History Tell me about your first, most memorable burnout or the best burnout you witnessed.

OT Mustang with a stout 429, 4 speed, and 5:13 gears with cheater slicks and a line lock. Dumped the clutch without taking up the slack first... rear u-joint exploded and the spring perches collapsed against the axle tube! Thing spun more in the u-bolts than the tires did on the pavement!

 

In 1973 with my 1964 Olds 88. It had the 394 and a tired Slim Jim hydro in it. Anyway, I was leaving a party and hardly sober. It was standard to leave a stretch when you left. I power braked it, got the RR going weakly... 3 guys came to the rescue, picked the car up by the fender lip. Held it until I got the tire howling. Smoked the whole street and left a 50' long mark on the pavement. I melted a pair of perfectly good snow tires in 2 weeks. I just moved the left over to the right once that was down to the cords.

 

Probably not my very first burn out, but one night I got talked in to riding with some people down to "devils road" to go mudding. I normally wouldn't but I figured "egh, why not." Well we got stuck. Hard. I called a friend to come pick me up at right around midnight. He took me back to the house I was hanging out at, mean while he went back to his home. Finally everyone returned to the house we were hanging out at and I thought, this night has sucked, I'll make it better. I did a burnout in my '62 biscayne 283 700r4 with a 3.20s differential. 3rd member grenaded. I love never wanted to cry so bad haha! Called that same friend and woke him up to come all the way out there and pick me up. Good friend, not so good of times.


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Mine has a little different twist...

In my childhood, I started like most with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Then it moved on to drawing cars and building models. Hot Rod and CARtoon magazines were a staple as well.

In my early teens, I spotted a '29 roadster pickup hot rod while on vacation....searing yellow paint and a tan top/interior with chrome tru-wires. I was HOOKED! Dad saw what an impression it made on me and started pointing out every old truck, just to gauge my interest.

When I was 14 (1977), dad found and bought a 1946 Chevy pickup from a friend of a friend...green metallic paint and 6-lug chrome steelies with moon caps, running a 235 and an otherwise stock running gear (as best as I can recall). Dad drove it for a year, then we backed it into the garage and proceeded to transplant the complete running gear out of a wrecked '55 210 sedan that was at my dad's friend's junkyard. Dad and I did practically ALL the work side by side. Notice I said "practically"...

Upon getting my license, the truck ran well and took me everywhere I dreamed of taking it, but it just wouldn't spin a tire...at least not going forward, WAAY too much tire hop. It would semi-burn in reverse though!!!! About 2 years later, the hard throttle linkage started sticking. SO I trekked over to the same friend's junkyard and robbed a '70's LeMans of its gas pedal and throttle cables. Once I had the old pedal out, I started the install of the new stuff, but there was a small bracket, about an inch wide and tall, that seemed to be in the way. I removed it, all the while my dad was peering over my shoulder! Once installed, I took it for a spin to check things out....MAN that little 283 (oops, forgot to mention the 265 went south and in its place was a '66 Biscayne unit) would FLY!!!

Returning home, dad had this cat-ate-the-canary look on his face! Seems he had installed the "bracket" as a spacer without my knowledge to prevent full travel on the throttle! "Well," he said, "guess I'll have to find something else to keep your brother out of trouble!"

Still have the truck!

 

I was 16 and cruzing the loop in my hometown. I was in my car ( Factory 427) going around our city square. The (kids) motor heads(which were carless) were sitting on the park bench, at least 6 or 7 of them. They started yelling burnout. So I stopped and punched it. It laid rubber, don`t know how much. I stopped and looked back. They looked liked they had never seen a burnout before. They were jumping up and down in amazement. One yelled, he didn`t even power brake it. Later, I learned what that meant. 6 months later I had hydraulics on it with wire wheels. I never do burnouts. The motor has never been rebuilt, the same goes for the the rearend. Still have it and drive it more and more every year.

