In a high-friction durability test between a doughy Michelin Pilot Cup and a granite-hard road surface, you’d think the bitumen would walk it…

Surely the tread would erode first, evaporating into plumes of acrid smoke, moments before a catastrophic blow out? But the Shelby GT350R Mustang doesn’t play by the rules – burnouts are its thing. The road doesn’t melt its tyres; its tyres melt the road.

No, seriously. I’ve just created a miniature pond by pouring half a pint of mineral water into one of two blackened hollows that the Stang has burrowed into the tarmac using nothing but the power of line-lock and 519 all-American bhp. I’m surprised the road didn’t concertina up behind us like a Looney Tunes carpet and the Earth isn’t spinning a little quicker on its axis. Then again, perhaps it is.

Photography: Webb Bland

This feature was originally published in the May 2016 issue of Top Gear Magazine.