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I was recently selected to participate in a consumer test sponsored by Nitto for their new NT555 G2 tire. This thread will serve as my long term review thread as I put the tires through various testing both on the street and at the track.
The tires are 320 tread wear rated, in line with the Sumi HTR ZIIIs that I used as track tires for a season. I'll run them at a couple track outings this year to assess performance and durability. Obviously these are not a purely track focused tire and as such I'll collect lap times as data points but focus on real world performance based on the likely consumer base
Anyways, much more to come shortly. And huge thanks up front to Nitto for offering this opportunity and puling me in as a tester!
Pics, reviews, videos, etc to come in upcoming weeks and months!
Tires arrived yesterday. I need to get home and grab some pictures, then get these mounted up to break them in at my Palmer day on Tuesday Let the testing begin!!
Here are initial pics of the tires with the obligatory shot with the test vehicle behind
Initial thoughts - they look like an aggressive tread pattern for the street and visually appear to be designed to shed water for rainy driving. I'll test that... Likely at the track and definitely on the street. I'll expect some tread block edges to roll during track driving, not unexpected, and I'm planning to do a heat cycle on these to hopefully improve track long term performance.
Stacked up, they are almost identical in height as my OEM 255's, but I'll measure actual contact area for a more quantitative comparison.
These should get mounted on my OEM wheels on Monday, and I'll likely have them on the car later next week. I'll miss track day Tuesday due to timing, but these will make it out to Limerock in May for my next 2-day event.
OK - finally got the tires installed on the OEM wheels and took the car out for a quick ride this evening.
Initial impressions:
Sidewall seems a touch softer than the OEM Pirelli's, and definitely softer than the R888's and BFG R1's that I've been used to, but that's expected. They are a higher treadwear tire and also the highest sidewall tire that I've run to date, being a 265/40/19 vs 255/40/19 or 275/35/18. That said, the ride is excellent. The tires seem grippy (2nd gear WOT roll to redline resulted in zero tire spin and nice straight tracking), and cornering on my local esses. Road noise is minimal, seemingly less than the OEM tires and far less than the R888's and BFG's that I've driven for limited amounts on the street. The ride over rough roads is very good in terms of comfort and tracking - this complements my note regarding slightly softer sidewall, which lends itself to a compliant ride on the street.
The tires fill the wheel wells nicely on my SR springs, and have a great stance being slightly wider than OEM. Pictures are below from initial installation on my car.
Upcoming testing:
Street driving between now and May 12th
May 13th and 14th - track day at Limerock Park in CT. I'll likely run the Nitto's for one session on Friday and one session on Saturday. I'll also have my R888's there as well as the BFG R1's. I have a lot of data from running LRP with my Sumitomo HTR Z III's, which are comparable in terms of treadwear, so that will be the best apples to apples comparison with data. I'd like to run 1.04's at LRP with the Nitto's. I ran low 1.02's there with the R888's and 1.01.2 with the BFG R1's in the past. Videos, pictures, and data will be provided following that event
In the meantime, I'll add to this thread as I put miles on the tires on the street as well.
Man that'd be cool. I'm DD'ing a 2015 GT w/ Performance Pack, and am looking for the best replacement for the P Zeroes. Thinking these Nittos might be good, depending on tread life
Man that'd be cool. I'm DD'ing a 2015 GT w/ Performance Pack, and am looking for the best replacement for the P Zeroes. Thinking these Nittos might be good, depending on tread life
So my typical tire treadlife is... shorter... than the average user. I put like 150 track miles on I think, which probably takes away a couple thousand street miles. Overall treadwear (street use) will be the one thing I expect to have difficulty really assessing on these tires, since I don't take the car out on the street much anymore. I'll get some more track miles on them though and will certainly provide updates.
The grip is good though, and I had the car out on a cold (below 50F) morning this past Monday. The cold grip was definitely better than the Pirelli's I had previously.
Nitto NT01's are extremely highly recommended as track tires, so I have high expectations that these G2's will hold up well and continue to perform well. Nitto makes some good tires.
Unless you track the car, these tires should offer plenty of performance for the street in my opinion.
