| Nitto Neo Gen Tires - Product Spotlight
Think back to the day when you first flipped through the Super Street wheel-and-tire guide. Remember how you spent an hour before you went to sleep trying to pick out the perfect combo for your car? You'd start to play with the car cutouts to see which wheels looked the best. Then you saved up all your milk money so you could get your new rollers. Of course, you lowered your car so you wouldn't look like a 4x4 meathead.
A few months go by, you go get your car serviced, and the mechanic tells you that you need new tires. What? That's insane, those things are almost brand-new. Hell, you can still see the tread from where you're standing. This must be one of those scams that you see on Fight Back. Well, look a little closer because the negative camber on your car is wearing down the inside of your tires very rapidly. (For more information on camber, read "Angle Slam" in our April 2002 issue.) It seems like your tires have worn down to the steel belts and now you have to spend another few hundred dollars on some new ones. You've just wasted 75 percent of your tire that still has perfect tread. How wack is that?
There are two ways you can correct this problem and save yourself a lot of cash in the future. One is to get some type of camber kit and a good alignment. That's a simple and easy solution, but you're still spending money on those items and a new set of tires. The second option is much more enticing. Since you have to buy new tires anyway, you might as well get yourself a set of Neo Gens from Nitto. From what we've been told, these tires can withstand a massive amount of abuse in wet- and dry-weather conditions. During hard cornering, the 3D Multiwave sipes do all they can to keep tire contact to the ground, which will result in even tire wear. Traditional sipes, like what you have now, don't provide this type of contact with the pavement. There's even an improved wheel guard that helps protect your rim against scrapes or dings when you're trying to parallel park for the 10th time. This is a drifters dream and super-J-style fantasy. For all of you adventurous people out there, you'll be glad to know that these tires are mud- and snow-rated. Too bad we didn't have these tires when we went snowboarding, uh, scouting photo locations. To this date, we still haven't had the chance to drive on these tires to give a firsthand description. Hopefully, they'll meet the expectations of everyone at Nitto. If they do, maybe we'll throw a set on one of the project cars just to test out their performance advantages. Unfortunately, at press time, these tires were not available for wheels that are threateningly wide. Perhaps Nitto will see this and come out with some fatties for all the RWD owners out there.
The Low Down
MSRP: Will vary depending on size.
Pros: Even tire wear means longer life.
Cons: Not yet available in wider sizes.
Verdict: Cool concept. We haven't driven with them yet, but we'll let you know more after we do.