There are many tire choices out there and it’s always a tough decision to figure out which set to go with. Nitto was nice enough to send us a set of their new Invo tires to review on the Project STI. Our size of choice, 245/35ZR -17 mounted on our stock BBS wheels. With the new Invo tires mounted and installed on the car, it was time to see how they perform.
Street Impressions Street impressions is what we feel is the most important aspect when it comes to choosing a tire that can be used on a daily basis. Keeping that in mind, we exposed these tires to the same conditions we exposed our previous tires, which included the following:
- Dry Conditions - Wet Conditions
Dry Conditions Within the first 30 seconds of driving around town, we could notice a difference between the Invo and our old tires. The difference being noise. The Invo’s are surprisingly quieter compared to the stock tires which is a plus if you drive your STI on a daily basis. Turn in while going through an exit ramp is precise and carries the same turn in feeling we had before. Grip feels to be about the same and turn in is good enogh to give the driver more confidence to push harder. Under heavy braking the grip is on par with the previous tires so nothing out of the ordinary, which was something we liked with the older tires. With traffic conditions being pretty light during our test on the highway, we decided to do quick lane changes (at highway speed limit) to get an idea of higher speed stability. The stability of the car felt very good and almost as good as the stock tires
Wet Conditions Our wet conditions test consisted of normal amounts of rain, heavy downpours, and light drizzles. During our test the Invo’s seemed to be a better performer then what the stock tires could provide in wet conditions. The Invo's had better stability at highway speeds and generally felt better in all wet conditions. Turn in was better, braking, lane changes, and even starts with the Nitto's.
Conclusion The Nitto Invo is a good tire. Choosing the right tire to do everything is hard to do. We feel that the Invo had great performance in dry weather. Wet weather conditions were very good and never once did we feel that these tires couldn’t handle themselves. Icy/Snowy conditions was a difficult test to conduct because these tires are not at all intended for this use, but with an experience driver that knows how to handle slippery conditions, these tires worked as well as could be expected.
One point to mention is that these tires are not the cheapest set around but they are not the most expensive. When choosing a tire that can pretty much do it all, you do have to make some sacrifices for performance in certain conditions. Being that we care more about dry & wet conditions then anything else, we believe these tires are the way to go. Of course we haven’t tested all the tire options available out there with this specific category, but until we do we are sticking with the Invo.
**Special note to mention, the stock tires that come with the STI are great tires but are in a different category of tire. The stock tires are more of an extreme performance tire (140 tread wear) that performs better in dry conditions then anything else. The tires we reviewed are more an all in one.
