Video: why do crazy burnout cars catch fire?

As a general rule, cars and fire shouldn’t mix. Unless you’re in Australia, that is. For some unknown reason, Down Under they don’t really seem bothered when their cars turn into raging infernos while doing massive burnouts.

Actually, they’re so blasé about the whole holy-moly-my-car-is-on-fire! thing, they've made an event out of it.

Just why do their cars morph from jolly noisy smoke screens into four-wheeled flamethrowers? Well, there are many reasons. Far too many complicated reasons for us to get our heads around. Thankfully, some brains from the Aussie burnout brigade have outlined them for your pleasure in the video above.

If you don’t want to know the science behind making your car spit rivers of fire from the back wheels, you can simply skip all the speaky bits and just watch high-horsepower V8 scorch large parts of Australia. The choice is yours.