Which Drag Radial for Street? Nitto NT555 RII or Mickey Thompson ET Street SS - 305/45R17

[MCS]

Attached S550 is seeking single wide tire for rear end action and traction!

Ok for real now; In the coming month I'm going to pull the trigger on some Rims and Rubber.

Currently using Nitto NT555 RII at 305/35R19 but find the grip isn't all that great on the regular street
- Could be I'm not doing burnouts every 6 blocks to heat them up
- Could be I'm don't run them low enough for better traction (I run them at 29 PSI warm)

One video I watched had a Whipple Supercharged 2021 Mustang running on MT ET Street - not sure if they are SS or not.



Another video I saw said the Nitto 555 RII are better than the Mickey Thompson ET Street SS.



What are other peoples thoughts/experiences.

I don't take it the strip more than once a year so for me it isn't about "what works best on a prepped surface".
I drive it on weekends in the summer and sometimes during the week to go grab groceries or run errands.

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[Need4SpeedMotors]

Your best bet for traction is going to be a Toyo R888R or the Mickey ET Street S/S if you want to stay on the 19" wheels. I had 305/35 Mickey ET Street S/S tires on my 20" wheels for my manual 800whp Vortech car. They did very well at about 28 psi. 2nd gear roll on a nice summer day hooked no problem. The Nitto R2 are great I've had those before but i don't think they are as soft as the R888R and Mickey Thompsons.

 

[MCS]

Your best bet for traction is going to be a Toyo R888R or the Mickey ET Street S/S if you want to stay on the 19" wheels. I had 305/35 Mickey ET Street S/S tires on my 20" wheels for my manual 800whp Vortech car. They did very well at about 28 psi. 2nd gear roll on a nice summer day hooked no problem. The Nitto R2 are great I've had those before but i don't think they are as soft as the R888R and Mickey Thompsons.

i’ve actually been thinking about getting bead lock rims in 17 inch size and putting a 45 sidewall on them.

Yes, I’m looking to stay on the street. Very occasional track day but 95% of driving is on the street.

 

[LOL WUT]

I am running 305/45/17 ET streets, 28psi cold and they are still hooking with around 800HP at the tire. Granted they are brand new, so I am not sure how they will perform over time.

 

[robvas]

If you're already on a 305 RII I don't think switching to an MT is going to solve your problems - you may have to change your technique or car setup a little bit.

What does "grip isn't all that great on the street" mean? What is the scenario where you're not getting traction and what are you expecting?

 

[NGOT8R]

ET Street R radials (305/45-17) hooked very well for me on the street, but not as well as I would have liked at the track. I even got caught in the rain on them a couple of times coming back from the track. Although it wasn’t fun, it was doable with a little finessing of the throttle.

 

[MCS]

What does "grip isn't all that great on the street" mean? What is the scenario where you're not getting traction and what are you expecting?

Imagine a stoplight in Mexico. The guy beside the rolls up decides he wants to see who can get the next stoplight the fastest. So you put it in sport plus or down into whatever your particular poison is. When the light goes green, you roll into the throttle because standing on it isn’t going to work. However even with that roll in it seems to breakout when you hit second or sometimes even third.

For normal street driving the R2 are awesome. Even with light lateral G. Never had issues in the rain either. But traction, under spirited acceleration, seems to be dicey.

I have not yet tested to see whether the tire is spinning on the rim or whether I need to go down in rim size and up in sidewall size or whether the R2 just weren’t as Uber as I had originally thought.

 

[tosha]

whether the tire is spinning on the rim

It's a very easy one to test, though I highly doubt you spin the tires on rims anywhere close to being noticeable. At least on the street.

I personally also doubt that a taller sidewall for a cold tire on street pavement would do much different, but that is just my guess. I might be wrong on this one.

 

[MCS]

It's a very easy one to test, though I highly doubt you spin the tires on rims anywhere close to being noticeable. At least on the street.

I wanted to get out today and chalk the tire to see whether I was spinning them or not. It was 14°C in the GTA today however, work work work.

i’ve still got about 50% life left in my R2 tires, so I guess I can afford a little assertive warm up with them to check .

From everything I’ve been reading, so take that experience with the grain of salt, the taller side wall would provide much greater traction than the shorter sidewall due to the flex. Especially if you were running them at 28 psi.

Never having own a Mustang with this one’s capability before this is new territory for me. Even my C63 seemed to hook with no problems on the street.

 

[tosha]

so take that experience with the grain of salt, the taller side wall would provide much greater traction than the shorter sidewall due to the flex.

For sure, as long as the tire has traction and these tires need a good burnout to warm up and hook. Unless you are planning to do this on traffic lights in your Missisaxico place every time you want to test something with the amigos, I'm not sure how it will be much different from what you have today. I have no idea what I'm talking about, so take it with the grain of salt as well)))

As far as the tires slippage, you also need quite a bit of force AND traction for it to be a problem. Your steeda wheels have those grooves that should reduce it

 

[MCS]

Ai caramba amazing how Mexico and the GTA look so similar. Did you know that mex had their own CN tower ;)

Yeah, I typically don’t do burnouts at the stoplights, because that literally attracts all the wrong kind of attention. Plus, I am old and feel that would attract the wrong kind of attention.

 

[WildHorse]

MT's have really shot up in price.. like a couple hundo. Guess that's 'tireinflation' .
Haha.

 

[MCS]

Yes they have.

I’m very tempted to get a set and throw them on some bead locks and then compare them for daily street driving but that is an expensive “just because” so wanted to check out what other moderate power cars are doing.

 

[WildHorse]

Yes they have.

I’m very tempted to get a set and throw them on some bead locks and then compare them for daily street driving but that is an expensive “just because” so wanted to check out what other moderate power cars are doing.

You NA ?
Here's my 285/35 R19 FireHawks against my buddies 305/45 R15 MT ET street SS.
Pretty even steven from the dig.

 

[MCS]

You NA ?

Negative. My RII hooked amazing when I was NA. I have the Roush phase 2

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