Review My Nitto INVO Review
11-20-2008, 03:52 PM
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TIMMAHH!!
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My Nitto INVO Review
My review of the Nitto INVO
Nitto was nice enough to send me a set of Invo’s to review on my sedan. I agreed as long as my review could be 100% honest whether I loved or hated them. Without missing a beat they sent me a set and were confident I would like them.
My car presents a few challenges when it comes to tires. First and foremost it is my daily driver and my only car so I need a tire with decent tread life. My #1 choice would be to run R compound race tires all the time but that won’t work because they are too expensive for a daily driver due to short life and become a mess in the rain. The second problem is my 15” 12-piston brakes don’t allow for me to run 18” wheels so a nice set of light 18’s with track tires for those fun times is out. I could get 19’s but finding a good track tire in 19’s is not easy and the price jump in wheels and tires for 19’s is substantial. I want to find a good tire that can be run on my car all the time.
So I have been trying a number of ultra high performance street tires over the last couple years. I have previously tried the Nitto 555, Falken FK452, Toyo T1R and Kumho SPT. All been good but left some to be desired so my expectations were similar for the Invo.
My car is not your average G35; it has a built motor, twin turbo kit and many, many other supporting modifications. It currently is at 538whp at 13psi on 91 octane pump gas and I am changing the fuel system and going for more in less than 24 hours. Needless to say, traction is an issue and I like to go fast.
So here is my review:
1st Impression:
When I waked out of my house and saw them for the first time, the first thing I noticed was the tread design. It really stands out, so much more in person than any picture I had seen. These tires are sick looking! Looking over them the quality was very good compared to some of the other tires I have seen before that have shavings still hanging on, etc. The two large groves were wider than I expected and immediately had me thinking these would not grip very well due to the reduced contact patch. Time will tell…
The only think about the look of these that I didn’t like was how simple the sidewall was. I have been used to very busy sidewalls on my tires for some time so this took a little time before they looked normal to me.
I was very happy to see these are an asymmetrical tire so even with my staggered setup I can rotate from side to side. This is a big plus on my car as like many other G’s I have seen on here the wear patterns are not quite the same from side to side.
Wet Conditions:
So here in Phoenix we spend ~300 days out of the year in dry driving conditions. You would think that we don’t even care about the wet days and make due as needed. One of my previous tires had very poor wet traction and almost caused a few accidents so this is still high on my list. Well the Invo did not disappoint, these are the best wet traction high performance tire I have ever driven on. The tire was very predictable and I was able to push them harder in very wet conditions than any other tire my car has had so far.
Dry Conditions:
The first thing I noticed after the tires were installed is how much quieter they were than the Kumhos I had removed. I have noticed that many of my past tires get louder as they wear but the Kumhos still had a lot of life left on them. Over the next couple weeks it became obvious that these are surprisingly quieter than other tires I have had. That’s a big plus for my sedan that still has some class to it. When I drive around my wife, kids, friends and even co-workers I have found that conversations are easier and even alone the stereo is turned down lower most of the time.
Overall grip is shockingly better. I used two factors to judge the dry performance of this tire: straight line acceleration (how much it could take before it let go) and cornering (both accelerating and turn-in). for straight line my last three sets of tires could not hold at all in 1st gear and at times could grab near the top of 2nd gear. Now 1st gear is still the same (I wonder if any tire aside of a slick could hold on my car in 1st) but 2nd gear was a pleasant surprise when it consistently caught and held near 3k rpm every time. I decided to play around some more and test 2nd gear rolling starts and these things kick @ss. So much more grip than I had before. I can’t wait to try them at the drag strip. As for cornering I found similar results. There are a number of new overpasses and intersections being built near my house that never have any traffic at them. More days than not I would take the corners very fast drifting from the inside lane to middle and sometimes even into the outside. Under the same conditions I found these to be flat out better performers under all corner situations. One example is a freeway off ramp that makes a very sharp 90 degree turn. I found I can now take that corner 10mph faster and with almost no tire squeal. Talk about an ear to ear grin!
Overall I am very impressed with these tires. If I had to purchase another set of tires right now it would be these hands down.
Nitto was nice enough to send me a set of Invo’s to review on my sedan. I agreed as long as my review could be 100% honest whether I loved or hated them. Without missing a beat they sent me a set and were confident I would like them.
My car presents a few challenges when it comes to tires. First and foremost it is my daily driver and my only car so I need a tire with decent tread life. My #1 choice would be to run R compound race tires all the time but that won’t work because they are too expensive for a daily driver due to short life and become a mess in the rain. The second problem is my 15” 12-piston brakes don’t allow for me to run 18” wheels so a nice set of light 18’s with track tires for those fun times is out. I could get 19’s but finding a good track tire in 19’s is not easy and the price jump in wheels and tires for 19’s is substantial. I want to find a good tire that can be run on my car all the time.
So I have been trying a number of ultra high performance street tires over the last couple years. I have previously tried the Nitto 555, Falken FK452, Toyo T1R and Kumho SPT. All been good but left some to be desired so my expectations were similar for the Invo.
My car is not your average G35; it has a built motor, twin turbo kit and many, many other supporting modifications. It currently is at 538whp at 13psi on 91 octane pump gas and I am changing the fuel system and going for more in less than 24 hours. Needless to say, traction is an issue and I like to go fast.
