EvanD

First, I don't autocross. I need help choosing tires and have been recommended Nitto 555R's. I worried about the life I'll get out of them. What kind of mileage should I expect with mostly highway driving and an occasional run to the mountains?

The whole story;
I have GS-D3's on my 92, 315-35-17 on the rear and it's time to put new tires on it. The GS-D3's are available but hard to find and pretty expensive, Sumitomo makes a HTR Z that's no where near as good a tire but I can get all four for way less than the price of only the rear GS-D3's. The tire dealer is trying (actually ordered them) to sell me Nitto 555R's. They look great, seem to have pretty good specs but they are "drag radials". Nitto say's they have very good tread wear life for drag radials but have a wear rating of 100 versus the GS-D3's 280. I don't do much distance driving and really like hanging out in the mountain curvies near here. The price is pretty good but no where near cheap and I want to get some life out of them.

Anyone have experience with Nitto 555R's and can tell me if I'm expecting more than these drag radials will actually deliver?

Most importantly, how do they handle in the curves?

TIA

xsiveone

I personally think that you're barking up the wrong tree with the 555's if you're looking to handle the mountain curves. What you need is the 555R2 on all four corners if you're planning on handling the curves. The R2 is a road racing tire and not a drag tire. The drag tire will hook up better in the straight line, but will be mushy in a corner with the soft sidewall. Also, if you run two different types of tires on your car, you're going to be asking for more handling problems.

Questions for you: You say that you have 315's on the rear. What size do you have on the front? What were the size tires that came on your car?

As far as wear goes, the 555(R2) will stick better, but wear a lot faster than a regular street tire, so the savings may be minimal if not non-existant when you compare them to a tire like the GS-D3. Plus, you're not going to have any type of wet weather protection if that's important to you.

Give us some more info and maybe we can help you further.

xsiveone

Ok.. I looked up the ZR1 wheels on the Tire Rack's website. You should be running 275-40-17's on the front and 315-35-17's on the rear with the ZR1 wheels.

Question: Does your car understeer (push) at all in the corners? The difference between the width's on the front and rear of the ZR1 is greater than a C5 Z06. I went the other way to put a little more oversteer into the car with 275's on the front and 295's on the rear (Michelin PS2's).

I also looked at your tire choices for the stock sizes on the ZR1 wheels. It doesn't look like you have much of a choice. All of the other tires other than the Sumitomo's are at least as expensive or more expensive than the Goodyear GS-D3's. The only other tire that I see is the 555R2 (not from Tire Rack btw), but that tire is going to give you a lot less wear than a GS-D3, less rain protection, more susceptibility to punctures and picking up road debris.

If you want my recommendation, I'd first tell you to replace all four tires with the same make and model tire. Second, I wouldn't go with the 555, I'd go with the 555R2 if you went that route. Considering the hassles of a soft tire like the 555R2, I'd probably be inclined to either bite the bullet on the GS-D3's or go with a set of the Sumitomo's, especially if you're not going to autox or track your car.

xsiveone

FYI.. Here's the Tire Rack page that I pulled up. I searched for a '92 ZR1 because you're running the ZR1 wheels.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compar...YR&RunFlat=All

EvanD

Thank you very much for your thoughts. I was set to put new GS-D3's on it but a salesman said what about the 555R's, they sounded good until I thought about it. I like the GS-D3's and will 99% go with them again, for my driving they are excellent. The car is pretty nuetral in the corners as is and feed back and wet weather traction is really good.

Thanks!

xsiveone

Yeah.. You don't want the 555's. Drag tires have a soft sidewall for added traction, so they aren't very good for cornering. The 555R2's would be a better choice, but they'd have a short life. If you got 10,000 miles out of the R2's, you'd be doing well. Plus the GS-D3's simply kick the crap out of the 555's for wet weather.

The reason why people go with the 555R2's is because they want a tire that can do both track and street duty. I also see a lot of guys go with the 555's for the street when they have over 450 rwhp and are trying to put the power to the ground. They are willing to live with the other shortcomings of the tire for the best dry street traction that they can get.

96LT1

If you don't mind spending a little more (GS-D3s $966 versus BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KD $980) take a look at the BFGs. A lot of guys use to use it as a autocross tire when their class called for street tires.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....g=YR&minLoad=S

Good mileage and it is reasonable in the rain.

VetteDrmr

There's one more thing to consider with *any* R-compound tire: they will grab just about every piece of gravel and trash and throw it up on your paint. Much worse than street tires.

I'd stick with the GS-D3s.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

L98Terror

I run the 555R2s on my c4 all the time the best all around street Tire I've used and I think they are great in the wet.