 

My personal first burn out was a shorty, (1963) my sisters 58 Ford,V-8, auto trans, not a hot rod, learned to drive in this car from/with my older sister. 1964 MY First car, 57 Chev 210, purchased w/o engine trans, installed 348 w/ tri-carbs, (did a spray can rebuild) 3 speed manual, (all from my speed shop, local junkyard) 4:11 w/ the open rear end would do big time burners. (put street slicks on and it improved launch, eventually bought a posi (from my speed shop) In Auto shop class our instructor was a Hot Rodder of sorts and always talked about his T-Bird and how quick it was (probably was) and the subject of burners came out in class discussion and fellow students started in on him about my car, now the fastest kids car at our school, he did not believe my Chevy would do a 100 foot + burner even w/open rear end.(normal tires) So....... In my wisdom of youth did one on side street(shop side)of school and it was measured off. He was impressed, to the point of getting my student parking lot permit revoked, no big deal, just parked on street. He did say I needed a posi unit or lock the rear end, (he was an OK guy) He liked us kids that were car guys, metal shop teacher was a good guy, let us kids after school make reverse wheels, traction bars, jack stands (still have) welded spider gears in attempt to lock rear end, worked good for a very short time. Today's kids don't get the opportunity for shop class, learned some basic's that I still use and discovered how much I liked machining/thinking process of making something.

 

I really don't remember when the first time was that I spun the tires on a car, first time on a bike I was 12 flying up the Widow Maker on the Devils Backbone. '57 BSA single, hill climb bike.

I had spun the tires on a tractor long before that I think the summer that I was 7, it was a Poppin Johny tricycle tractor on a Berry Farm in Banks Oregon. I didn't do it on purpose either time. But torque a red blooded American boy and dirt make for spinning tires.

 

Certainly not my first burn out, but by far, the most memorable burn out. My buddy in his 32 roadster and I in my coupe had stopped for fuel. While filling up, a young guy asked me if I would do a burnout for him. I of course, was glad to oblige him. As I pulled out of the gas station, I had to drive thru a gutter with a little water in it. In the process of a u turn to get back on the road, I hammered it hard. Before I even realized it, I was headed in the opposite direction of my intent. I had two rear chunks for my 9" Ford rear. One, a 3.00 open and the second, a 3.50 limited slip. I had been running the 3.00 for the summer long distance cruises, and had switched out to the limited slip and had forgotten that I had. So, between the water and the wheels turned, I made a fool of myself. However, my spectator absolutely LOVED it!

 

1969.....spittin' gravel from the slick on my black Schwinn Stingray.

 

If you are familiar with the car scene and from SW Missouri, you are probably familiar with Hedden's Performance here in Springfield. When I was a teen, I would spend too much time there buying the few parts I could afford, hanging out, spinning on the barstools, and listening to Paul rant and his dad Jess poke fun at him for ranting. (If you know them, you know exactly what I mean.)

Paul was well known for his need to go fast and at that time Jess used little trucks (S10?) to run parts around town to customers. I used to ride with Paul sometimes and remember him just rodding the crap out of those trucks, but they never seemed as peppy as they should be. One day Jess pointed out the reason... he had put a bolt in the floorboard to stop the gas pedal from full engagement.

I still grin when I see Jess' face light up in my mind's eye as he tells this "secret". He loved to poke the bear!

 

Does throwing gravel in the driveway and pisssing off the neighbors at 14 in a 36 Dodge Brothers count?

 

Hahaha!!!
Your damn right that counts! That is hilarious!


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My first real burn out was with my bosses car. I was 17 , Later bought it from him and I should of kept it but that's hind site back in 1970. A 1964 Chevrolet SS 2 door convertible automatic on the floor with bucket seat white. I use to clean the interior when I was 14 on Saturdays and get paid Popsicle s as my boss owned a grocery store ! Any way , The delivery truck was broke down and had to drop off and do some delivery's to customers with it ! My buddy pulled up next to me with his 64 station wagon at the lights. Well I stuffed that pedal threw the firewall and it smoked the tires and I mean smoked them so bad I couldn't see across the intersection there was so much smoke ! yes I did lose to my buddy as I couldn't get across the intersection as I dug holes in the black top and had to rock my way out of the hole in the black top as I remember putting it in reverse to get it out and then slowing turned right onto the side road and get the hell out of there before the cops came and I'd never be able to explain it to my boss ! By the way it was a 409 with two four barrels on it . True story !

