Nitto NT555 G2 long term test and comparison

[dmichaels]

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!

 

[dmichaels]

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.

 

[VoodooBoss]

Sweet. In for updates.

 

[Surfergeek]

In for updates as well.

I have my tire choices down basically to 3 for my street tires, and this was on the list, need to make a decision soon. My second set of new rims in my custom fitment came in, that will be 18x11 all the way around.

I am looking at the old standard, but spendy, Pilot Super Sport in 295/35R18, backordered until June

NT555 G2 in 295/40R18

and

Conti DW 295/35R18

I know the DW are close but not in the same league as the PSS, but I am wondering if Nitto managed to get these any closer.

The price difference sure makes one think hard about the DW and Nitto.

 

[F.D. Sako]

I too am looking g forward to this!
I've been using my stock wheels and tires for the summer, and soon the pirellis will have to go. I'd really like to hear how they handle in the rain, because that's when I usually slap on the stock wheels at the track.

 

[dmichaels]

I too am looking g forward to this!
I've been using my stock wheels and tires for the summer, and soon the pirellis will have to go. I'd really like to hear how they handle in the rain, because that's when I usually slap on the stock wheels at the track.

I'll be driving the car in all weather over the next weeks since my jeep got totaled last weekend... And I'm very interested to see how they do in the wet to support my track rain days too!

 

[drano38]

Sorry to hear about your Jeep.
Hope you're OK.
Also interested in the G2 reviews for street or even track use.
I've run several sets of Nitto NT05. Would be nice to see how the G2 compares to the NT05.

 

[k98dave]

So what the story with there tires???

 

[dmichaels]

So I thought I followed up, but apparently only on the other forum... here's the latest:

First day on them at Limerock (they were essentially brand new)
Short summary: not a track tire at my level. Grip was decent, but the feel was not confidence inspiring. Significant flex in the sidewall under hard cornering and it got very floaty going into corners. The best times I could pull were low 1.05's, which is about 0.5 seconds off the best I saw with the Sumitomos. I'm gonna run them again this morning since my R1's are toast after an hour long session yesterday evening.

Wear was good though. And I'm gonna play with pressures more today to see if I can eek out a few more tenths

Second day at Limerock
Friday update from the track. Tires are better today. Nearly a second quicker today than yesterday. Thinking they got heat cycled yesterday and today are a little more grippy. The feel is better today too. I did play with tire pressures as well and I think I found the happy place.






Final track review:

I decided to run the G2's again at Limerock today as the weather forecast was questionable. Turned out I got 3 dry sessions before the rain moved in, so I got about an hour of seat time and ~75 more track miles on the tires today.

Wear: Minimal wear after putting on about 125 total track miles at Limerock. This particular track is brutal on the drivers front tire, and I rotated the wheels after about 50 miles to keep wear even. That said, the tires held up very well with minimal wear, as I'd expect with a 320 treadwear tire. There is a very small amount of chunking on the left front tire, nowhere else though. I pushed them about as hard as I could today

Subjective review: Once I dialed in pressures (my best results came with the hot tire pressure at around 38), the floaty-ness that I noted yesterday was quite a bit better, and the tires really did not grease up at all, despite me driving the car hard. With the square setup, the car was quite neutral on these and I could induce great rotation with lift throttle, as you will be able to hear in the video below, especially through Big Bend (turn 1) and the left hander into the right hander (turns 2 and 3). When the rear stepped out, it was very controlled and the tires give just enough audio feedback to warn as the limit was reached. The sidewall is definitely more flexible/soft than the R888's or BFG R1's, but that's very much expected. The tires worked really well at the track today though! And on the ride home, they are very comfy riding along all surfaces. Lastly, the skies opened up on my drive home, so I finally got some drive time in very wet conditions. Only brought it up to about 75 mph, but zero indications of hydroplaning, and the grip accelerating was perfectly reasonable. I tossed on my R888's right afterwards to support tomorrow's track day and took them to get take out - difference is very noticable. The R888's break away MUCH sooner. I don't have any lap data in the wet, as I'm a track brat and pretty much only go out when it's dry now

The data: So lap times and data are the most telling! I got Limerock times down to 1.04.7 today, which is exactly 0.11 seconds slower than the Sumitomo HTR ZIII's when I ran them. Worth noting, they were 275 rear and 255 front compared with the 265 square setup I have now. Minor difference, but worth noting. I will say though, they HOWLED and got greasy. The Nitto's take the track heat better so far. I prefer them thus far. As far as braking performance, they were able to pull about 0.9 lineal g's from the quick data review I saw. The highest cornering forces I saw were about 1.2 g's in the uphill compression zone, and about 1.1 in the "normal" corners. This is on par with the Sumi's and the OEM Pirelli's. For reference, I pull 1.4 in the uphill on R1's and 1.2 in "normal" corners. Doesn't sound like much, but it's good for about 2.5 seconds faster lap times at Limerock. But those are dedicated track tires!

Anyways, here is some video footage from today on the Nitto's

Anyways, here is some video footage from today on the Nitto's
https://youtu.be/AsMV9rhLnCE


And for reference, here are some laps on the Sumi's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7VLKU1Wn8k

Lastly, here is a lap on BFG R1's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uzy4s2qnIo