So here is my review:
1st Impression:
When I waked out of my house and saw them for the first time, the first thing I noticed was the tread design. It really stands out, so much more in person than any picture I had seen. These tires are sick looking! Looking over them the quality was very good compared to some of the other tires I have seen before that have shavings still hanging on, etc. The two large groves were wider than I expected and immediately had me thinking these would not grip very well due to the reduced contact patch. Time will tell…
The only think about the look of these that I didn’t like was how simple the sidewall was. I have been used to very busy sidewalls on my tires for some time so this took a little time before they looked normal to me.
I was very happy to see these are an asymmetrical tire so even with my staggered setup I can rotate from side to side. This is a big plus on my car as like many other G’s I have seen on here the wear patterns are not quite the same from side to side.
Wet Conditions:
So here in Phoenix we spend ~300 days out of the year in dry driving conditions. You would think that we don’t even care about the wet days and make due as needed. One of my previous tires had very poor wet traction and almost caused a few accidents so this is still high on my list. Well the Invo did not disappoint, these are the best wet traction high performance tire I have ever driven on. The tire was very predictable and I was able to push them harder in very wet conditions than any other tire my car has had so far.
Dry Conditions:
The first thing I noticed after the tires were installed is how much quieter they were than the Kumhos I had removed. I have noticed that many of my past tires get louder as they wear but the Kumhos still had a lot of life left on them. Over the next couple weeks it became obvious that these are surprisingly quieter than other tires I have had. That’s a big plus for my sedan that still has some class to it. When I drive around my wife, kids, friends and even co-workers I have found that conversations are easier and even alone the stereo is turned down lower most of the time.
Overall grip is shockingly better. I used two factors to judge the dry performance of this tire: straight line acceleration (how much it could take before it let go) and cornering (both accelerating and turn-in). for straight line my last three sets of tires could not hold at all in 1st gear and at times could grab near the top of 2nd gear. Now 1st gear is still the same (I wonder if any tire aside of a slick could hold on my car in 1st) but 2nd gear was a pleasant surprise when it consistently caught and held near 3k rpm every time. I decided to play around some more and test 2nd gear rolling starts and these things kick @ss. So much more grip than I had before. I can’t wait to try them at the drag strip. As for cornering I found similar results. There are a number of new overpasses and intersections being built near my house that never have any traffic at them. More days than not I would take the corners very fast drifting from the inside lane to middle and sometimes even into the outside. Under the same conditions I found these to be flat out better performers under all corner situations. One example is a freeway off ramp that makes a very sharp 90 degree turn. I found I can now take that corner 10mph faster and with almost no tire squeal. Talk about an ear to ear grin!
Overall I am very impressed with these tires. If I had to purchase another set of tires right now it would be these hands down.
11-20-2008, 04:39 PM
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great review tim! ive only really used the t1-r but a few friends are running invos, especially a couple with 500+rwhp. how do you like them vs the toyos? treadware is almost the same which is pretty important for me.
11-20-2008, 04:41 PM
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Sam Rothstein
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Nice review... A buddy of mine has them... He hated them at first, but after about 5K miles on them he said they felt better... Maybe he'll chime in.... Either way they are a great lookin tire...
11-21-2008, 06:34 PM
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reallyyy. so invos > t1-r. ive been wanting to try them like i said so looks like maybe i will. only 20 treadware less than the t1-r but i think they are cheaper also.
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11-21-2008, 07:36 PM
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This is good. I am about to buy a new set of rears and I have been running T1-R's for a few years now on both G's. They leave a little to be desired in the rain but otherwise I have been very happy with them. How are these on price and noise compared to the Toyo's?
Last edited by Kidcane; 11-22-2008 at 11:23 AM.
11-22-2008, 06:26 PM
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i believe they are a little cheaper than the t1-r's chad. only "downside" would be 20 less treadware like i said but the better grip makes up for that.
11-23-2008, 06:29 PM
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true true. i guess the better ? is...how many miles do you get out of your tires tim? i know you've got a lot more power than most of us so we should be able to get more depending on your driving. i averaged about 15k miles on my t1-r rears, 30k up front.
11-25-2008, 01:28 AM
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TIMMAHH!!
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On the previous sets I was getting about 6 months on my rears and 14 months on the fronts. I am not sure on the miles so I have to guess ~ 12k on the fronts and 5k on the rears. I'll update this once I see how far the Invos last.
11-25-2008, 02:26 AM
#13
I got my Invo's two weeks ago and since lowering my car the highest point of contact is on the inside where those two wide channels are. I have noticed the slip light come on when im on the freeway doing 50-55 and drop it into 3rd!
I bought the SPC camber kit to bring in the camber and allow more tread to make contact, but I havent noticed a real improvement, anything like that happen with yours OP?
I bought the SPC camber kit to bring in the camber and allow more tread to make contact, but I havent noticed a real improvement, anything like that happen with yours OP?
11-25-2008, 04:21 PM
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I got my Invo's two weeks ago and since lowering my car the highest point of contact is on the inside where those two wide channels are. I have noticed the slip light come on when im on the freeway doing 50-55 and drop it into 3rd!
I bought the SPC camber kit to bring in the camber and allow more tread to make contact, but I havent noticed a real improvement, anything like that happen with yours OP?
I bought the SPC camber kit to bring in the camber and allow more tread to make contact, but I havent noticed a real improvement, anything like that happen with yours OP?
do we look like a tire store? call around or search the web.