She can be seen burning rubber in her Ferrari up and down the streets of Monaco.

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alpacinou

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How common is the idiom "burn rubber"? Are these correct and natural?

1. Ana is a nocturnal creature. Most nights, she can be seen burning rubber in her Ferrari up and down the streets of Monaco.
2. Let's go to the track to burn some rubber.
3. People don't buy a Lamborghini to drive carefully. You should burn rubber in this car.
4. He is crazy about speed. He has to burn rubber even on the drive to work.
5. I used burn some serious rubber with my Mustang before I sold it.
 
It's fairly common, in the sense that it isn't outdated.

Sentences 1 and 2 sound natural to me. Not so much the other three.
 
Last edited:
Just so I'm clear, are these two sentences okay?

1. Ana is a nocturnal creature. Most nights, she can be seen burning rubber in her Ferrari up and down the streets of Monaco.
2. Let's go to the track to burn some rubber.
 
They're both grammatically correct. To make them more natural (in BrE, at least), I would make the following changes:

1. Most nights, she can be found in her Ferrari, burning rubber around the streets of Monaco. (Note the change of word order.)
2. Let's go to the track and burn [some] rubber.
 
emsr2d2 said:
They're both grammatically correct. To make them more natural (in BrE, at least), I would make the following changes:

1. Most nights, she can be found in her Ferrari, burning rubber around the streets of Monaco. (Note the change of word order.)
2. Let's go to the track and burn [some] rubber.
Click to expand...
And is there a way I can make these work?

3. People don't buy a Lamborghini to drive carefully. You should burn rubber in this car.
4. He is crazy about speed. He has to burn rubber even on the drive to work.
5. I used burn some serious rubber with my Mustang before I sold it.
 
Are these correct and natural sounding to natives?

3. People don't buy a Lamborghini to drive carefully. You should burn serious rubber in this car.
5. I used to burn some serious rubber with my Mustang before I sold it.
 
@alpacinou They're possible. Whether they come natural to you or not probably depends on how much you are interested in drag racing.
 
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