:Nitto NT05 Review:
09-06-2009, 04:24 AM
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:Nitto NT05 Review:
Nitto NT05: 
This review was done in the Dallas, TX and surrounding area in the month of July and August weather, 2009 – temp ranges in 90’s to 102 primarily:
From the very beginning, I mean moments after mounting the NT05’s on my 2004 Nissan 350Z I instantly became excited. (Normally I'm NOT raving over trying new tires, as I have had many many many different tires on my 350z, being an avid drifter and local autocross entrant.) Reason being, my 350z is equipped with a full two-way clutch locking differential and simply backing out of my garage after installation and turning out of my driveway I heard my rear differential clunk and pop a lot louder and more pronounced than ever.
Definitely much more versus diff lock and tire slip and squeal. That alone was a clear sign that these tires were very sticky and is what got me excited to run these tires.
I had a great amount of time daily driving them in dry weather, so for the remaining section of the review (until noted) will be dry contact driving over multiple outings.
The NT05’s stick greatly, point the car in the direction your aiming and holding true is very confidence inspiring with these tires. I would honestly have to say a notch above some of the best tires I have tried. Grip is definitely noticeable and in general the NT05’s give you a great overall sense of “hugging” the street.
I then went to a remote road section and was able do switch backs and overly aggressive grip U-turns in order to see if I could feel or loose the NT05’s and was able to do so, but only on wildly aggressive maneuvers so in my book they preformed amazing. The sidewalls held great and I can’t say these tires are a hard sidewall but they are definitely not soft. I did specifically try to rim check with these tires going over horrible protruding railroad crossings and I was never able to hit wheel so the sidewalls held up great. Comfort level was great and never any harsh shock or jerk to prove otherwise.
Highway driving is smooth, quiet and effortless, there is no “humm” or “burr burr burr” sound while cruising. Lane changes over uneven road/highway surfaces were smooth and clean, no sudden jerks or stiff sidewalls pulling one way or the other. There were no loud sounds or noticeable unwanted steering wheel pull/vibrations. I was able to drive on both asphalt and concrete sectional highway surfaces when testing the NT05’s.
I was able to track (Autocross) the NTO5’s and was happy with them and never once lost confidence on where I was pointing or where I wanted to go………grip was evident through out the entire event on the front mounted NT05’s.
For the rear im certain my two way differential had a lot of influence on the following but I was able to feel “give” but very controllable and smooth. There was no instant loss of traction or fishtail action at all. The NT05’s were very predictable and confidence inspiring and I was able to progressively improve my times as the event continued which is a clear sign of conform ability and adaptability for me being someone who has run many good tires before. I quickly knew how they handled and was overall extremely happy with their autocross performance for a street tire. They were definitely very very comparable to a running a full no thread R-compound tire.
WET WEATHER TEST:
My wet weather assessment consist of about 25 percent of the time over dry daily driving:
I did get to briefly test the NT05’s in wet weather daily driving. They did defiantly perform well. I will admit they are amazing in dry conditions, yet they are nearly as awesome in wet. I use the word “nearly” purposely to ensure everyone knows that they are a better dry tire. I was able to maintain grip in mild speed u-turns, faster main road exits and off ramps. It took aggressive driving for them to loose grip.
I find that more than acceptable since that type of driving shouldn’t be done and was honestly asking for trouble. However, I figured for me I want to know the limits and aimed to push them regardless. Overall I drive responsibly in wet and have no problem or worry daily driving NT05’s in wet condition weather after my assessment of them in those conditions.
Drifting:
Yes I did get a chance to take the car out to a safe open spot and drift.
This was the last thing I wanted to do, not knowing weather or not the tires would chunk and get destroyed.
The rear NT05’s have way too much grip that it did take a lot for me to initiate drift. The front NT05’s were amazing…………..one more time…Amazing! I was able to control drift, counter steer and once again stay confident in where I was pointed and wanted to go. I loved the NTO5’s for this greatly!
