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

I am a young guy but i have one to share. I am 33 now, graduated high school not so long ago in 2003. Around 2001, I accidentally rolled backwards in the school parking lot into a showroom condition 1984 (i believe) hurst olds. The kid (my friend matt) got out and wasnt too happy. There was no damage but he did make sure i knew it wasnt cool to hit this car, but at least it wasnt "his charger". I obviously told him he was full of shit about owning a charger and sorry about the incident. He proceeded to take me to his house where i laid eyes on his 68' charger which was (literally) just getting the mopar performance hemi (reboot) installed. Now i'm not super hemi savvy but i do belive it was a Bored/stroked version that was something like 572 c.i. Now at the time i thought for sure that both of these cars were his dad's. How couldn't they be. Well, here's the deal. This guys dad was sick with a rare blood disease. The year prior, they went to mopars in the park. Dad noticed that he had loved the chargers and hemi cars. Mopar performance came out with the hemi reproduction sometime around then, so they just went ahead and spent the money. The weekend following that school night he picked me up in town and we went down to porky's in st. paul. He deliberately put a hemi sticker from a cuda on the side of the charger, to piss off the purists (i guess). So we pull into Porky's and 4 old guys stop us. They were NOT pleased that we pulled up with some poser sticker on the side of the wrong car. The first thing out of their mouth is "pop the hood kid" so we did. the next words were "who did you kill to get this......" it was awesome. guys twice our age that had (in all honesty) nicer cars were in awe of us. When we left, they said... you know what to do. so we left heading east on university avenue, did a U turn to get in front of porkys, and laid down the obligatory (dumb, with a fresh 15k engine) burnout. That was friday. The next night, once the car had a few hundred miles on it, we laid one down in the "gander mountain" parking lot that looked like a tornado as it dissipated. On our way out of the parking lot, some guy driving the opposite way down the street rolls down his window and simply yelled "DETROIT!" I didn't get to live the lives most of you did back in the day, but it was so cool for my friend and i to have these memories. The car is unfortunately gone to him and so is his father. What a way to spend time with your kid on your last days though. I be he will never forget! i know i won't and it wasnt even my dad, or my car!

 

Back in 1972 when I was a junior in high school a senior that I knew had just gotten a Brand new 72 Ranchero GT with a 351 Cleveland and posi rear end with F70 tires for a graduation/eighteenth birthday present. Well Steve brings it to school and proceeds to get talked into doing a burn out in the school parking lot. This thing went up in smoke and completely covered itself and the end of the parking lot. Could not see a thing ! About that time I see my buddy Bobs dad who happen to be a city cop pull into the other end of the lot . So the first thing Steve sees as he rolls out of the smoke is the squad car with the lites flashing. The next day my buddy Bob told me that his dad said that the look on Steve's face was so priceless that he did not have the heart to give him a ticket. lol Larry

 

This is my most memorable because it wound up on Kontinentals page for Day Of The Drags on the web. Sometimes it's fun to just fry the crap out of them. Mr. George Brainard took the photograph. 

 

I can understand doing a burn out prior to making a pass at the track. Frying tires just to make smoke has to be the dumbest of the dumb. Whats the point? Waste tire tread? Tear up your car so others can laugh at you? Show others how dumb you really are? When I was young and dumb I did a lot of things that cost me money. Fortunately you out grow childish behavior.
Read about all the damage done to cars in this thread participating in such stupidity. Many accounts are by high school kids.
Burnouts for the sake of making smoke in my estimation is for those lacking in maturity and intelligence.

 

Most memorable would be at Green Valley drag strip near Dallas in the Summer of 1960. Our AA/F car was next in staging and the car in front was approaching the start line and it was loading up. The driver revved it up to clear out the engine and the throttle stuck wide open. It left the start line in a cloud of tire smoke that it carried the length of the track then uphill through the shutdown area. It continued across the plowed up safety area then through a barbed wire fence and finally stopped in a herd of cows.

 

Most memorable? First some background. I grew up in a small town in South Dakota, along a railroad track where there were similar small towns every 8-10 miles. There was usually quite a rivalry between the high schools in these small towns, which sometimes resulted in the teen age guys hassling the guys from the other towns and just generally raising hell. It was always risky to be dating one of the girls from the rival towns. We would often caravan 3-6 cars to a neighboring town, tear up the streets (usually no cops anywhere close by) and head back to home turf. On one occasion one of the studs from Spencer was in our town on a Saturday night with a hotted-up ex cop car Ford Galaxie 390, and decided to make some noise and smoke on main street. He was brake-torquing it, and with the LSD in it both tires were boiling pretty good. He let off the brakes, and kept his foot in it. About 20 yards down the black stripes one wheel hit some oats or whatever slippery shit had fallen off farmer Browns truck earlier in the day, the Ford got out of hand and sideswiped a big elm tree. It was a real sweet deal to see, and was a long time before the stud was back in town.

