Tires to go with

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pbdevastator

Registered User
Ill have a 17x9 rims all around, and am deciding between nitto and MT. I went thru the forums and see pros and cons for both so not much help there. I see that there are alot of choices for both makers and am confused as to what is best for my setup. I dont drive the car that much and really dont take it on the highway or when weather sucks. And yes the 3.73 gears should be in before i get the tires on. Any/all opinions will be a big help.
 
ill be driving around the house on the country roads and street lights and stuff. not many tracks close to here. I originally wanted to go with mt et street radials, but i cant find 245/45/17 i want for the fronts.
 
I've got the same size rims with 255/50 Hankooks all around, but I'll be going to Nitto's next spring.
 
pbdevastator said:
ill be driving around the house on the country roads and street lights and stuff. not many tracks close to here. I originally wanted to go with mt et street radials, but i cant find 245/45/17 i want for the fronts.
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You don't want drag radials for the front tires, and unless you are planning to do a lot of street racing you probably don't want to use them for daily driving on the rear.

The MT ET street radials are far superior to the Nitto drag radials for traction, but they also wear out very quickly (about 2500 miles), and the Nittos will only last about twice that long. Unless your SC is at least moderately modded you don't need the drag radials. Street tires will usually give you enough traction to run high 13s on a sticky track. On the street, the drag radials aren't going to grip much better than street tires unless you do a burnout.

If you insist on driving the car with drag radials, I would get the Nittos on the back only (275-40-17) and set of Z rated Nitto 555s for the front (245-45-17). The Nittos have deeper tread than BFGs or MTs and are made with a harder compound that will wear longer and be easier to drive with in the rain.

David

PS: I just looked at your mod list and it looks like you should have plenty of power to put the drag radials to good use.
 
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im just affraid of whether or not the nittos will hook good enough for me. I know for a fact they will be better then what i have now. Car isn't a daily driver, i dont even put 1000 miles on it a year, and never drive it in crappy weather. Thats why i was considering the MT et street radials. Thinking the drag radials might be too much.
 
hey i'm new here but i have a ford lightning that i run the nitto 555r on and they do pretty descent on my truck. they aren't gonna hook like a slick or anything like that but they are a lot better than street tires. oh and i got around 12 to 14 thousand out of my last set but they were pretty slick by that point
 
one other question i forgot about is how much psi should i have in both the front and rear tires? I tried searching for that info but didn't find what i was looking for. I've also seen mixed opinions on if your using radials for the back, then the question is should you use radials for the front. I thought it wasn't good to mix it up. This is the first time I've looked into getting performance tires so i dont know anything yet, sorry guys.
 
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pbdevastator said:
im just affraid of whether or not the nittos will hook good enough for me.
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I can tell you that with 5-speed, 2.73's and 350 rwhp I'm happy with the traction from Nitto 555s. (255/50R17 at the time) I'm currently wearing out the 18's that came with the rims, but will be buying the Nitto's in the spring when I start driving the car again.

I rode in Ricardo's 5-speed, 3.08's and ~400-425 rhwp he had some wheel spin, but just the right amount. Car was extremely fast but yet had enough wheel spin to impress anyone. :)
 
Nittos 555Rs might be too much traction for the M5R2, you might start to break stuff. If auto then sure.
Normal 555 are plenty traction IMO. Sometimes I felt like the car was down in power because it.
 
pbdevastator said:
im just affraid of whether or not the nittos will hook good enough for me. I know for a fact they will be better then what i have now. Car isn't a daily driver, i dont even put 1000 miles on it a year, and never drive it in crappy weather. Thats why i was considering the MT et street radials. Thinking the drag radials might be too much.
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I ran a 13.6 the last time I ran at the track with them (Nittos555) before switching to drag radials

Ken
 
ive given up on the search for street tires that get any level of traction. i just wait for the good days and slip some drag radials on. firehawk gt's are ok tires for everyday driving. and Firestone has the new police grade firehawks in 17's now. only bad side is expect no more then 20k out of them and thats if your easy on them.
 
pbdevastator said:
was that 13.6 cause of not good enough traction? And you talking regular 555, or the 555r's?
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They are 555 extremes. I dont know if that equates to just a 555 or 555rs. I had to drop the air pressure down to 18 lbs and than it hooked up real good. I feel like on the street they do a good job but any street tire on my beast wont grab to any real extent. Just way to much power. Dog gone Whipple:D:D:D

Ken
 
pbdevastator said:
was that 13.6 cause of not good enough traction? And you talking regular 555, or the 555r's?
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Ken does not have the "R" as he just stated. A street tire such as the 555 extreme will never get you a 1.6 60 foot, but more like a 2.0. Using this formula his 13.6 could have easily been a 13.1. (I do not know what his 60 foot was on that run)

Another tire to consider is the Firehawk Wide Oval, I had them on my old SC, very quiet, great handling and good traction.
 
90blkbrd said:
Ken does not have the "R" as he just stated. A street tire such as the 555 extreme will never get you a 1.6 60 foot, but more like a 2.0. Using this formula his 13.6 could have easily been a 13.1. (I do not know what his 60 foot was on that run)
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It ran a 1.9 60 foot at the 2007 shoot out.

Ken
 
My sc will only be on the road on when the roads are completely dry and the weatehr doesn't call for rain/snow, and i probably wont drive it far. Maybe 25miles one way on average. In a given summer i only put 500 to 1000 miles on the car. My car too has alot of power, and i will be putting 3.73s in to make things worse. So im either looking at nitto 555r or MT ET street radials as my best options. Some people say the nittos hook really good, others say they dont do as well as they'd like. But just about everyone has positive things about the MT tires. Only problem with MT is i cant find 245/45/17s for the front, so I'd have to run something else on the fronts, but i did see someone had nittos on front and MT on rear.
 
pbdevastator said:
My sc will only be on the road on when the roads are completely dry and the weatehr doesn't call for rain/snow, and i probably wont drive it far. Maybe 25miles one way on average. In a given summer i only put 500 to 1000 miles on the car. My car too has alot of power, and i will be putting 3.73s in to make things worse. So im either looking at nitto 555r or MT ET street radials as my best options. Some people say the nittos hook really good, others say they dont do as well as they'd like. But just about everyone has positive things about the MT tires. Only problem with MT is i cant find 245/45/17s for the front, so I'd have to run something else on the fronts, but i did see someone had nittos on front and MT on rear.
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Why do you need to match. We are not AWD.
 
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