The tires wore evenly and no horrible damage was done to the tread that would keep me from driving home. Unless of course I stayed drifting on them till they needed replacement.
In the end
I'm overall really excited about driving the NT05’s and plan on getting more for my Z and my wife’s Saturn Sky. I must say it once again “The NT05’s are full of grip and very confidence inspiring.” Try them out if you get a chance I would find it hard for anyone to be disappointed with them.
-J
This review was done in the Dallas, TX and surrounding area in the month of July and August weather, 2009 – temp ranges in 90’s to 102 primarily:
From the very beginning, I mean moments after mounting the NT05’s on my 2004 Nissan 350Z I instantly became excited. (Normally I'm NOT raving over trying new tires, as I have had many many many different tires on my 350z, being an avid drifter and local autocross entrant.) Reason being, my 350z is equipped with a full two-way clutch locking differential and simply backing out of my garage after installation and turning out of my driveway I heard my rear differential clunk and pop a lot louder and more pronounced than ever.
Definitely much more versus diff lock and tire slip and squeal. That alone was a clear sign that these tires were very sticky and is what got me excited to run these tires.
I had a great amount of time daily driving them in dry weather, so for the remaining section of the review (until noted) will be dry contact driving over multiple outings.
The NT05’s stick greatly, point the car in the direction your aiming and holding true is very confidence inspiring with these tires. I would honestly have to say a notch above some of the best tires I have tried. Grip is definitely noticeable and in general the NT05’s give you a great overall sense of “hugging” the street.
I then went to a remote road section and was able do switch backs and overly aggressive grip U-turns in order to see if I could feel or loose the NT05’s and was able to do so, but only on wildly aggressive maneuvers so in my book they preformed amazing. The sidewalls held great and I can’t say these tires are a hard sidewall but they are definitely not soft. I did specifically try to rim check with these tires going over horrible protruding railroad crossings and I was never able to hit wheel so the sidewalls held up great. Comfort level was great and never any harsh shock or jerk to prove otherwise.
Highway driving is smooth, quiet and effortless, there is no “humm” or “burr burr burr” sound while cruising. Lane changes over uneven road/highway surfaces were smooth and clean, no sudden jerks or stiff sidewalls pulling one way or the other. There were no loud sounds or noticeable unwanted steering wheel pull/vibrations. I was able to drive on both asphalt and concrete sectional highway surfaces when testing the NT05’s.
I was able to track (Autocross) the NTO5’s and was happy with them and never once lost confidence on where I was pointing or where I wanted to go………grip was evident through out the entire event on the front mounted NT05’s.
For the rear im certain my two way differential had a lot of influence on the following but I was able to feel “give” but very controllable and smooth. There was no instant loss of traction or fishtail action at all. The NT05’s were very predictable and confidence inspiring and I was able to progressively improve my times as the event continued which is a clear sign of conform ability and adaptability for me being someone who has run many good tires before. I quickly knew how they handled and was overall extremely happy with their autocross performance for a street tire. They were definitely very very comparable to a running a full no thread R-compound tire.
WET WEATHER TEST:
My wet weather assessment consist of about 25 percent of the time over dry daily driving:
I did get to briefly test the NT05’s in wet weather daily driving. They did defiantly perform well. I will admit they are amazing in dry conditions, yet they are nearly as awesome in wet. I use the word “nearly” purposely to ensure everyone knows that they are a better dry tire. I was able to maintain grip in mild speed u-turns, faster main road exits and off ramps. It took aggressive driving for them to loose grip.
I find that more than acceptable since that type of driving shouldn’t be done and was honestly asking for trouble. However, I figured for me I want to know the limits and aimed to push them regardless. Overall I drive responsibly in wet and have no problem or worry daily driving NT05’s in wet condition weather after my assessment of them in those conditions.
Drifting:
Yes I did get a chance to take the car out to a safe open spot and drift.
This was the last thing I wanted to do, not knowing weather or not the tires would chunk and get destroyed.
