F-150 Lightning Reveals a Downside of a Massive Burnout

After wowing the crowd with a two-minute-long burnout, this F-150 Lightning had a little fire in the rear brakes.

Ford trucks are great at hauling, towing and doing everything that an average pickup owner could expect, but the F-150 is good at some things that the average pickup owner won’t expect. For instance, the combination of a powerful V8 engine with a rear-wheel-drive configuration where there is very little weight over the rear wheels makes for an awesome burnout machine. That doesn’t matter to most truck owners, but to those who like doing burnouts, V8-powered pickup trucks can put on a great show.

When you add a supercharger to that rear-drive F-150, the tire-slaying capabilities increase exponentially, making the SVT Lightning one of the best factory-built burnout machines that the world has ever seen. Today, we bring you a look at one of the supercharged SVT F-150s as it participates in a burnout competition that nearly goes wrong at the end.

Burnouts with Cletus

The video above comes from the Send Everything YouTube channel and it features this Ford F-150 SVT Lightning participating in the burnout competition at a “Cleetus and Cars” event. Cleetus is the online persona of YouTube celebrity Garrett Mitchell, who is well-known for his Cleetus McFarland YouTube channel. Cleetus features all sorts of high performance fun, focusing on his body-free Corvette named Leroy, which happens to be one of the quickest manually-shifted drag cars in the world.

Mitchell’s popularity online has led to a series of automotive events named “Cleetus and Cars”, playing on “Cars and Coffee” events, but in fine Cleetus fashion, these events are far-wilder than any early morning car cruise. Most notably, these shows have burnout competitions where competitors can destroy tires as Mitchell provides the emcee services.

Lightning, Smoke and Fire

Many burnout competitions are limited to a certain amount of time, typically ranging from 30 to 90 seconds. They do this in an effort to prevent vehicles from blowing engines, setting tires on fire, tearing up the burnout surface or running into any other unforeseen issues that come with longer smoke shows. On the other hand, this F-150 Lightning is free to roast the tires for close to two minutes and we get to see one of those unforeseen issues.

After creating a gigantic cloud of smoke, the driver of this Lightning lets off of the throttle, the burnout ends and the smoke begins to waft away. As the smoke clears, we can see a flicker of fire through the rear wheels and the safety crew runs in to extinguish the flames. For those unsure of what happened, during a burnout where you are holding the vehicle in place with the brakes, there is constant contact between the brake pads and the rotors, leading to an insane amount of heat and, in some cases, fire.

Fortunately, the fire was quickly put out and this F-150 Lightning lived to roast tires another day, so crank up your speakers and enjoy!

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Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

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