RichieRichZ06

I have a set of Nitto 555 RII. They are worn almost all the way to being a slick. My question is: I know some tires are designed to work better when worn out, but how far past the wear indicators will they last and are they safe to race on? I have a track day coming up and would like to not drop another $1500 for tires untill later. TIA

joemoia

I've just installed my 4th set of Nitto R2's. My experience is that the tires will not maintain traction when they are worn down to a "slick". My fronts tend to "go away" while there are still traces of tread left on the tires. I get about 4-5 trackdays, 15-20 sessions out of a set of tires.

xsiveone

There's a big difference between shaved and worn out tires. The biggest problem is the number of heat cycles your tire has gone through to get to the worn out stage. Every time a tire is heat cycled, it gets harder and you get less traction.

As far as how long your worn tires will last, I have no clue. If you take the chance of running these tires and you don't have a spare set on hand, you run the risk of cutting your weekend short. That would be the best scenario other than making it through the weekend with your tires. The worst would be driving on them when they are past the point of being safe or not being able to get home with the car if you drive your car to the track.

Is it worth the risk?

RichieRichZ06

Thanks for the input. I will get a new set before going to Infinion.

GTB/ZR-1

Also, you may want to invest in a durometer (abt $50) to see if it's time for new tires...

johnsea06

Great idea! As previous posts suggest, it's the heat cycles that really count. In light of the this it's not a bad idea to get the NII's shaved since the tread may well last beyond the useful life of the tire.

Not that I would assume anyone here would make the same STUPID mistake I made last year, but worn NII's + rain + puddle = my avatar....

I now use some regular street tires as my rain tires, not the best idea but at least they are less likely to hydroplane at 1/2 speed than NII's worn or not...

L98Terror

I running my 555 RII's right now and there is no tread left on them at all, they are about 2 years old with tons of track time on them and they are only about 2 seconds slower then my NT-01s. And that could be due to the size difference. NT-01 are new this year with 8 track days and about 40 autocross runs RIIs have to have 100 autox runs couple thousand street miles, and about 10 track day

03 Z06
My RIIs are 275/40 17 all around
NT-01s 275/40 17 up front
315/30 18 in the rear