The rear NT05’s have way too much grip that it did take a lot for me to initiate drift. The front NT05’s were amazing…………..one more time…Amazing! I was able to control drift, counter steer and once again stay confident in where I was pointed and wanted to go. I loved the NTO5’s for this greatly!
The tires wore evenly and no horrible damage was done to the tread that would keep me from driving home. Unless of course I stayed drifting on them till they needed replacement.
In the end
I'm overall really excited about driving the NT05’s and plan on getting more for my Z and my wife’s Saturn Sky. I must say it once again “The NT05’s are full of grip and very confidence inspiring.” Try them out if you get a chance I would find it hard for anyone to be disappointed with them.-J
Last edited by JasonZ-YA; 09-06-2009 at 04:26 AM.
09-06-2009, 04:56 AM
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Nice, mine are paid for and i get to try them out at the Redline Time Attack later this month. Hope i'm saying the same things about them.
09-06-2009, 05:32 AM
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Thanks for the review.
I however had a very different experience with them. We have a 600hp GTR currently as our track duty car. We got a set of NT05s for our stock wheels to try out and I can say that they will be swapped immediately back to a new set of the stock Dunlops or better yet for a more track oriented setup.
TRACK DAY:
Granted the car is rather heavy and pushes a lot of AWHP, that being said...the tires could not hold on to save their life. We ran it at a track weekend which was ambiently 95-105 degrees consistently if not peaking to around 110. All this being considered, the tires would heat in 2 laps and after would not offer near the performance of the stock Dunlops. The Dunlops are great tires, but we really expected something better.
Under braking the tires performed decently, but considering this is our home track, we definitely had to brake earlier than our normally chosen points and this wasn't exacly a good start.
In the turns, they were a true disaster. We had a grudge match between a Viper ACR and our car that has been brewing for some time now, and this was the first race since we shed some interior weight and added the power. It was going to be a day to race, but in the turns the car would understeer, scrub/scream, and snap to oversteer with any form of throttle pitching/rotating. With VDC on the computer would cut throttle with any form of rotating. To put it bluntly, our GTR kept up worse with the added mods than before with the better tires.
Coming out of turns was the same type of story. We could not get on the power early without the tail bucking. This meant goodbye ACR because the corners were the location we were going to make up ground and try to hold the straight as best as possible with our new added power, nevermind the late braking. None of this was possible on the NT05s. We were simply left behind.
To add insult to injury, spectators and observers commented about how loud the tires were screaming through the corners. People could tell that we were running the tire past their limit and it was not past the limit of the car itself just from watching. All in all it was very disappointing and I cannot recommend it to anyone running serious power.
I think they would fare better with lower power, lower weight car...but I will not be getting another set on any car to find out.
DD/Weather: No idea as our car hardly sees any of that really.
Overall: 1.5/5 for me. Would NOT recommend for serious tracking use.
Jason, I'm not trying to attack you in any way, but I'm curious what other tires have you tried and what kind of mods are you running? Ie general hp and etc?
I however had a very different experience with them. We have a 600hp GTR currently as our track duty car. We got a set of NT05s for our stock wheels to try out and I can say that they will be swapped immediately back to a new set of the stock Dunlops or better yet for a more track oriented setup.
TRACK DAY:
Granted the car is rather heavy and pushes a lot of AWHP, that being said...the tires could not hold on to save their life. We ran it at a track weekend which was ambiently 95-105 degrees consistently if not peaking to around 110. All this being considered, the tires would heat in 2 laps and after would not offer near the performance of the stock Dunlops. The Dunlops are great tires, but we really expected something better.
Under braking the tires performed decently, but considering this is our home track, we definitely had to brake earlier than our normally chosen points and this wasn't exacly a good start.