 

After I got my license, I drove the 2 family cars, a '54 Pontiac/straight 8/automatic and a '59 Plymouth wagon/push button TF/some kind of V8. The Plymouth was fairly fast but I don't have any recollection if I got some "burn" in either one. My Driver's Ed and family car experience was all automatic but my first personal car was a '49 De Soto I bought from my aunt for $75 and it was my first taste of 3-speed/stick. I don't recall how I got to her place but I had to drive home from there an hour and a half, never before having done the clutch dance. The trip was pretty much evenly split between stalling, getting some tire smoke, polishing the pressure plate real good and listening to my ride-along, baby brother throwing down cuss words I was surprised he knew at the car.

By the time I got home I had learned my first lesson. It is easier to burn out turning from a stop than it is going straight ahead.
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In '57 I was in the sixth grade and had an old Cushman Road King. It only had one speed and a centrifugal clutch. I discovered that by going slowly along the right side of the dirt road we lived on I could lay it on the left crash rail as I made a U turn. If I got it over far enough it would lift the read wheel off the ground. I'd rev it up and with the wheel spinning I'd set it up and lay a 2-3 foot patch on the hard packed dirt. I could only do it turning left. The problem was it left tell tale J marks with a patch of rubber all along the road. My dad figured it out pretty quick. When the left side of the tire was badly worn he made me take it off and turn it around. It's a wonder I survived that old Chshman I had some bad wrecks far from help.

 

I was driving my brother's '63 Chevy C10 to pick up some parts. It had a warmed over 283, headers and a weak non-synchro 1st gear 3-speed. I figure I'd rev it up, dump the clutch in 1st and make a grand exit... wrong... all I hear was a loud BANGGG. The whole truck shudders like a plane going into a stall. It did stall out. I get it started... good. No 1st gear, no 2nd gear... bad. I limp it home in 3rd slipping the clutch. We pull out the 3-speed. The counter shaft is in pieces. I made a few calls and located a later full-synchro box with a shifter. So I sprang for that and a new clutch. Lesson learned about those old Muncie boxes, they can't take a 5grand hole shot in first.

 

Not my first burnout, but one of the more memorable ones. I was 17, just graduated high school and was pegged as one of the groomsmen for a buddy's wedding. I'm in my tux, but running a little late. Pulled out of my parent's front lawn onto the road in my 60 Falcon ranch wagon (Hi-po 289 4-sp) and proceeded to go for the glory. About the time I was ready to hit second, I see a motorcycle cop coming the opposite way towards me, motioning me to 'pull over'. I pulled over on a side street and waited for him to catch up. When he does, he tells me that there is an officer that is wanting to talk to me, just wait here. When the other motorcycle cop shows up, he indicates that he had been running radar a little further south of where I entered the roadway, but got no reading on me. But he did say this, " Boy, do you know that you laid 96' of rubber before you shifted gears?" I indicated that I didn't know that is was 96'. Later at the wedding reception, I told my dad what had happened. His response was that I should have gotten at least 100' feet before second and laughed it off. My hot rod Falcon was my dad's old hot rod that he built. I miss that car.
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1st car had a 225 slant six 3 on the tree. Couldnt get the tire to spin no matter how hard I tried. Found out if I pulled up on the sidewalk behind shop class with the rear wheels on the curb it would spin real good when I dumped the clutch. Broke 2 rearends doing that .

 

my first burnout was during the test drive of my 1969 GTO Judge I bought when I was in high school. 400-4-speed, no posi until later. took off slow from a stop sign then floored it and up in smoke we went. I was sold after that.

bought the car and went to pick up my buddies where I did my second burnout. left about 60 feet of rubber, then a 3 foot space of no rubber where I shifted, followed by another 60 feet. right down a residential street. car had 3.08 gears at the time and would spin the tires for a long time.

someone should have dragged me from the car and beat my ass and set the car on fire. I was crazy in that car for the next 3 years

 

1973,Worked for a farmer up the road,13 yrs old and my first real job. He had a 55 or 6 chevy pu that someone cobbled a 389 pontiac into.It needed to be push started,he pushed and I let out the clutch and pumped the gas and off she went!

