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Nitto NT-01 now available in 305/35-18

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I was waiting for the upcoming BFG Rival tires to use for track days on my Forgestar F14 18 X 10 - 42 offset wheels, but I ended up wrecking my stock Pirelli's at Watkins Glen on Monday. Since I have 3 track days at the Glen in 2 weeks, I needed to find something ahead of the release of the Rivals.

Pete in CT had told me at the Glen last year that the NT-555RII worked very well on the Boss so I took a look on the Nitto site and I found that Nitto is now offering the NT-01 in a 305/35-18. Nitto internally rates the dry traction of the NT-01 as a 10/10 and the NT-555RII as a 9/10 so I ended up ordering a pair of 275/35-18 for the front and 305/35-18 for the back. I got these from Discount Tire Direct, they don't list them on their site yet, but they are available, you just have to call.

Here's a link to the Nitto NT-01 sizing page;

http://www.nittotire.com/Tire/nt01#size
 
Price? I'm loving my 305 35 18 555RII for daily driving, but the nt-o1 shoulf be stickier for the track.
 
Price? I'm loving my 305 35 18 555RII for daily driving, but the nt-o1 shoulf be stickier for the track.

They were 318 ea delivered for the 305/35's, the 275/35's were 270 ea. I didn't shop around a whole lot since the price seemed OK and I didn't have a lot of time.
 
cloud9 said:
Ugh! I just bought a set of 555RIIs and would have gone this route!
Aren't those the same compound with stiffer side walls for our heavier cars? And yes that's great news.
 
Was just talking with Pete in CT about some pads and mentioned the tires and he said the same thing about the 555RII's having stiffer sidewalls for our heavy cars. Well I'm coming off of the stock Pirelli's so I'm sure I'm going to like these NT-01's. Will report back in a couple of weeks, my next track days are June 21-23 at Watkins Glen.
 
Tires just came in yesterday and I'm going to have them on the track Friday! The outside tread blocks are HUGE on these tire, which makes them almost like a slick. Did a few weights before getting them mounted.

Nitto 275/35-18 27.4 lb
Nitto 305/35-18 31.8 lb
Forgestar F14 18X10 21.0 lb

I'll let people know how they worked for me after my 3 day event at Watkins Glen.

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That's good to know. I have a buddy who races SCCA [Miata] and he has his own tire mounting and balancing equipment. I'm all about making these last as long as I can.
 
Ran 3 half hour sessions for 3 days at Watkins Glen this weekend on the NT-01. This was my 9-11th track day so I'm kind of new to this. My impression was that these tires worked well mid corner and I could definitely carry more speed through the corners. Grip was better, but it wasn't a night and day difference from the stock P Zeros I had been running. I did notice that the car felt unsettled in transition [most noticeably turn 2 - 3 in the climbing esses for people familiar with the Glen]. This was something I had not experience with the Pirelli's [may not have been carrying as much speed, but I doubt it]. I increased rear shock setting from 4 to 5 and this helped a bit. Also noticed tire roll indicator showed I had too much air pressure so I eventually took out a total of 1.5 psi. I ended up running these at 36 rear and 37 front [hot] which seemed to work well. I have no camber plates.

Pushing the tires past their limit a couple of times gave gradual breakaway, so nothing to worry about with an abrupt breakaway. I measured tread depth before and after my 3 day 4.5 hour total track time event and wore down roughly 0.012" averaged between the tires. There was no indication of any abnormal wear [including outside edge of front tires]. I will be putting camber plates on before my next event, I just like to make one change at a time so that I can tell what effects each change has on the cars dynamics.
 

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