In the turns, they were a true disaster. We had a grudge match between a Viper ACR and our car that has been brewing for some time now, and this was the first race since we shed some interior weight and added the power. It was going to be a day to race, but in the turns the car would understeer, scrub/scream, and snap to oversteer with any form of throttle pitching/rotating. With VDC on the computer would cut throttle with any form of rotating. To put it bluntly, our GTR kept up worse with the added mods than before with the better tires.
Coming out of turns was the same type of story. We could not get on the power early without the tail bucking. This meant goodbye ACR because the corners were the location we were going to make up ground and try to hold the straight as best as possible with our new added power, nevermind the late braking. None of this was possible on the NT05s. We were simply left behind.
To add insult to injury, spectators and observers commented about how loud the tires were screaming through the corners. People could tell that we were running the tire past their limit and it was not past the limit of the car itself just from watching. All in all it was very disappointing and I cannot recommend it to anyone running serious power.
I think they would fare better with lower power, lower weight car...but I will not be getting another set on any car to find out.
DD/Weather: No idea as our car hardly sees any of that really.
Overall: 1.5/5 for me. Would NOT recommend for serious tracking use.
Jason, I'm not trying to attack you in any way, but I'm curious what other tires have you tried and what kind of mods are you running? Ie general hp and etc?
09-06-2009, 11:23 AM
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I think they would fare better with lower power, lower weight car...but I will not be getting another set on any car to find out.
Jason, I'm not trying to attack you in any way, but I'm curious what other tires have you tried and what kind of mods are you running? Ie general hp and etc?
I think i may agree with you on your statement of lower power, lower weight car would be more benifical as it seems your GTR monster ate them up as you say......
As my car mostly stock in the hp category other than exhaust/intake....
other mods include, jwt clutch/nismo 2way lsd/tien tierods/camber kits/true full coilovers, no spring combo in rear/nismo diff cover/custom made additional bracing = nismo mass dampers/ etc..etc for drifting mainly mods...
I didn't test them on a Road track as it seams you did, i did an autoX track and went drifting with them and a very decent amount of daily driving with them even though i don't completely daily drive my Z. I mainly did for weeks while i had the tires.
I have owned T1r, RT615, KDW, PS2's and Hancook Ventus C50 R-comp's along with a few other threadless Rcomps ive run at autoX events.
Once again, it seems in my review i never had a chance to do higher speed tracking, as i was on an autoX course and lower speed drifts where the fronts held up great directionally/switchbacks...
it seems we did two different reviews which gives more insight into the tires on different machines.....
Thanks for taking the time to reply....
-J
09-06-2009, 11:42 AM
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Great review Jason! This makes me want to get a set for our shop Z
Hmm that's odd that you had this poor of an experience with these tires. I have the Nitto NT05 on my street/track WRX (Also a 600hp car) and I also have them on my street M3 (stock power). I love these tires as they offer a ton of grip and work very well on the street/track. I've now had a chance to compare the RE-01R, Z1 Star Spec, and NT05 on my WRX and I can say they are still one of the best street tires I've drove on. The RE-01R was the most "street friendly" as it did have a softer sidewall however in terms of overall dry grip the Z1 Star Spec and NT05 both shined.
You mentioned you put them on stock wheels, what size are the wheels and also what tire size did you run (Wasn't sure if you meant the new GTR or a previous model)? Also how many miles were on the tires and how many sessions have they been through?
-Dan
I however had a very different experience with them. We have a 600hp GTR currently as our track duty car. We got a set of NT05s for our stock wheels to try out and I can say that they will be swapped immediately back to a new set of the stock Dunlops or better yet for a more track oriented setup.
You mentioned you put them on stock wheels, what size are the wheels and also what tire size did you run (Wasn't sure if you meant the new GTR or a previous model)? Also how many miles were on the tires and how many sessions have they been through?
-Dan
Last edited by WheelDude.com; 09-06-2009 at 11:43 AM.
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10-21-2009, 05:54 AM
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Hope no one minds me throwing my two cents in.
