UPDATED - Separate tire comparison post - 555R vs M/T ET Street SS - DISILLUSIONMENT

[16GoManGoHC2]

I’ve gotten longer than 1000. I usually get 2-3000 of solid driving.

i don’t roast my tires and I don’t spin with them. I’m always making sure it grabs before the foot goes to the floor.

As long as your not getting wheels spin all the time, they’ll last. And even a stock hellcat can burnout in any tire you put on. So the other half to making them last is to make sure you got the pedal control down.

those wheels shown in the pic above, those tires are out of balance. One side has tread and the other doesn’t. Those tires are trashed.

You are dead right on the contact patch, have a full set of BMR on car adjustable arms to take care of just that and these Demon alignment specs which should put the tire dead flat on launch, that’s the hope at least. I’ve read most all hellcats contact patch looks like this and will make tires that see just hard launch and 1/4 pulls often, and that what these tires say.
Yea, they are all folded up because I put them back on one last time for line lock testing, that finished them
off!! These specs are minus driver, with 200lb driver they match side to side. When squated this should make them flat and square to the road.

 

[WhipCat]

You are dead right on the contact patch, have a full set of BMR on car adjustable arms to take care of just that and these Demon alignment specs which should put the tire dead flat on launch, that’s the hope at least. I’ve read most all hellcats contact patch looks like this and will make tires that see just hard launch and 1/4 pulls often, and that what these tires say.
Yea, they are all folded up because I put them back on one last time for line lock testing, that finished them off!! View attachment 15579

Oh yeah. Get that done ASAP. It will change the entire way the car feels under WOT. You will literally feel the ass of the car planted under acceleration solid. Then you just control the nose and keep it pointed straight.

 

[16GoManGoHC2]

Oh yeah. Get that done ASAP. It will change the entire way the car feels under WOT. You will literally feel the ass of the car planted under acceleration solid. Then you just control the nose and keep it pointed straight.

WOW, that good aye?? You just gave me the motivation to get cracking on getting them installed!! THANKS!!
So these alignment targets look good by you??

 

[Octanewide]

those wheels shown in the pic above, those tires are out of balance. One side has tread and the other doesn’t. Those tires are trashed.

Too much negative camber wears the inside of the tires first

 

[16GoManGoHC2]

Too much negative camber wears the inside of the tires first

No, this is coming from off the line wear due to uneven weight distribution on the tires due to how they orient when under acceleration. The guy thread I screen shotted these specs from I believe knew what he was talking about. Another high HP whipple or KB guy, the guys on this forum I think as well. I’d have to search back through threads if posted to find him but if might have been Mark??

 

[WhipCat]

No, this is coming from off the line wear due to uneven weight distribution on the tires due to how they orient when under acceleration. The guy thread I screen shotted these specs from I believe knew what he was talking about. Another high HP whipple or KB guy, the guys on this forum I think as well. I’d have to search back through threads if posted to find him but if might have been Mark??

@Marc W

 

[16GoManGoHC2]

Yea, that’s probably the guy

 

[Rcasa20]

It's unfortunate but they simply dont last. 750-1000 miles and traction becomes the equivalent to the stock tires. Once you're 900+hp, you just got to suck it up and go with the s/s or the R and just deal with an insanely short period of time with good traction. NTO5R won't give traction with 900whp at full throttle in any gear under 4th unfortunately but amazing at 800ish whp and less. what's really great is that you get great traction for practically the whole life of the tire (with some degradation that should be expected of any tire)

So what if I’m at 820 whp? Really!!

 

[Kotta376]

I have almost 6000 miles on my ET Rs and Have only made 8 track passes and many mexico runs. Never do burnouts for no reason and I just checked the tread and I have 3/32 left. So I would say they are doing well!

 

[coolblue]

VERY good thread. Thanks for all the real world and practical application reviews. Makes it easier for a first time drag radial buyer to make a decision. @WhipCat . You have rear caster/camber settings you prefer for street/strip combo? Thanks in advance.

 

[EricG]

UPDATED - so, as double wide said, the M/Ts have significantly decreased in flat performance after X number of miles. It is something I've never experienced myself. The tires act exactly the same (no increased penchant for spinning - as noted previously, they spun, left black marks, but conversely hooked at the same time) but traction has dropped off, if anything, to less than the 555Rs. I am still experimenting with them to see if you can driver mod around it. I'd really like to see the specific formula for the compound and compare it to the 555R. So, in my opinion, the tire is not really worth it. If it's only good for X number of cycles before the compound degrades, then unless you drive a short distance to the track, you won't get but a few runs out the tires. And if you have to change wheels at the track, why not just use straight slicks anyway?

So, while it did give the car the best street traction over all that I have experienced with any tire, that "window," for lack of a better word, was comparatively short.

I do not see how a burn out would even help the traction as it appeared to me that the tires were hotter than others when I was airing the down during some of my runs (so if it was already compromised by the few runs that had been made, heating them more before the run should not improve grip, unless I don't understand the compound).

Doublewide, credit where credit is do my man.

Interesting report, and we all have our experiences with tires I guess. I don't know why you would ever do so much pressure in a drag radial, especially when you run your fronts at 27? Are your TPMs on for the fronts all the time?

I actually just put some 555Rs on a few weeks ago after wearing out a set of ET Street S/S at 5500 miles, and even when they were almost completely bald, they still felt like they had much more traction to offer up than the newer 555Rs. I do agree with you that the Mickeys are a little more bouncy, but IMO it's well worth the trade off for much much more traction. I play a lot of the streets...if you will...and almost never lost with the Mickeys, only once to actually spinning that I couldn't control. The Nittos have had me making excuses a couple times already LOL Lots of people daily drive with drag radials or racing tries here in the warm and dry desert, it can be fun driving around

Anyway, I'm surprised to read this and it doesn't match my experience with the two different tires at all...but hey it's great that we have choices! As far as the new Nittos coming out, I checked their web site and see that they don't make a 275/40R20, that really surprisaed me as I would think that is a very popular size.

 

[WhipCat]

VERY good thread. Thanks for all the real world and practical application reviews. Makes it easier for a first time drag radial buyer to make a decision. @WhipCat . You have rear caster/camber settings you prefer for street/strip combo? Thanks in advance.

I don’t have any caster camber settings saved to share.

the fixed arms I originally had, automatically made the correction.

But I also have mopar springs which give me a slight overall lowering of the car. This makes the control arms very necessary.

my settings could be different on your cars.

I have since gone to an adjustable setup because I have a new drag wheel setup i switched to and need to make changes between street and strip.

 

[Speedy!]

555R for the win as a street tire.