Why do people do burnouts?

[katou]

Seriously, what's the deal with doing burnouts?

It's like people think that the Ultimate Test of their machine is it's ability to lose traction with the ground.

Doesn't this just show that the wheel isn't sticky/wide enough?

It reminds me of this commercial where there's a Honda Civic and a big old Chevy racing. Civic has a fella driving with his girlfriend, Chevy is some greaser giving the girl the eye. The light goes, and the Chevy rear end starts drifting around and the Civic just drives off, winning the race handily. It's an advert for their traction-control system.

That really brought home to me the truth: If a wheel is spinning, it's not doing it's job.

Is this burnout business just macho BS? Or has an acceleration test been superfluous all these years and no one told me?

Katou

ps. I wonder what would be required to maintain traction with the highest power levels?

 

[liveforphysics]

At a race-track, the burnout is critical. The sticky tires "sugar cookie" on normal asphalt or concrete from sucking up all the loose rocks and sand onto them, and they hold it. Same thing happens on the street with a good drag radial, if you don't give it a couple seconds to get them scrubbed clean, you're trying to launch with a thousand little marbles between you and the asphalt, which = fail.

Secondly, on a modern racing compound tire, you can improve the traction coefficient by 30% or so from the difference in the compounds chemical adhesion between room-temp and say 200degF.

Also, it's a very common misconception you can thank your high-school physics teacher for when he told you static friction is always higher than dynamic friction. In the case of surfaces that conform and/or have adhesion functions, this is often quite the opposite.

Tuning in the correct amount of slip for the tire/car/suspension/clutch is a dark art. If you're not spinning the slick, you've lost. If you spin the slick too fast, you've lost. There is a sweet spot, and when you tune the setup to just ride that sweet-spot of just the right amount of spin, it's heavenly. You're limiting power so the car is just on the verge of bogging, and just on the verge of exploding into uncontrolled wheel-spin. To get this, you gotta have the tires at the right temp everytime, so you watch the smoke. On a cold morning I might need to spin-em for 10-seconds before I see it that dense white boiling up off fenders that tells me the tires have softened just right, on a hot summer day, maybe only 3 seconds gets it done (the surface is a big factor as well, sometimes the street takes like 10-15seconds to get the tires soft).

Video of my race car owning everything because of holding the perfect amount of slip.
[youtube]p-FcG01qIQI[/youtube]

Car's that have longer delays before they get to launch have to roll-out past the ideal temp to compensate for the cooling that will occur in the 30-45seconds it will take before they launch.
[youtube]mKY86ezLIGU[/youtube]

It's also just an expression of joy and fun. Sometimes, like this guy, you just don't wanna stop spinning even after they catch fire, and you wanna take it until your engine also explodes from over heating. That's fairly common end-of-season type stuff. That tired-ass engine is getting swapped out over the winter, the slicks have been heat-cycled too many times to be competitively sticky anymore (even when you soak them in acetone towels the night before the race), and it's time to go out with some smoke, flames, and it's time to get those piston rings up into the supercharger for good measure. PS: My dad's last blower actually did have piston rings lodged into the faces of rotors when we took it apart to see why it was down a couple PSI of boost. lol Ooops!

This guy has the right spirit.
[youtube]2ozQFG-HbGI[/youtube]

 

[liveforphysics]

Also, if you're feeling down, converting a 1/4 or so of the tread on a perfectly good set of tires into smoke has a remarkable way of sticking a smile on your face, and the face of your buddies that stays in place for a good amount of time, and then every time you pass by the nice dark squiggly art you left on the street, you can't help smile.

Even when you don't see it, like when you're laying in bed or something, and outside you hear some powerful monster clearing it's throat, making a nice long mechanical roar with the tones of some poor tires screaming for mercy, it's just impossible not to have a big dopey ear-to-ear smile appear on your face.

A rubber and horsepower fueled area-of-effect anti-depressant.

 

[itchynackers]

Liveforphysics is right. A friction curve will show that the right amount of slippage has more friction.

 

[katou]

But on an Ebike?

Katou

 

[liveforphysics]

But on an Ebike?

Katou

On an ebike, it's simply an expression. The tires dont change much with heat, and a proper rwd bike will just wheelie.

There is a saying, "smoke'em if you got 'em!"

Where the first "'em" means tires.
The second "'em" means:


The courage to risk the ticket.
The skills to not wreck while doing it.
Decressionary income.
Confidence in your engine/drivetrain.
A second means of transportation in the event of mechanical failure.
Balls.



That said, I dont burn out unless I'm just prepping the tires to race. Guys that race very frequently seldom feel the need to do expression burnouts....but once in a while, it does really hit the spot.

 

[Lessss]

Why do people do burnouts?

Small penis size

 

[AussieJester]

This guy has the right spirit.

[youtube]2ozQFG-HbGI[/youtube]


WooTz Thats an Aussie in an Australian made HR Holden Luke
with a very non-civic like sewing machine motor under..erm outta the hood

Speaking of burnouts, guess whos off to the 'Grand Opening' this Saturday night Luke

View attachment Grand_Opening.JPG

T'will be Huuuuge ... WoooHooooo... :lol:

KiM

 

[John in CR]

Why do people do burnouts?

Small penis size

Excluding those necessary before a race, I thought it resulted from too much tire smoke inhalation watching others doing burnouts, so it's a contagious thing. My favorite is burning up an ebike hub motor tire till it blows. Removing a hubmotor wheel sucks, so why create that extra work for nothing? Why stop at just the tire if you're feeling destructive...burn that tire off and get it down to a steel rim and just keep on going, shooting sparks everywhere, which is at least as impressive as stinky black smoke.

Just F'ing with the guys who are into it. As long as I don't have to smell it, whatever floats your boat whether I understand it or not. I'm sure it was a tire company guy that came up with the burnout contest idea. Drifting too for that matter. 8)

John

 

[grindz145]

I equate burnouts with knuckle-dragging Harley riders. Though, as a corner case, LFP demonstrates there are some uber-intelligent individuals who partake... just not many

 

[katou]

Carbide spiked tires, burnout on thick (road repair) steel plate.

Now THAT would be something to see!!

Thanks for the education Luke, I now see burnouts differently. I've seen them do it at races on tv in pools of alcohol, what's that all about?

Katou

 

[AussieJester]

I've seen them do it at races on tv in pools of alcohol, what's that all about?

Its not alcohol its VHT Trackbite its oober stick gear that improves the traction between tire and asphalt ...cept when wet...turns to splooge then and the racing meeting is canceled :: sigh ::

I equate burnouts with knuckle-dragging Harley riders.

More like the asian guys in their ricer cars with sewing machine motors ...then again i have seen a few Harley GayVidsons do burnouts
one very recently as a matter of fact, I gave him the encouragement he deserved to

KiM

 

[Ykick]

I had to dig this one out...



The Bleach thing is interesting because I've poured Bleach on tires in order to get better traction on ice. Story is - parked on slab of ice in front of my barn one cold morning the old truck wouldn't budge forward or reverse. Tires just spinning no matter what.

'really needed it inside to repair something and then I remembered hearing how Chlorine Bleach would give tires better grip. Poured some on, waited a few minutes and the old truck pulled right inside with barely any tire slippage.

'never did that on pavement for burnout but I guess some do? I just don't wanna waste good tires doing a burnout if I really don't need to do a burnout for some technical reason.