It sounds like we're talking each about slightly different environments for the intention of this thread, but I fully understand your tire requirements needing to handle the track day side. My intention was to expose some A6 folks to a tire that works very well, in my opinion, for the higher percentage of daily driving most of us do in our A6's. I don't believe many of us track our A6's so pushing a Nitto Invo in a track day setting, mounted on an A6, is not really applicable to the majority of us. A4's? A3's? More likely due to the "tossability" of those vehicles.

The market has an interesting number of brands out there to choose from which were not around years ago nor at the front of our consumer brains. Maxxis and Nitto are great companies with great people working toward putting out very reliable and "field tested" tires. I know I never paid attention to Maxxis or Nitto five plus years ago but winning serious off-road races, without flatting, is a hugely respectable acheivement with technology that's already working back into production street tires. I can't vouch for their track day tires so no comment there, but I do know Nitto is mounting tires up on race rigs and giving them a serious scrubbing.

For decent ride comfort, respectable handling, and overall day-to-day performance on streets and freeways, the Nitto Invo seems to be yet another choice in a busy market.

 

cars. As you note, most folks in luxury cars are looking for cush, and this tire appears to provide that. As for getting flats, I have never actually had to change out to a spare tire (knocks furiously on wooden desk) despite driving from SoCal to the Yukon several times. Paying close attention to how the car handles and checking tire pressures/tread once a week seem to catch things before they become a problem. But looking at how many cars are running on low pressures, TPMS is the right thing.

BTW, while Nitto may have made some recent inroads on off-roading, I seem to recall Toyo being fairly dominant

http://www.toyo.com/docs/teamtoyo/score.asp

 

What did you use before the Nittos, and any diff in ride and grip characteristics?

 

Good point about the cush factor. Maybe that's why I like the ride comfort so much. It's also nice to know that some of the tire construction technology learned from the Baja has made it into a street tire to combat that random pothole that surprises even the best of drivers. A rare rim ding or worse, a flat, is lessened. I too have never had a flat but nothing beats a frequent visual look-see.

Another great point about Toyo's successes. It's all great for market competition, product development, consumer selection, and keeping prices balanced in our favor if it wasn't for petroleum costs.

 

Nothing to compare against on my current 2006 A6 Avant. This is the first set of aftermarket 20" wheels & tires on my A6. I have always used Nitto NT-555's with solid performance and great tire wear. I had several sets of 19" 555's on my 2001 A4 and another set on my wife's 2006 Lexus SC-430, also with 20's. Always great tires and now the Nitto Invos seem to be a slight step above in ride comfort and quiet.

 

Your audio setup looks awesome. How where you able to add a sub and amp, i have been trying to find the best way to do this since there are no aux outputs on the a6. some people have mentioned taping into the speaker wires? any info will help. thanks!

 

I used a really cool sound processor availabe from Rockford Fosgate called a 3Sixty. Get the full six channel version for max feature control. The processor accepts the high level speaker inputs, tapped into in the back end near the Bose Amp, then that will allow you to add amplifiers for the door speakers, front center channel, and the rear sub via RCA's. The cool thing is the processor can be controlled via Bluetooth using a PDA or Laptop to fully tune and dial in the sound from each speaker. It also offers an AUX input so you can add an iPod connector. You also get a small adjustment **** to control the bass levels "on the fly" (I custom mounted mine next to my center console stock volume **** so it looks OEM, which doubles as a toggle (just press it down) to shift over to the iPod. I would prefer to have the stock Audi iPod interface since that allows screen control through the Audi MMI system but I can't get my hands on one.

You can contact AutoObsessionz.com to have them do the work. They have all the wire colors for each speaker which is actually worth some cash. Your nearest Rockford Fosgate dealer should have experience with the 3Sixty processor as it's pretty cool. My system sounds so much better with the single twelve and all the door speakers replaced with new gear. Makes the Bose system sound wimpy.