Wheel hop is evil. Stock transmission does not hold up to being bitch slapped.

:slap: that's true for any vehicle.

While this is true there is a difference in running laps properly and doing things to a car that do nothing but put undue stress on the drivetrain. Burnouts in a low power car with sticky tires that are way too big is just asking for things to break

I alluded to the sticky tire / low power thing in my first post.

They do more than just stress the drivetrain. Jfc enjoy your cars. You dont do a quick scuff off before an auto x run or anything?

No. You need to respect your equipment. I come from a place of respect for my cars. Beating the shit out of them is not in my program

:lol: I dont think anyone here is entering burnout competitions. Although a lot of people who aren't enthusiasts would think an HPDE or autox event is beating the shit out of a car.

I do agree about respect for your equipment, especially when there are potential mechanical risks involved. Like a track day, or autocross, drifting, or even daily driving.

For well-understood, controllable reasons, some hold up much better than others.






....ok, yeah.

Burnouts (and drifting) are extremely hard on cars, significantly worse than a track day. Way harder on brakes, bearings, etc.

Lots of variables in that one statement. I would venture a guess that a standing reasonable burnout would be less damaging than multiple track laps.


Obviously you're only using one set of brakes and one set of tires. Bearings, driveline components etc will obviously heat up since there is no air moving plus the initial driveline shock, but if you're smart about easing in to brakes and not being a complete and total idiot and burning your tires to the rim.... lets be honest. Sustained track usage would be more damaging.


Not quite sure where drifting came in to play, as that's a different ball of wax.


At the end of the day this all comes down to a simple mindset. "Use it, break it, fix it, repeat." If you don't want to do that.... don't do anything but drive your car A to B in a sensible manner.

Sorry, but I disagree heartily with some of the opinions expressed here. A burnout isn't anywhere near as hard on a vehicle as a track day. Not even close. I don't know how you even come to that conclusion.

30 seconds of wheel hop would be FAR more destructive than an entire day of 8/10th track time. Track time emphasizes smoothness. Smoothness makes things last. Wheel hop is your driveline acting like a gigantic metal whip, with all that peak shock transmitted back through the suspension, rear diff and transmission to every bearing and bushing in there.

If all that lash and rubber banding were taken out of the system with urethane or delrin everywhere, then the burnout wouldn't be as harsh/less likely to break things. But then you're making the car less pleasant to street.

WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND IS WHEEL HOPPING FOR 30 SECONDS STRAIGHT!?!?!? Gtfoh. A burnout is not the same as straight wheel hopping... you notice wheel hop you get out of it. Ffs....

Also, thanks for emphasizing smoothness, something I have alluded to previously in this thread. :slap:

Thanks for the clarification. If you read the thread again, OP is complaining about wheelhop. If you have a time machine and have jumped into the future when he's replaced all his bushings and suspension pickup points, and is now doing nice smooth burnouts, then you are correct that we don't need to worry about 30 seconds of wheelhop any more. Until then, a 30 second burnout can very likely mean 30 seconds of wheel hop and breakage.

Suggesting that a burnout is more destructive than a track day because of wheel hop is stupid. If you're getting crazy wheel hop during a burnout, you're doing it wrong. By that logic, I could say that street parking your car is more destructive than a track day, if I assume that you suck at street parking and are parking it in a lake...

If you're getting wheel hop during a burnout, you aren't using enough throttle. Wheel hop occurs when you're right on the edge of grip/no grip, and the tire alternates between sticking, and not sticking. If you COMMIT to a burnout, you won't have that issue.

If OP is having issues with wheel hop, people need to tell him what to do to keep that from happening... not tell him that burnouts are worse than track days, lmao.

OP: USE MORE THROTTLE.