Awesome Burnouts

Well, here’s something you don’t see every day. While attending a Burnout Rivals event at Bradenton, Florida’s Freedom Factory, gearhead JBens spotted something other than a car or truck. While the wingless Spirit of LeMons Cessna has no ability to take flight, it sure can lay down rubber on the tarmac.

Annie Koehler is 79 years old and drives a restored 1957 Cadillac. She also loves to smoke its tires. The Drive met up with the burnout queen to hear her story and how she came to love classic cars with big block V8s. Annie has won numerous burnout contests with her Coupe de Ville and its wonderful whitewall tires. (Thanks, Rob!)

We’ve seen (and smelled) our share of smoked tire rubber over the years, but we’re totally captivated by Engineering Explained’s video of a burnout captured in front of a $40,000 FLIR T1K thermal camera that shows exactly which parts of the tires and brakes get hottest.

We’ve seen plenty of smoky burnouts, but these guys took things to another level by spinning the tires of a dragster in a pool of flaming gasoline. It’s a short clip, but like the old saying goes, “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”