Review – Nitto NT05 Tires
Size tested: 255/40/17
Type: Maximum performance tire
Performance rating: W
UTQG: 200 AA A
Test car: Project Evo IX
Test track: Spring Mountain Motorsports Park (Redline Time Attack)
Features:
· Reinforced shoulder tread blocks
· Continuous center rib design
· Specially formulated tread compound
· Reinforced internal construction
To the average commuter, the rubber doughnuts underneath their car are only good for one thing – to keep their wheels from getting scratched. Most “normal” people don’t pay close attention to what keeps them on the road. They’ll buy re-manufactured tires (four for $100 on special! – Ed.) and rarely ever check the pressures. So why then has every tire manufacturer on Earth released a new all-out performance street tire in the last couple years? For you, of course.
Compare a normal driver to the average OR reader, who obsesses about the perfect hot tire pressure and tread design. Commuters don’t understand the capabilities and intricacies of a performance tire the way that a gear head would but they’re not the target buyer. The OR reader is the one with the modified car, bursting at the seams, asking for every nuance of grip that it can muster.
The OR reader is the one that will win time attack championships, club races and autocross national titles. These are the things that can help boost a brand’s reputation, reaching down to even the commuter level. When it comes to competition, everybody’s out to win.
The NT05 is Nitto’s latest maximum performance offering. With a low UTQG rating of 200, it’s matched up against the usual SCCA Street Touring standouts like the Falken RT-615, Yokohama Advan Neova, Toyo R1R, Hankook RS-3 and Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1. UTQG wear ratings are arbitrarily determined by each tire manufacturer so they are not true yardsticks with which to measure how soft or sticky a competitor tire really is.
The first striking thing you’ll notice about the NT05’s design is the tread compound. The outer edges feature huge blocks of rubber with a few sipes for water evacuation. The center features what Nitto calls a “continuous center rib design”. This equates to a thick strip of rubber right through the middle and two large channels on each side. These channels will help with wet weather grip, although the NT05 is not recommended for snow use.
Surely taking a few cues from their NT01 r-compound racing tire, Nitto has created a very fast street tire that is capable on track as well. We sampled the 255/40/17 NT05 size at Spring Mountain Motorsports Park in Pahrump, NV during the Redline Time Attack weekend. The test car was our full weight, registered and daily driven Project Evo IX. The NT05s were not heat cycled or shaved before they hit the track.
Right off the bat, the NT05s displayed their high level of grip. Entering into the medium-speed Turn One off of the front straight,Project Evo IX averaged a lateral load of 1.01g and a peak spike of 1.61g. Through Segment 4, a tight hairpin left, the NT05s scored a peak lateral load of 1.22g. Perhaps most telling though is the high 66-68mph average speed maintained through Segments 7 and 8, which are undulating mixtures of hills and turns.
The NT05s also displayed good heat resistance, with no chunking or tearing appearing at all after they had gone on track. The tires also showed very little graining or overheating across the surface, its lack of tread squirm no doubt helped by its large tread blocks and relatively shallow molding depth.
The key thing to remember is that Nitto had the intention of creating a tire that was to be used on the street first and the track second. They were not in the market to create an all-out performance street tire like the Yokohama Advan Neova AD08, instead focusing on a balance of wear life, grip, price and noise. The NT05 doesn’t quite have the steering precision of the Neova tire but it’s still one of the fastest street tires on the market today and comes in at a much lower price than Yokohama as well.
If you’re looking for a decently priced street tire for your project car, you can’t lose with the NT05. You’ll have more dry grip than you can legally use on the street and hitting the track on the weekend won’t require a tire swap. That’s what we’re always looking for in a performance street tire.
Source
Nitto Tire
www.nittotire.com
Hey OR. I’m looking to purchase a set for my daily driver sedan but wanted to check with how you felt about ride comfort and noise level for the NT05s. Thanks in advance!