The lift is a life saver. As I get older it's getting harder and harder to crawl under the car to do things. It lifts the car by 19-20 inches and this gives me great room to roll around with a creeper to keep things maintained.
I haven't tried the NT01s on the GT350 yet but on the GT500, they provided about 30% better traction when I went from MPSS to NT01s. The NT01s seem to be more sensitive to heat / inflation PSI. You have to learn the limits of the tire to get the most out of them. It's going to be different for every car...
NT01 is more of less a god of a tire in terms of grip and life, if you keep them in their happy place.
Can you do me a favor when you are back and don't have much going on? See if the rears will clear the front brakes and if they won't a rough estimate on how much of a spacer would be needed for them to clear?