 

First burnout when I was 15 and bought a 49 Olds out of a junkyard that had a bad trans, $75 and they threw in a used trans which 2 of my friends and I changed laying on our backs in the driveway. When we finished we had to try it out and left a pretty good black mark in my folks driveway, funny thing is my folks never said a thing about the black marks!

 

Hello,

Burnouts do little for performance, but people get a kick out of seeing them. We always tried to leave the starting line with as little smoke as possible. With the stock tires on the 348/280hp 58 Impala, it was difficult with the full throttle, clutch popping start. But, in order to win at Lions Dragstrip, perfect starts usually won the class and trophy. There were many times watching my brother start slowly and catch his opponents ½ way down the quarter mile. When he was on single runs, he blasted the starts with as much power as was available and got great starts and times.

We all know that during the eliminations, getting a good start usually does it for the victory. That was the primary goal. No smoke, just pure transfer of horsepower to the ground, with plenty of traction. Then let the pure horsepower take over for the win.

It certainly was a hoot when I tried to do a full throttle clutch start in that 58 Impala. Yes, it spun the tires for a bit, then grabbed and launched me forward. The next few times of practice, the starts got better and the key was timing. The noise of the car surging forward, the feel of the horsepower moving backward, then forward was tremendous, for a stock car.

Eventually, I could get great starts without spinning the tires. The odd thing was even though there were days of practice, the moment of lining up against your opponent was harrowing. A lot of times, practice techniques were accidentally thrown out of the window on the starting line waiting for the flag or light.

When I changed the rear tires to our 7 inch Bruce Slicks, there was no spinning or smoke on any launch. It was all horsepower transferred to the ground and the front end of the 58 Impala rose with the power it had. Those slicks made the difference, but we could not use them at the drags in the A/Stock, stock car class. But during time trials and tuning runs, the Bruce Slicks made the best speed and E.T. times.



The use of the Bruce Slicks on the street was a different story. We had to make sure that on the day of racing, the streets could not have any moisture or there was no braking or was limited. There were many days of being trapped in the early morning mist/dew on the way home and the car spun on quick braking episodes. But, off of the starting line, pure traction and a fast getaway, no smoke.

Jnaki

When we added the C&O Stick Hydro, there was absolutely no spinning of the tires with smoke. The combination of 4:56 Posi Traction gears and the hydro made the perfect combo for super-fast starts off of the starting lines.

It was so reliable, even against my friend’s fast, 1962 409, 4 speed, Biscayne. He spun his tires, while the C&O in the 58 Impala just took off with a car or two lead. Of course, the 409 was coming on strong past ½ way in the marked quarter mile on the street. But, by then he saw my brake lights for the win in the 58 Impala…

 

My first burnout was in my brothers driveway. He had brought home a 55 Chevy roller. He told me it could be mine if I would work it off doing lawn work. We put 283 / 3 speed. Sprayed it gray primer out of rattle cans. When it was running, I started learning to drive up and down the 75' drive. Sometime a few days later my foot slipped off the clutch at 3000 rpm.. Scared myself for a short time, until it slipped off at 3500 rpm.. Great days

 

OK Here's mine. 52 De Soto Fire Dome Hemi---4 door---Dads car ---- I'm 16-- Buzzed happy--- leaving a party---Guy in front of me leaves a weak burn out in a 40 Ford sedan--- Im up---2 couples in the car---Is a Gyromatic (or what ever the "tiptoe" automatic was called) If you put it in the second gear position, it was like 1st gear. I put it in that position, revved it up, side stepped the clutch. and proceeded to shear off the front U joint. Yea well----For some reason my Dad never did figure out what I did.

 

1985 in the high school parking lot, at 16 years old. Had just got my beater four door 1974 nova put together. 350 with l79 cam, rebuilt and kitted turbo 350. Power braking had the right tire up in smoke for well over 100 feet, got to the steps of the cafeteria just as the dean walked out. Busted, big time. He called my dad, at the time the police would have been better for all the trouble I got in. Had to write an essay as to why I should be given the privilege of driving again, and parking on school property. I did it again though, graduation day after I got my diploma. The posi made things waaaaay better.

