nt05R drag radials grip amazing
 

I just installed nitto nt05 drag radials in 275/40/17 on my widen 10.5" stock rims. and wow do they grip so much better than my 295/35/17 kumho xs street tires. The difference is huge!!! With 255/40/17 rs3's or dunlop z2's i have 0 traction is the first 3 gears. With a 275/40/17 nt05 i 3rd gear is somewhat usable. With the 295/35/17 kumho xs 3rd can hold when boost comes on most of the time as long as its above 65ish degrees out. now with the 275/40/17 nt05r drag radials the car barely evnen looses traction in 1st gear and second gear fully holds when the boost comes on.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psesre7e3m.jpg
My 17x11.5 295/35/17 street tires next to my 17x10.5 275/40/17 drag radial.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...psibqlz2lc.jpg

What did you do to run such a big tire

They look awesome I'm goin this route soon as my Michelin SS needs replacing.. these are rated better than 2754017 Mt

We need to move this tread to forced induction tires.. I was searching..

Well they are drag radials so id assume strait line traction would be much superior. How do they handle though is what I'm curious about? Part of what makes a typical drag tire work is the flimsy sidewalls deflecting and deforming. The compromise in that of course is you have a scary handling car which only purpose is to gain max traction as long as you can hold on to it in a strait line. Typically just 1/4 a mile. I imagine there must be some compromise in strait line with these compared to a full fledges drag tire if they are DOT to make safe/handle reasonably for on road use. Seems like an R comp would be the better all around best performing compromise, rather then a DR, but ive never driven one to say how they feel canyon carving.

I will say almost any fresh tire is going to get batter traction then those petrified XS at this point though lol. The rubber is 10 years old! Aren't you glad you sold me your other set when you did? :p

I went with the standard nt05s. two reasons.

Did not want a full DR and wanted the car to act SOMEWHAT a s2000 lol

And you get a lot more miles.

I'm VERY happt with the standard nt05s 275s, GREAT grip, and you can still get into the corners. Ill def get these again! 3rd gear it holds a good 600hp, 4-6 is all 7+

When I went from the OP 295 xs, I also switched over to the standard NT05 in 315's and wasn't expecting much improvement due to these tires being of the same old generation of rubber (circa 08/09) but was pleasantly pleased overall, especially the handling with the super stiff triple ply sidewalls. I was really impressed with the wet traction, which I wasn't expecting at all with the tread design. The main reason i tried them was because they were the only 315 small enough i could squeeze on my existing wheels wile still not running over fenders. For an extreme summer by today's standards with the advent of tires like the bridgestone Re-71, they dont stand much of a fight, but when you factor in streeting these tires and want excellent handling with very good dry summer traction you cannot find a better value. These tires are really inexpensive. I will also add that I went to the road course on these last year and they were extremely consistent, which i was not expecting. Of course that may have something to do with the widths I run lol.