 

Without wishing to start an argument or get the thread off topic, I want to say one thing. We are talking about hot rods and muscle cars here, none of it’s necessary. It’s all for the sake of fun, and if that’s what was fun at the time, it’s no more stupid than any other part of this wonderful hobby

Now for my story, I’m currently interning at a performance machine shop in my town, and we were moving a 360 mopar into the shop with the forklift. Well, the damned old thing ran out of propane about 10 feet from the door. We didn’t have another good tank, so with the forklift in the way of everything we had to push it in some how. Enter the 5.0 mustang race car that’s has been sitting around the shop, fully caged, fire system, totally striped down, trailer-to-the-track race car. Well, it’s the only running thing that no one cares about, we the shop owner idles it up to the back of the forklift, and try’s to push it by slipping the clutch just a little, this didn’t work. So, next option, let the clutch out, and steadily poor on the gas more and more until it moves. I swear I will never forget the sight of that mustang boiling the tires while pushing that forklift in the shop at about 1 MPH. The back room was full of tire smoke for hours.

See! Some burnouts have a purpose!


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If you got to ask...you obviously don't understand

 

As I was driving around in my 68 fastback still in high school, 390 C6, my cohorts in crime suggested a burnout at the end of the road, a "TEE" intersection. The 390 loved burnouts, and soon we had smoke entering through speaker holes, through rust holes, and we're laughing our ass off. Looking to the right, we see a State Trooper with headlights and beacons activated. Tail tucked, I creeped toward the shoulder. The smoke had completely filled the intersection from tree line to tree line, it was hard to gather our composure for what was coming given our accomplishment. To our amazement, the trooper must have been going on another call, because he flew through the smoke screen and we couldn't see him afterward. High tailed it out of there and left the car parked all weekend.

 

To appreciate what a burnout is you'd had to have seen Animal Jim Fuerer in his Mercury Zepher doing an 1/8th mile burnout and opening that roof hatch to let out smoke while backing up. Just fucking Awesome!

 

Back in the early 60's I had an ex Connecticut State Police Ford Fairlane tudor. It came from the factory with 330 horsepower 390" V-8, and factory bucket seat, 3 on the tree. There was a local guy that had an Oldsmobile powered 1949-1950 Ford tudor, with a LaSalle transmission. He was always bragging about how fast his car was, and wanted to race my big Ford. Well we were in a parking lot one day, and I said okay. I backed out of my parking space quickly, and as I was still rolling backwards I shifted to second gear momentarily to stop the synchros, and immediately dropped the transmission into first gear, put the pedal to the metal and dumped the clutch. The tire smoke from my tires looked like a funny car doing a burnout. I said, all right let's go, my tires are warmed up now. He chickened out and said he was having transmission problems. Needless to say, he never challenged me again.

 

When I was 16 or 17 I stuffed a 327 in a 75 Chevy Monza coupe with a Saginaw 4 speed. I took it down to the only gas station in my 2 light town and after putting $5 in it I noticed some girls walking down the street...I was going to impress them with a smokey burnout.
I looked left and right for cops and seeing the coast was clear I rev'd er up and dumped the clutch
I throw some smoke in the air and let up on the throttle to gain some traction and hightail it out of there but the car dosent move...I pop the door open and look back and see the rear tires are buried almost up to the rims in the fresh asphalt they put down in the parking lot earlier that day. It was about this time that I see old man Love (the owner of the H.G. Love service station) coming across the parking lot waving a piece of broom handle in a very threatening manner...
I got the car to roll out of the holes I dug and I high tailed it out of there.
Later that day when I got home my dad comes out and looks at the quarters of the car (still covered in the evidence) and asked me if there was anything I wanted to tell him.
Needless to say, I pumped gas and checked oil at the (now full service) H.G. Love service station all summer for free...
Old man Love is long gone and the service station is now a 7-11 but I can't drive past that place without laughing.

 

Reminds me of when I was 16 and had just gotten a job working at a local service station. We had a car wash next to the station and I was given the task of washing the owners 68 Ford Galaxy. Had a 390 with column shift. I decided to do a little burnout coming out of the exit. Got the tires spinning as I turned towards the parking lot. As I was turning, I hooked up and crashed it into the row of arborvitae.
I had a great boss and he told me some stories of foolish stuff previous employees he had had done.
Man, we all had so many great times there over the following 8 years.


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There was a kid in high school that had a 55 Chevy with a 327 standard. One day he shows up without the hood and a blower on top of the motor. There was nothing in the blower just a sealed blower case with a carb on top and no belt. Running into the blower case was a copper line attached to a can to starting fluid which came off of some sort of heavy diesel equipment. Well he pulls out front of the school and does a burn out, turn around and while performing the same feat only this time with the starting fluid, blows the blower case apart.

