[Shotimes] Re: 450's

[Mark Nunnally]

> It's interesting to see the polarized views about Nitto 450 traction
abilities.  Perhaps the Nittos behave differently on a >RWD 911 than they do
on a FWD SHO?

Could be.  I have 225/55 16's on 6" slicers (not ideal I know) maybe they
would do a little better on a 7 or 7.5" rim, but on my 89 (in terms of grip)
they suck!  They remind me of the "H" rated Pirelli P4000's I had on the car
back in the 90's when I was at college.  The generic 215/60 GY GA or
whatever the heck walmart sells on my wife's 91 have way more grip than the
450's do!

The nitto's are very smooth on the hwy, and wear like iron, which is nice.
(realize I only use them on the 89 to get to and from the track, I didn't
buy them to perform).  I have ran them in the rain at 2 events (watkins glen
and summit point), and actually (while waiting on the wife to bring my other
2 race tires) ran one session in the dry on them.  Was a new track to me so
I had an instructor in the car with me, he was laughing at how loud the
tires were howling and how slow we were going!  I bet the pink slip to my 89
that the Wal-Mart GY GA's on the wife's 91 would turn a better lap time on
any track over the 450's on the 89!

They did decent at watkins glen in the wet (although I've heard that track
is one of the highest grip tracks in the country) but they flat out sucked
at summit point in the rain.  I was waving 100 hp turds by me.

When I get my 16x8" rims, I'll take the current 7.5" rims and get some
sticky Z street tires and use those for street/wet track driving

btw the khumo V700 race tires do pretty dang well in the wet, as long as
they have close to full tread.  they don't like a lot of standing water, but
if the track is just wet, they hang on pretty darn well.

The 450 isn't a bad tire, just not a high performance tire.  Good wear and
smooth, perfect for going to and from the track :)

mark