Nitto tires

[gtaroger]

I am going to change the rear tires on my car. I have been looking at the Nitto nt 555R tires. Has any of you guys ran these tires and if so how well did you like them? Roger

[edwardb]

I assume you mean Nitto. I'm running these on Mk4 #7750:

Front tires: Nitto NT555 Extreme ZR 255/40ZR17
Rear tires: Nitto NT555 Extreme ZR 315/35ZR17

I heard about them from several other local club members who are also running them. According to the tire store I bought them at in Utica, they are very popular with the Mustang performance crowd. They run very smooth and can handle the lower temps we have here in Michigan even during the warm months. Also handle the wet pretty well. Unfortunately I know that. The only caution though is they are a street tire. With a 300 tread wear rating, they're not a sticky competition tire. The traction is fine for street driving and mildly aggressive driving. But there are better choices if you want to do more than that. I've also heard Nitto has a replacement coming. But I don't know any details about how they might be different or timing. But something to check into if I were you.

[Jeff Kleiner]

The 555R is a drag radial with 100 treadwear rating. Nitto mentions "occasional street use" in their literature for the tire. Although you will undoubtedly find that straight line traction is improved over the 555 my usual caution for anyone considering using drag radials for anything other than a straight line is that their soft sidewalls combined with stiffer sidewalls in front can result in some peculiar handling characteristics when cornering.

Jeff

[BEAR-AvHistory]

Have had good luck with 315X17" 555R on the rear. Car handles very well on the street at sane cornering speeds. Running 22/23PSI. Would not recommend them under 45 degrees on cold soak pavement. They will degrade & get very slippery very quickly. NITTO lists them as complementary to the 555 on their site. Have 255X17" 555 in front.

Jeff might know better but am not sure what the sidewall spread in stiffness is between the 555 & 555R. Tread depth is much less out of the box. They are certainly stiffer than a normal drag slick. Wonder if any of the guys have Auto Cross experience with them?

[Erik W. Treves]

NT01's all around.... work great!

[Jeff Kleiner]

NT01's all around.... work great!

That's what I'm on too but they are a whole different world than 555s and you sure wouldn't want to mix the two!

Jeff

[Bob Cowan]

That's what I'm on too but they are a whole different world than 555s and you sure wouldn't want to mix the two!

Jeff

Can you explain this, please?

[gtaroger]

I do all my driving on the street.I'm looking for a tire that will hook well out of the hole. I don't do a lot of hard driving, but once in awhile I get into a little straight line joist with a friend and I'm loosing a lot out the hole.I have to ease it off the line and then roll into the gas.I'm not to worried about the tire wearing. The rear tires that are on the car now are still in good shape and there 7 years old.They are Cooper Zeion tires.They are great tires ,but I get a lot of spin in first and second gear.Roger

[Jeff Kleiner]

Can you explain this, please?

Bob,
I'd expect that running 300 treadwear 555 street tires on one end of the car and R compound NT-01s on the other would result in some quirky handling.

Jeff

[Bob Cowan]

Oh, I see. Yeah, I made the mistake of mixing tires like that once. Once. :)

[turbonut48]

My builder used 555r all the way around. The fronts are getting low on tread and will probably need replacement in a year or two. I heard Nitto has come out with a new design thats engineered to work with the 555r in the rear.
Check into that.

The Nut

[BEAR-AvHistory]

How did the R's all round work for you. Have a set of 245's from another project sitting never used.

[turbonut48]

The Nittos all the way around are working out good. They re soft as putty. They kick up stones constantly because of it.
They also worked well in a rain storm on the highway. I was surprised.
I do the Noon Time Touring at Road America and never felt uneasy. Im not a superior driver but I enjoy the high speed corners a lot.


I was thinking of getting the different tire for the front to get a little more tire life. Nitto says they were engineered to work with 555r in rear. We ll see.

The Nut

[bcovell]

I had Nittos on my 95 mustang GT and liked them a lot.

[Mesa Mike]

I use the NT01's for track only. Too soft for street use.

[CraigS]

Other than the obvious thought that mixing compounds isn't a good idea, add this into the mix. The different compounds have different grip at different temps. So the front to rear grip balance may well be different at 45 deg than it is at 85 deg. We had recent experience w/ the 'summer' tires on my wife's Mustang GT. They were fine from April to about late Sept. Then we realized grip dropped tremendously below about 50 deg. Bad enough that we bought new tires w/ 6/32 tread remaining on the 'summer' tires.

[BEAR-AvHistory]

I noticed the NITTO's get very loose below 45*F especially on cold soaked roads which add to the instability. The summers on my BMW's also start to go away around 45*F. The big difference is to me is how quickly the NITTO's degrade once its under 45*F. The passenger car summers degrade from 45*F down but are still drivable under 32*F unless there is snow on the ground if you don't flog the car. The NITTO's under the same conditions have a very sharp degradation curve (no pun intended) becoming dangerous is very quickly.

Works for me because I drive the car daily unless its under 45*F anyway. Below that is just plain uncomfortable weather wise even with the heat on.

Big empty parking lots are your friend in testing street limits for these tires.

[Jeff Kleiner]

I noticed the NITTO's get very loose below 45*F especially on cold soaked roads which add to the instability. The summers on my BMW's also start to go away around 45*F...

That's going to be the case with any ultra or extreme performance tire. I run NT-01 on the street and track; they definitely drop off at the lower temps but not nearly a much as some---I ran through 2 sets of Kumho XS before changing to the NT-01s. They began their downward spiral about 60 degrees then became nearly undriveable for anything other than simply putting around below 45 degrees. I can actually compete on cool days with the Nittos after making a run to build some heat in them whereas with the Kumhos I knew a cold day at the track was just going to be for spits & giggles and to see how many times I'd spin off course!

Jeff

[FritoBandito]

If only Kumho would make the v720 in some decent bloody sizes. :mad:

Mario