Exotic car enthusiasts everywhere seem to be plagued by the common question, “can it do a burnout?” It’s a seemingly simple question in itself, but there is a lot of physics behind doing a burnout that makes the action itself less than simple. While muscle cars like the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette can masterfully conduct a burnout, that isn’t the case for all cars. Electric cars make the task even harder, but can the high-horsepower Porsche Taycan tackle the challenge?

The simple answer

The simple answer to the question is no, the Porsche Taycan cannot do a burnout. If you were to talk to a Taycan owner or call a Porsche dealership and ask, they would respond with absolute certainty — and, of course, a tinge of disgust. But then again, just because most people wouldn’t do a burnout in a Taycan doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t be done. 

How do you do a burnout?

A burnout happens when a car is stationary, and the tires continue to move. This is what happens in almost all of the videos you see where cars are producing a crowd-gathering display of smoke without their car moving — the exception here being when a less-experienced driver tries to show off and instead produces a cloud of smoke as a result of burning their clutch. The physics behind doing a burnout is simple: you need a high horsepower car (check), and contrary to popular belief, you can do a burnout in an automatic. So, it seems like the Taycan has everything we need to do a burnout. So why can’t it?

The Porsche Taycan is too good

As a fully-electric car there is a lot of tech that goes into providing the car with the ride quality and performance that it has. The Taycan’s computer is so good at analyzing what the car is doing that it simply wouldn’t allow the car to do a burnout. While it does produce enough power, it’s ability to remain still makes doing a burnout quite the challenge. In fact, this vehicle is designed to dominate in so many types of inclimate weather you would have a hard time doing anything a standard muscle car could do, from a burnout to a power slide.

You might be disappointed to hear that the Porsche Taycan can’t do a burnout, but the launch control makes up for that in every way imaginable. Anyway, I couldn’t imagine any owner wanting to take their car into the dealership.