 

Since this thread has sorta morphed into "Stupid Shit We Used To Do" I thought I'd jump in here a mirth-provoking story.
Back in the late '70s I worked for my brother who rented a small shop which was originally a stable for the horses that used to pull trolleys way back when. I did body/paint work and some mechanical stuff and he did the heavy mechanical stuff. Right next door was a store that sold beer and probably a few other things. Doritos. Do the math. Our motto was " If It Fits Through The Door, We'll Work On It". Lawnmowers to motorhomes, what's the difference?
So one day we get this '70 Toyota wagon with rust up to the door handles with a slipping clutch and hopes from the customer that WE were going to be the guys to get this thing ready for a sticker. Not happening, so we sort of inherited it. Hmmm.... where's the fun? There's a small field of dead grass next to the shop with one tree, perfect for leaning the front bumper against and a cinder block on the gas pedal, in gear, and stand back and wait for the inevitable. BIG noise when it came and an immediate need to run and put out the 20 grass fires where all the hot pieces landed. This thing really came unglued. With all the fires starting to take on a life of their own, prudence made a rare appearance and we pushed it back in front of the shop. Fire department took care of the rest.
But why stop now. Curiosity got the better of one of us to see what happens if you turn the key. I forget who, but the key got turned. It starts. The input shaft of the trans snags SOMETHING still hanging off the end of the crankshaft except it's maybe 3" eccentric from where it should be causing the whole car to lurch in ways few have ever seen. Mechanical bull would be the closest. I look across the street to the gas station and the 3 guys who work there are all doubled over holding their stomach. A front fender falls off the car, immediately followed by the complete exhaust system. I did say it was rusty. Now those 3 are on the ground crying. "Thank you, you've been a wonderful audience, we'll be here all week........"

 

Just as I posted. More burnout information from 16-17 year old high school kids. Real Hot Rodders do their burnouts out at the track.

 

Great. You've surmised that lots of burn outs are done by high school kids. Better to be a high schooler in a cool car doing a burn out, than flunking school and being a burnout.

You live a pretty good life if the only thing you have to get grumpy about is tire smoke.

 

Real hot rodders is a subjective term.
Besides, I’m not asking for only legally and responsibility performed acts. Because we all know that is not all that is done in the real world. Especially by young foolish youth.
Which is when most of us get these kinds of shenanigans out of our system.
Besides, they sometimes end up being pretty funny in hindsight. Again that is also subjective.


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I reread all the posts in this thread. Almost all of these burnout accounts were supposedly accomplished by children ages 10 through high school.
Thats my point. Burnouts for the sake of making smoke is not an endeavor performed by responsible adults.
I'm also quite sure many of these so called burnout accounts are figments of imagination.

 

Nuf said...

 

Another dumb-ass high school story... The most spectacular burnout I ever saw, and done at night...

One of the local 'hot rodders' owned a '56 Ford wagon with a 262 Ford truck six dropped in. Not much for top end, but with 4.10 rear gears it was a pretty good stoplight bandit. He usually ran cheater slicks, but it was winter and there'd been some ice on the roads so he'd fitted some studded snow tires. I think he forgot he had them on; anyway, he starts to pull out of the DQ and lights 'em up. The sparks were spectacular, especially when they started making a 'ring of fire' on the tire. The crowd egged him on... Unfortunately, it went sideways quickly; as the tire heated up, it started spitting the studs out and people were running and ducking for cover as they ricocheted around the parking lot! As far as I know nobody got hurt, it was sheer luck!

 

Best: Jungle Jim Liberman, at Toronto International Dragway.

 

You must have had a dull childhood being that you were born a mature adult. The stupid things I did were not a figment of my imagination and I have some scars to prove it along with witnesses. One gains wisdom by doing stupid things and then learning what not to do in the future.

Denny

 

Can't ever learn to old and wise if you aren't ever young and crazy

 

You lucky dog! if only that bus was running late, we still might have that legend around

 

They used to book in a lot of good cars:
Snake, Mongoose, Jungle, etc.

 

Not mine, but I witnessed it... YEARS ago at the street machine nationals in Springfield, MO, on the streets after the show closed for the day it's like a big car party. One of the party things is burnouts. So a big group of people are standing around this one area on the street somewhere with a car in the middle frying the tires. Some guys are pushing it side to side, lots of smoke, lots of people crowded around yelling and having a good ole time, then one of tires pops!! Pieces of hot tire are flying everywhere, people getting hit, it was mayhem. Then the next car came and did it again. Good times.

 

I saw some of those crazy burnouts too at the Springfield Nats years ago in a shopping center parking lot near the host hotels. Cops were there too-let it go on til 10:00 then shut it down. In high school (Chowchilla Ca-1960) I had a 57 Pontiac that would light em up pretty good if you powerbraked it and turned it loose. Last day of school after graduation I really lit it up right in front of the school as did a few others. Cops finally came and just told us to quit and go home. Small town where everyone knew everyone-folks found out later but no big deal.

 

Wasn't really a burnout, gravel street, lots of rocks! That's me in the passengers seat. this is the first run of this car, the late John Fleckenstein's "T-Soto".