I'm pretty sure I'm going with Nitto DR's, just because I'm sick of no traction and what good is power if you can't hook it to the pavement. My question is, I want to retain some decent cornering ability yet and how much will I sacrifice with the DR's. I currently have Dayton cheap tires and they suck. Are the DR's really that bad for cornering? People that have had both street and DR's please. Tire size is 245/50/16.

 

I've had them for nearly 2 months now and I can't really see any difference in cornering. There is a huge difference in traction in straight line (no more spining the whole 1st gear) .

 

I have 315/35 Nittos

As far as everyday driving you shouldn't notice a real difference in cornering. You may notice a little if you are "canyon carving". They help with traction. They are not the single answer to your traction problems....but they will help. I can still blow the Nittos off the back of the car. Better than regular radials though. If I heat them up with a burnout beforehand they stick pretty good.

Get LCA's and brackets, a torque arm, Competition Engineering drag shocks, and Eibach drag springs to go with those Nitto's and you should have the traction problem solved.

 

Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. My car won't be a daily driver so I don't have to worry about lasting wear and rain either.

 

I LOVE EM on the street I have better WET traction with these tires than the Goodyear HP's that were on there. And on DRY...oh sheesh : awesome! Don't get carried away with them or drive em when they run out of the already less than average rain grooves lol. BUT for cornering they are great and stick awesome. On the street for drag they are really sweet. As for the track I'm wanting ET Streets but these are very good for the track too. They are worth the money. Discount Tire or TireRAck have good prices on them. Good luck.

 

I also love my Nitto DR's. I do drive slower when it rains but have no problems with them at all.

 

Your cornering ability will improve with DRs (unless its raining of course). DRs improve traction all the time, whether its straight line or into corners. The basic idea is that there is more rubber contacting the road, and there will always be more rubber, whether you are auto-xing or drag racing. Many people use DRs for auto-x. That's why Nascars and F1 cars and any other race cars use full slick tires - more contact patch. And just a bit of knowledge, DRs are no worse than regular street tires when its just damp out with a little water on the ground. Treaded tires only help when there is water to channel away from your tire. If the ground is just wet (but no water on the surface) then you need to be careful, but don't crap your pants if you have to drive home or anything.

 

good info Patriot I am considering AutoX and was going to try the DR's. As for just slick streets down here in SE TExas these do very good even on slick wet pavement. I was really impressed. Now I tell you what is a wicked tire on a wet street especially with a little water buildup....ET's ...SHEESH..these are awesome track and DRY street tires but they are very dangerous on a wet road. I just thought people were exaggerating until last night riding with a friend, he hit a hidden wet spot and we were only doing about 35 but it got wild for a spell

 

Yeah, when your tires don't have tread to move water away from them, its like driving on a frozen lake.

 

Not entirely accurate. There's more to a tire than its tread. Both the tread and compound used by the Nittos are great for handling as well but there is one more issue. The sidewalls cater more to the drag racer. Steady state cornering isn't bad at all with the Nittos but they do NOT transition as well as most radials. It's not a huge difference but it's noticable even to my uncalibrated ***. All in all I still think they are an awesome street tire for someone with plenty of power and no need for longevity or lots of wet driving.

 

Good point about the sidewalls. Its true that road racing and drag racing tires aren't exactly the same. But DRs are close enough for what these guys are doing.

 

Nittos.... Really good in rain as long as u have tread.
Hooks up much better than my Bridgestone Re730's.
I can feel more wiggle in the rear. THe sidewalls give more than the RE730's and makes me uneasy in an emergency lane change munuever as compared to my RE730's (still ok though), but holding a corner I cant feel any difference really.

 

what about more tire pressure for daily driving? might help the sidewall

 

I've used my Nitto DRs on the street for about 3 yrs now and I love them.

I have about 10K miles on them and they corner BETTER than my GSCs.

In fact, I need stickier tires for the front now because the rears stick so well they push my nose out on turns.

 

Tire pressure does make a difference! You only have so much room to play with though. By the time you've pumped the pressure high enough to stiffen the sidewalls you've also transferred most of the loads to the center of the tire. Another problem with this is the Nitto's love for heat. Tire pressure increases once the tires are heated up, and these things need heat!

Grip- it's not a problem with cornering loads but transitions. The Nittos are a bit squirrely compared to even GSC's. I don't mean to blow it out of proportion here, they are fine for any kind of street driving but they do not turn in very crisply which some people may have a problem with. Overall the car will tend to understeer more with Nittos but that's in the corner not entering it.

The perfect companion tires for these are the 555RII's. They have the same tread and compound but stiffer sidewalls for road racing applications. Unfortunately for those with the stock 16" wheels there isn't a size available.