I ran a HPDE on NT05's this past weekend and I love these tires. Grip was amazing....they were pretty grippy on the out lap and only got better as they warmed up. Noise was fairly minimal, though they did talk to you to let you know what was going on. We were at Carolina Motorsports Park and I would say that the only real place I tended to get any kind of tire squeal was in the carousel...where I was rotating the car a bit more than in other parts of the track.
We did eight 25-minute sessions over the weekend and not once did I have any sort of trouble. Now granted this was my nearly stock power 350Z and not a 600HP GTR...but not only do I plan to run another set of these after I kill my current set, I've recommended them to some friends of mine whom I track with.
I will say that I got some fairly ugly wear patterns on the front two tires, but CMP has a reputation for being really hard on tires (as well as brakes) so that needs to be taken into account. The rears are quite even and still have plenty of tread left. I'll rotate those to the front next time out and I'm sure it will even out a bit (next time out will probably be VIR next year).
I ran a HPDE on NT05's this past weekend and I love these tires. Grip was amazing....they were pretty grippy on the out lap and only got better as they warmed up. Noise was fairly minimal, though they did talk to you to let you know what was going on. We were at Carolina Motorsports Park and I would say that the only real place I tended to get any kind of tire squeal was in the carousel...where I was rotating the car a bit more than in other parts of the track.
We did eight 25-minute sessions over the weekend and not once did I have any sort of trouble. Now granted this was my nearly stock power 350Z and not a 600HP GTR...but not only do I plan to run another set of these after I kill my current set, I've recommended them to some friends of mine whom I track with.
I will say that I got some fairly ugly wear patterns on the front two tires, but CMP has a reputation for being really hard on tires (as well as brakes) so that needs to be taken into account. The rears are quite even and still have plenty of tread left. I'll rotate those to the front next time out and I'm sure it will even out a bit (next time out will probably be VIR next year).
10-21-2009, 10:21 AM
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Well i ran my NT05's a couple weeks ago on SMMR. I played with tire pressure for the first half of the day before i found out what was needed, i ended up with 34 front and 33 rear (HOT). Doubledown motorsports ran theres down to 32 hot, and ended up raising ther pressures up to that mine are. I was seeing tire temps of 180 front and 160 rear and they never got greasy. They have a smooth predictable slide, recovery from a slide is simple, and after a slide the tires still arn't greasy.
The only thing i didn't like about them is the front end feel, its vague, but it could have to do with my chassis setup.
Wet , didn't try amd unless it rains on the way to the track, never will.
I ran 255/40-17 front and 275/40-17 rear , next track outing i will have 275/40-17's up front for a square setup. I didn't like the front end grip compaired to my 615's. The 615's felt like i had better front end grip and worst rear grip, the 05's are the opposite.
The only thing i didn't like about them is the front end feel, its vague, but it could have to do with my chassis setup.
Wet , didn't try amd unless it rains on the way to the track, never will.
I ran 255/40-17 front and 275/40-17 rear , next track outing i will have 275/40-17's up front for a square setup. I didn't like the front end grip compaired to my 615's. The 615's felt like i had better front end grip and worst rear grip, the 05's are the opposite.
08-15-2011, 06:50 PM
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^^ I agree on the hydroplaning comment. I have them on a set of wheels and they are not the ideal rain tire (NC rains... >.<). However, on dry weather... omg these things are amazing.
I did drift on the front tires and a cheap rear set, and I could control the direction of the slide a lot better. I'm about to swap them for daily driving duty.
I did drift on the front tires and a cheap rear set, and I could control the direction of the slide a lot better. I'm about to swap them for daily driving duty.
08-15-2011, 07:39 PM
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Tire will all hydroplane at pretty much the same speed dependant on tire pressure. Tread determines the amount of traction you have before you are on plane, and tread determines the stabitity you have while on plane. Well over the past few weeks i have gotten to drive my NT05's in the rain. Low speed traction is OK at best , high speed stability sucks. I may be different with fresh tires, mine have been heat cycles with over 10 days on the track and have around 35% tread left.
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