tests between all of the hot autocross tires last year and the XS's won both times. That coupled with the fact that they're the cheapest and come in wide sizes for us and they're a definite winner in my eyes. My next set will be 295 35 17's at the end of this month

 

[svt2712]

go with the NT05 they are bad ass they are a tread rating of 200 the 555's are 300 i have used both. MY wifes GT had 555's up front and 555 dr's out back witch worked well. I dissagree with above post about 555dr side wall being stiff they are not you have to air them up to like 40 psi so they are stable but the center starts to wear. 555dr hook better because they are tread rating of 100 pretty soft. Since then she has upgraded to 18" FR500 with 275 NT05's on all four. they are very responsive soft and stiff. I raced with Goodyear eagle F1's on the front and 555dr on back. The 555dr were especially loose for my set up. (i am going to tell on my self right now and i have learned) I was running a 315 on the stock cobra rim. I know i know slap on the hand. sorry back to you first even with proper tire pressure you will wear the out sides un till you get some CC plates ( i saw that you headed that direction) many of the people that we race with have a set of street tires and aset of race tires. i like to drive long distance drag race and auto x so i am going to stick to soft street tires. When i get some more money i want to go with 18's and NITTO NT01 some day. best of luck glad to hear you like the sport.

 

[SVTCobra306]

The 555RII's are very limited in size.. Depending how much experience you have you might want to stick to a street tire and focus on driving the car However if you are going to make the change I'd probably go to the NT05's. I've tried talking myself into the Kumho XS's but they aren't enough cheaper than the NT05's.. I just added NT05R's out back on mine, I'm still relatively new at autocross and didn't want to drastically change.. I was running BFG Drag Radials out back before. My new NT05R's have much better sidewalls than the old BFG's but the stickiness is similar.. from what I've felt the car rotates better with these, I have an autocross tomorrow so I'll let you know how they go!