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The NT05’s carcass is also designed with ultra high performance in mind. The tire’s casing is made of two plies of polyester with a high end turn-up. The turn up refers to the turn of the plies as they go around the bead of the tire and back up the sidewall. High turn up means that the termination of the plies is higher on the sidewall than normal giving the sidewall 3-4 plies of stiffness from the bead to the tread from a two ply casing. This stiffens the sidewall in the bead area, improving handling by quickening response to steering input while still allowing the sidewall to flex a little in the tread area for smoother ride and layout of the tread to the ground plane for better grip by reducing sensitivity to tire shock.
Two steel belts increase puncture resistance and reduce tread squirm, helping keep the tread flat on the ground without lifting under side load when the sidewalls distort. A spiral wound aramid (aramids are super strong synthetic fibers like Kevlar) cap ply prevents tire growth and tread center bulging at high speeds, reducing heat build up and improving the tire’s speed rating. The spiral winding eliminates the need for the typical way of joining the cap ply, a lap seam which is a weak spot under load and an area of differing stiffness that can cause problems at high speeds.
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| Technosquare’s Howard Watanabe fits our wheel tire combo. |
The tire’s tread pattern features a continuous center rib to maximize tread contact with the road for better dry grip with two large bordering circumferential grooves for water drainage control. The tread to void ratio of the NT05 is a class leading 67.4% putting a great deal of rubber on the road. Reinforced solid tread blocks on the tire’s outer shoulders give good grip and reduce squirm. Finally the Nitto NT05 has a UTQG tread life rating of 200, amazingly high for an ultra high performance tire.
We installed a set of 245/35-19 NT05’s on our Rays wheels. The Sedan, unlike the coupe does not use a staggered fitment. We wanted to keep the tire proportions the same so the car’s VDC stability control and traction controls would not have a fit. The G35 sedan has much smaller wheelwells than the coupe model and these tires and wheels filled the stock wheelwells nicely with no rubbing and without the need to roll the fenders. Although this isn’t the ultimate aggressive fitment, it is much better looking than stock and is an OEM like fitment which won’t give any hassles in daily driving which is our goal. It places significantly more rubber on the road than the stock set up as well.
