are burnouts REALLY necessary?

I know the pros and cons of doing a pre-run burnout.

Pros: 1) get the tires and engine up to operating temperature; 2) lay down some sticky rubber patches to aid in the launch.

Cons: 1) additional wear to expensive parts that reduces their operational lifetime; 2) risk of parts failure and an aborted run; 3) need for a reverse gear and its possible malfunction.

The cons seem to outweigh the pros, especially when other solutions are possible. The engine could be warmed up without doing a burnout. The tires could be precisely and individually heated with tires warmers -- possibly providing the crewchief with another tuning parameter.

I've seen both alcohol and fuel cars that have problems starting, resulting in no burnout or a very short one. They still managed very strong runs.

Could someone educate me on this?

 

burn out

hell the burn out is what made drag racing what it is today quit doing burn outs and the spectators will slowly go away that is one of the things that drew me to it when I was a kid but I see the point hey do what I did get a drag boat no tires to burn and there are usually half of the spectators

 

The Burn Out Is The Best Part Fill Up The Cockpit With Smoke Cant See Nothing What A Deal

 

Yeah you woudn't want to heat the lake up with a burnout it seems to me, if the the water is colder it would be more dense and give better bite! LOL

 

Do you even race? If you did, you'd already know the answer to this.

 

the cool water helps but dirty water muddy hooks up better than clear water at least for a jet

 

it would be like golf without balls....and NO I don't golf..

 

burnouts are far out.

after all the work I do and the money I spent, the burnout is my time for fun. I matchrace mostly with my car. there is NOTHING better than doing a full 1/4 mile burnout!!! I can still remember the crowd reaction when I did a loooong one in billings. the crowd was on its feet. If you cant be fast be spectactular. who sells tire warmers?

 

Burn outs

There's nothing better than hitting the throttle and felling the rear of the car snap up, then the smoke starts to blow around your feet. Nothing like it, man I have to get out on the track again!!!!!!!!!!

 

the burnout is probably the most fun!! and for the crowd too

tyre warmers wouldn't put any rubber down on the track to give you a good launch groove

and yes I've seen fuellers run 4's (only just coming to be common place in Europe for a 4 second field) without a burnout but that was on an exceptional track in warm weather, on a marginal track theres no chance

 

Exactly, we've all seen it happen, but to happen regularly, I doubt it, and if so, it's only going to be on a Nat'l event prepped track. If I don't do a good burnout, the only direction I won't be pointing is straight ahead, but then again that's why I have an altered in the first place............

Hey Craig,
You're absolutely right about the muddy water giving better bite, sure makes for a nasty looking rooster-tail though.

 

just sit in a blown fuel car once, roll thru the water and light the sneakers up past half track, and you will see why the burnout is the best part of the run...besides that nice comforting feeling when the chutes hit!

 

i had a goodyear tech explain it to me like this one time...


most burnouts today are entirely too long 'for what the purpose of the burn out is'. the tires are basically impregnated with a traction compound that he likened to contact cement. and the burn out only needs to be long enough to raise the temperature of the rubber enough to cause this compound to rise to the surface of the tire. at the point when the tire begins to smoke the compound has reached the surface and is what initiates the smoking. there for a slight hazing of the tires is all that is needed according to this goodyear tech that i spoke with. anything longer than that is truly unnecessary... but sooo damn fun.

 

more burnout info

While on the subject of the science, long burnouts in cool weather to heat the tire are a bit self canceling. The long burnout heats the tire real well. But then the car backs up over a longer distance on a cold track. That quenches the tire surface. And you are back to where you started. That may be the reason for watching various cars run well with little or no burnout. For heating the tire in cool weather, probably fry the daylights out of it up to the starting line, then hit the brakes. Back up and hope for the best. We did some heat gun studies of surface tire temperature and found about a 10 to 15 deg. increase in surface temperature after a burn out. But we did not do enough testing to determine any conclusions. A lot of bracket racers I have talked to said really frying the tire in the burnout box helps with the ET. But again no one has ever shared any actual data.
Tech info from other sports reveal rubber tire temperatures of 180 for max traction in some roundy-round sports. That is a bit hard to reach in the drags. In addition, the surface temperature goes way up on the run. But anytime the tire is still, the surface is quenched by the rest of the tire as well as the pavement against the tire. Data indicate surface temperatures of several hundred degrees in F1 in some cases from sliding. But it immediately drops as it leaves the surface.
A 5.60 TAFC racer told me when he has done long burnouts and had to shut down immediately after words for whatever reason aborting the run, subsequent checking has never revealed any problems from the burnout. The engine and drive line are not loaded. RPM is the only risk. Long burnouts with a blown engine on an ignition interrupt rev limiter is hard on blower belts (discussed elsewhere in this site) and cranks.
bob szabo, author 5000 Horsepower on Methanol & Fuel Injection Racing Secrets
www.racecarbook.com

 

burn outs

hey guys, do you when it started or who started it. it was big daddy don garlits. from when he would roll up on the old tracks he would have stones and shtt on the tires so he would do a burn out to get them clean before the run.

 

It is generaly accepted that a cool track has better tracdtion. Now if you are on a 140 degree track why do you want to do a big burnout and also raise the tire temp? I drove TF cars in the old days and loved the burnouts but to me now all a big burnout does is use up more fuel and put more wear on the tires. Hell if it wasn't for having to roll through the water box most cars running on a well prepped track would probably be better off not doing a burnout. I to have seen some really great runs from cars that barely got the tires dry!!!
I try to moderate the burnout rpm as I don't really think it is a big deal to the 5 or 6 people in the stands one way or the other.

 

Some of the guys already touched on this: a short just wisp 'em type burnout is all that is needed. Long smokey ones are for the crowds in the stands who pay the bills and give us a place to race. We are in the entertainment business first and racing second. That's why we stuff all kinds of people in the seat when in the pits. I want these guys to remember us and tell the track people and media that they really liked us. That's what gets us asked back. A local track owner told me that Shirley was worth 10,000 people when she appeared, we on the other hand were only worth 3000. That's why we work the crowd so hard. We get 25 runs from a set of slicks with long burnouts. I'll spend the extra to please the fans. Never noticed any difference from long to short burns in performance. Launch time produced tire temps within 5* Fahrenheit.