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With the tires mounted, our front wheels were 5.5 pounds lighter than our stock set-up. This is a 5.5 pound weight savings in each front corner! The rear wheels were an amazing 8.5 pounds lighter than stock even though the wheels are much larger (diameter and width). This added up to a total of 28 pounds in just wheels alone. All of this weight is both rotating and unsprung and has a big impact in improving performance in handling, ride comfort, acceleration, braking, and grip – especially over rough pavement.
Pay attention to our total unsprung weight savings after both our brake and wheel package upgrades too. Even though we gained some weight from the rear brake kit, thanks to the ultra light Advan Racing GTs we still came out with a net savings of 2.5 pounds per rear corner. And how about that 17.5 pound weight savings per front corner?!?!
Amazingly when test driving the Invo we did not feel like the Invo was giving up much to a summer only tire like the NT05. Perhaps the difference might be less than a couple seconds a lap on a track like Big Willow Raceway and a few seconds on a more technical track like Buttonwillow Raceway.
We were impressed at what a good compromise tire the Nitto Invo is. It gives up very little on the performance side of things, while still being a very comfortable and practical tire for daily driving use. During out driving evaluation we also found the Invo did not exhibit huge performance improvements over the NT555 G2 – which speaks volumes for the NT555 G2s performance. The Invo feels like it gives better feedback and crisper turn-in than the NT555 G2, but overall grip is almost on par.
Though our Project M5 is now rocking updated chassis, brake, and footwork, we have plenty of other mods in store for it. In future installments we’ll look to continue improving our M5’s ability to control its massive weight problem and power output. Stay tuned as we will keep looking for functional performance mods to keep adding to our super commuter!
Sources
Read More about Project E39 M5!
