I've seen vids of people at the track, and they always do a burnout before running. How is it that you can hold the front wheels in place while spinning the back ones?

Handbrake does all tires right?

 

Actually the handbrake would only lock the rear wheels.

If the rear wheels are spinning such that they get no traction, then the car won't move forward until it gets friction.

To do this, the driver revs the motor, then dumps the clutch. This is extremely harsh on a car, especially the S with it's Limited Slip Differential, and relatively weak clutch. it's also hard to do with an S do to the relatively low torque.

Basically: done right=cool. Done wrong=expensive repairs not covered my warrenty or insurance.

 

this is called a Brake-Stand

The guy starts out with his right foot doing a heel toe in which he is holding the down the brake while applying throttle. As he applies throttle he is letting the clutch out to get the gear engaged. And quickly move the left foot over to the brake pedal to take over while the right foot slides over to continue throttling. With the brakes on, the front wheel is stationary while the back wheel is breaking lose and doing the burnout.

Slowly ease off the gas and the car will inch forward, or totally let go and the car will launch .

 

it also helps that cars with slicks get to pass through the water box. the water aids in the tires breaking traction.

 

I heard that burning out before you drag race on street tires is useless. Is that true? I hear smoking the tires are only for slicks to heat them up to optimal temp. Is doing it to street tires just wearing them down?

 

I'm not an expert at this, but a Physics professor years ago told me that spinning the tires like this heated the tread up, making the surface gummy. This increases the coefficient of friction dramatically. In fact, dragsters gain so much traction that their acceleration actually exceeds the pull of gravity.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by revhi
[B]I heard that burning out before you drag race on street tires is useless.

 

With an automatic transmission, holding the brakes while powering up the motor until the rear wheels brake loose and spin is called a "static torque."

 

So far it sounds like you've got one foot planted on the brake, and the other foot, finessing the gas to make the wheels spin.

Well if you are doing this Brake-Stand...do you ever take your foot off the brake? Otherwise, wouldn't you be destroying your brake pads?

 

its also called "brake torqing"