Stupid question about ""burnouts""

JPhil

JPhil

Huh?
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Messages
1,360
Location
Loveland, Colorado, USA
My hotrod buddies keep pressuring me to do a big ol' tire smokin' burnout for them. They get a kick out of 'em & do 'em fairly often. (Especially after a good 'hotrod night' when everyone is leaving the shop) I keep saying no because I don't want to waste my tires & fry my brakes on such a stupid stunt. However, I will be putting on new tires soon so I can sacrifice the old ones now.

So now I'm inquiring: since I don't have a line lock and will just have to ride the brakes while I'm doing this (it will be for a picture to go on their shop wall), is this going to glaze my brake pads or possibly warp a rotor? I'm not too worried about warping a rotor, but I don't want to glaze up & wear down brake pads for a pointless stunt.

I've always been real conservative about this kind of stuff, my shit has always run good enough to surprise people when the moment comes down to prove it, but I don't care for showing off. But I also sorta feel like I owe it to these guys, they've helped me a lot with this car. Plus I just want a picture of my car on the wall dammit! It's all Camaros, Chevelles, Mustangs, Novas--not one 'Vette.

So, is it gonna fuck up my rear brakes to give 'em a big ol' smokin' burnout?

:D
 
quit being a wimp and just do it. You're not going to mess anything up. My biggest concern is a cop writing you up. You mentioned you got caught 20 over a while back so you don't want to lose your license over this. I got my license suspended in Colorado when i had the GN. They're pretty much nazis there. An alternative would be to take it to Bandamere on Friday night and do the burnouts. I've got a pict of my GN there totally engulfed in smoke.

i would suggest you practice somewhere alone before the big moment just in case you don't have enough oomph to break them loose.

I suggest you place the t400 in first gear to prevent an upshift and bog like mine does.

Be careful and leave plenty of space in front of you and to the sides. If the tires catch you will be sent slingshoting forward or sideways.

My car would not do a burn out with 3.08 gears. It just couldn't break traction on dry pavement. With the 4.56 it will still not do a proper burnout. It will sit there screeming at 6000rpm for a long time but the tires don't turn fast enough to smoke. It could also be that the tires are too hard a compound, but anything should smoke if you get it hot enough. If i try to upshift to 2nd it bogs and grabs traction.

Another problem is the rear brake pads start to heat and start grabbing better which can kill the rear wheel spin. Sometimes my front brakes don't hold and the car accelerates forward.

It's not going to be as easy to do as you think.
 
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hmmm, i dunno about powerbraking a vette. there's 4-wheel discs for a reason. are donuts or powercircles out of the question? i see a whole lot of competing physics involved in doing a burn-out without a line lock. if you have the room to do donuts, it's actually very easy on the car once you get it in motion. i was in a "smoky tire" contest one time at a track where we had plenty of room. a guy said he couldn't believe how i would beat up on my car like that. i was surprised.
"how am i beating up on my car? i launch hard and cut the wheels to break traction, shift to second gear and keep the RPMs at a steady 3000, turn the wheel to maintain slip until i get tired or start to feel light headed".
 
The way the Corvette's brakes are biased I wouldn't be worried about them killing engine power or hurting anything. When you get comfortable doing burn-outs, you can try releasing just enough pedal pressure to help with the smoke...After you learn on an auto try power braking a stick....:rofl:
 
I read once, I can't remember where, that doing a brake stand to smoke the rear wheels in a Corvette isn't such a good idea. One runs the risk of heating up the rear brakes to a point of transferring heat to the rear whell bearing grease and causing it to get runny and possibly run out. I dunno, could happen I guess.
 
IMO That's BS, that would mean that doing some hard braking would boil out the grease also. I'm with G here.
 
big_G said:
When you get comfortable doing burn-outs, you can try releasing just enough pedal pressure to help with the smoke...
Click to expand...

Yes, i was going to say that also but my post was already too long. Its a fine art. I must have done a 100 street burnouts in that Grand National. You want to be on the brakes hard until the tires break and get up to speed then release enough pressure to ease up on the rear without allowing the car to start rolling out too fast.

Twin_Turbo said:
IMO That's BS, that would mean that doing some hard braking would boil out the grease also. I'm with G here.
Click to expand...

X3 You won't get the rear brakes any hotter than doing some spirited driving or mountain driving.
 
big_G said:
The way the Corvette's brakes are biased I wouldn't be worried about them killing engine power or hurting anything. When you get comfortable doing burn-outs, you can try releasing just enough pedal pressure to help with the smoke...After you learn on an auto try power braking a stick....:rofl:
Click to expand...

I still haven't figured out how to toe the brake and hold the gas:smash:
 
clutchdust said:
seriously, you don't have room to just do donuts?
Click to expand...

He needs to walk before he runs. Not a good idea. You need a bunch of room for that and i would advise bystanders stand several hundred feet away, then what's the point. Uneven loading of the tires makes it more likely it will catch and slingshot him in an unknown direction. Disorientation from the spinning around won't help either.

Do you have a lot of experience doing this.? I'd love to see some picts.
 
well, i wouldn't say i have "a lot", but i have enough. i feel far more comfortable personally doing donuts than trying to powerbrake. maybe i'll get some video next time.
 
"Thanks all for your interest" :D

No, these burnouts take place in the parking lot of the little industrial park where the shop is. Private property & there's two other hotrod fab shops, a hotrod paint & body shop as well as HVAC & plumbing & electric & animal supply shops. The independant Harley shop went under last year. Sad. The animal supply folks are the odd ones out, although they are good people. Burnouts are pretty common here, but no room for donuts. I'd rather do donuts, I used to do them all the time in the snow or dirt when I was younger but must admit I've never done 'dry land' donuts. ("Disorientaion from spinning around" :yahoo: I've lived with that most of my life! It's when I'm oriented that I feel uncomfortable) I really don't go for that kind of stuff anymore. I'd rather just drink beer & laugh & watch others do it. If I'm going to impress my peers, I much prefer to do it by taking a hard right turn way too fast for the hotrod boys or a tight curve 25 MPH entrance ramp at 40+ & then accelerating through the S-curves to enter the merge lane doing 90....(which is still pussyshit for a lot of the cars I know are here, but I do have to keep in mind my driving record of late....) The sudden clenching of their body and gasp followed by "Shi-it!" gives me a better feeling of accomplishment. And when we get back to the shop with the parts and they tell the others, "Yeah John's car runs OK. Handles pretty good. Scared the crap outta me", well, that's when I feel like maybe I've done OK.

I won't worry about my rear brakes, yeah, just shut the fuck up & do it.

It'll be "next pay period" at the soonest before I do this, ( I'm chasing down some other problems on the car right now) but yes I'll post of photo---christ I feel like I'm preparing for a bar-mitzvah or cataclysm or something now....
:lol::lol:
 
sounds like you're in the same kind of place i'm in. i do donuts in between the two buildings back where the dumpster is. a little more room that way. only problem now is i have good tires on the car that are 1) sticky, and 2) noisy.
i can generally only get 4 or 5 good donuts in before the smoke and noise starts to attract attention. if we'd ever get some goddamn rain out here, i'd really spin 'em up.
 
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