 

Two that are memorable...
My grandparents bought a '69 Pontiac Firebird new. 350, automatic and posi rear. My mom learned to drive in it, but it got parked in the 70's. I got it back on the road around the time I was 17. My buddy was the pastor's son, and his house shared a large gravel parking lot with the church. One night leaving his place, I made the dumb decision to get on it. Left at least inch deep ruts for a 100' or so. My buddy had to go out later that night to grab something from his parents car, stepped in the rut and broke his ankle...

Another time, I was driving my mom around in the Firebird while she ran errands. She had to drop something off at a friend of her's house. Well that friend lives out in the country, but the main road had JUST been repaved. So as we're leaving, I pull out onto the road, stop, put one foot on the brake and get on it. Once the smoke cleared, she had a grin a mile wide. Good memory of mine.

 

I've told this story before. All through high school (66-69) I worked at a Standard Chevron Station. During the week, we had a customer who would stop in for gas 2-3 times a week on his way home from work. He rode a motorcycle, and drove a Challenger. He also claimed to be an actor. When he would leave the station, he'd always spin his tires headed out and up the road. I had a 56, 210 Del Ray with a 2 barrel 265 and a Powerglide (a real powerhouse there). One day we painted the rear tires of my car with used motor oil, and waited for the "actor" to show up. When he did, I went to my car and started it up, and then did a neutral drop; smoke was everywhere. Shut the car off, and walked over to where he was. All he said was, "I did't think your car had that kind of power". Who's the actor now? I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

my first car. broke an axle.

 

This is my dads 54. He let my brother in law Grant drive it when he was in high school and dating my sister.
Well, he was learning how to do burnouts with dads 327 backed with a Saginaw 3 speed overdrive.

As expected, that transmission ended up scattering all over the road. Poor Grant was scared to tell dad what he did. Finally building the courage to tell him. He took dad to dinner and told him what he did.
Dad just laughed and told him “ welcome to the club!”



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I remember it vividly,it was a Friday evening and my parents bowling night and my dad sent me to Shorty Johnson's to pick up hot dogs for my younger sister and me.

He handed me the keys to the '62 Galaxie with instructions to go there and come straight home.

Shorty's was about 4 miles from the house and they had the hot dogs ready in record time so I figured since this driving thing was new to me why not go a little out of the way and make one pass down main street,turn on Whitehall and I would be home within just a few minutes.

So with my dad's words still lingering in my ears and the devil sitting on my shoulder I headed for main street and at that time cruising the main drag was huge,there were cool cars at every traffic light.

I made my way down main street and turned left on to Whitehall Road and stopped for the light where Murry crosses Whitehall.

As I came to a stop I noticed a lot of gravel spilled in the street, obviously from a truck earlier in the day and when the light changed my teenage brain said step on the gas and spin a tire.

I did just that,the tires spin throwing a rooster tail of gravel in the air and just as soon as the tires started spinning I saw a flashing red light in my rear view mirror,the smile on my face disappeared,the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I was scared half to death.

I pulled over and the motorcycle cop (Malcolm McClees) comes up to the door and starts yelling at me "What the hell is wrong with you"?

I Said sir?,He said get out of the car and grabbed me by my shirt and led me to his motorcycle which had only one of his two red lights flashing and a cracked windshield and he continued his tyrannical rant that I had destroyed police property and he should take me to jail.

I was shaking like a leaf on a tree and scared to death but he finally calmed down and wrote me a ticket for 17.50 and at that point in time was a fortune.

He told me to go straight home and give my license and the ticket to my dad,I suddenly remembered I had been told to go straight home earlier.

I pulled in the driveway only to find my dad standing on the front porch and he was pissed to say the least,I had been gone a hour and a half for a 20 minute trip,I had a bag of cold hot dogs,my parents we late for their bowling league and I had a ticket for reckless driving and knew before it was over I would be eating a few meals standing up...they say the South is the Bible Belt and it is true,my dad knew how to use them both and as I recall it was a month before my driving privileges were restored.

I learned a valuable lesson that summer evening,If you plan on doing any tire spinning or a burn out make sure there is not a cop behind you when you do. HRP