gbu27

So are the nitto 555Rs actually street tires, just with really good grip. Or are they more like the mickey thompson street radials, looking for something with more tread life and good driving in the rain

Greed4Speed

The 555R is an R compound tire. I wouldn't drive any drag radial in the rain.

CALL911

The 555R's are a street tire with actual long lasting tread on them. The tread life on them is outstanding! Plus they hook pretty good too.

Right now I have the Nitto Extreme R II drag radials in the back, and actually they are not too bad in the rain. Like pretty much any tire, if you open it up in a down pour they will spin, but for traction and braking in the rain, they are surpriyingly not bad IMO.

Zack

youre prolly mistaking the 555's for the 555r's

the DR dont get very long tread life

2nd2sex

Well I've had 2 pairs on my car and they are an great DOT legal Drag radial, they hook very well. I prefer these over the BF Goodrich drag radial. The thread life I have experienced with both sets was about 10k each

Please see this thread:

Nitto 555rs




I just picked up my third set today (Friday)

They do not perform well in the rain but they arent meant to i.e. drag radial

Greed4Speed

The 555R II is also a NOT drag radial. Its a track tire.
http://www.nittotire.com/tires_555r2.asp

Nitto 555R is a drag radial.
http://www.nittotire.com/tires_555r.asp

The 555 is the street tire.
http://www.nittotire.com/tires_555.asp

CALL911

Yeah, I was confusing the 555 with the 555R's.

Will84

The first time I bolted a set of 555R's up I got caught in the rain on the way home from the track. I was driving carefully, but got a little carried away and did two 360's and ended up in the median. Luckily I didn't hit any of the surrounding traffic and no damage was done to the car, but the two driver side ZR1's were F'd up with gravel gouges. I will never drive a drag radial in the rain again.

CALL911

I drove 4 1/2 hours between 50 and 80 MPH, in torential downpour on the interstate before on my Extreme IIR DR's, and had no problems. I find that as long as I babied the throttle, and accelerated slower than normal, the tires still performed decent.

Gun5

leaning towards these as my new rear tires i got eagle f1's outback with no tread

blackrat

I've been driving with my R2s for awhile now, and the back tires are incredibly bald. Even so, I get by ok in the rain. You just had to be smart with them, avoid large puddles, and be easy on the throttle. I wouldn't recommend driving around on baldies of course, but I just wanted to defend the rain drivability of them.

I also ran the DRs for awhile and had the same results. About 10k miles before they get really bad, and that's with agressive driving, but little excessive spin.

The DRs hook awesome on the street, literally rev to 3 and drop the clutch. My stock ls6 clutch took the brunt of it, and the tires never spun.

The r2s are not good for drag racing. They have the super still sidewall so there isn't any flex, hence you don't hook to well from a stop. When you throw the thing into a turn though, it is incredible. I did two events with them and could tell a huge differance between them and my old yoko avs es 100s.

The only drawback about the r compounds is that you pick up EVERY SINGLE piece of debris on the road, especially when they are brand new. If you don't have gfx you should be ok, but I have pitted the hell out of my rear valence behind the tires.

Having worn out my second set of 555rs, I'm going to go ahead and switch to a 300 treadwear tire. They are a lot of fun to drive on, but the fact that my car is pretty much a daily is starting to wear on the wallet too much.

Capn Pete

For another quick note on driving w/ DR's in the rain ...

... I drove with my BFG DR's on the back for about ~2 weeks in November (cold, rainy) and I was shocked at how WELL they HOOKED!!! I mean, even on very wet roads (no puddles, just heavily rain soaked) they would bite and chew for traction ... and just a little "lift" of the throttle (if the tires were spinning) and the back end would literally SNAP back in line!!

... honestly, I was blown away how well they worked! Once I put my street tires back on, I was slipping and sliding and fish-tailing everywhere ... I looked like a retard!!

Now does anyone have much experience with the true "555's" ... the STREET tires, not the R's or RII's ?? Just curious how well they perform as street tires doing track/drag duties?

Will84

I went through two sets of BFG DR's and then switched to Nitto 555R's on my 383 TA. Now 2 sets later... the Nitto's are far superior in the rain IMO. I have had some incidents, but it was more of an operator error than a tire problem.

I have the 555's on my Supra TT... they're a really good tire for the Supra. I'm making some good HP with it, but it doesn't have the huge nut sack of my 383 on the bottom end (yet anyway ). They're a great all around tire, but for maximum traction at the drag strip, I wouldn't pick them over a good DR. Whatever your priority is though. They're not going to beat the 555R's at the drag strip, and they're not going to dig as well as the RII's on a road course, but they're a good compromise. I would recommend them.

Capn Pete

^ ^ Cool . I guess I should have elaborated that question and asked how well they compare with other top-line STREET tires? (ie: BFG KD's, Michelin PS2's, etc.)

Moshbmx1

Dont want to hijack the thread but the 555r's are a street legal DOT tire correct?