Ballistic Fabrication isn’t a standard performance shop: it begs its customers to come by and rip epic burnouts out front so the shop can post the videos on its Facebook page. Unsurprisingly, neighboring businesses are pissed.
One employee of a nearby business told Tucson News Now that all that burnt rubber is scaring the bejesus out of her, saying: “They have almost T-Boned somebody that was coming the other direction. It’s very scary sometimes.”
Look, if you’re going to rip burnouts on public streets, go out to the middle of Podunk, Nowhere like I did so you don’t piss anyone off or put others in danger.
Ballistic Fabrication out of Tucson hasn’t heeded that advice, allegedly encouraging customers to rip smoky, nasty burnouts right in front of its shop, going so far as to set up a Facebook page called “Ballistic Burnout Diaries,” whose “about” section reads:
Come to Ballistic Fabrication with a burnout capable vehicle and you’re going to get harassed to do a burnout and post it here. Rentals get extra points
The news site interviewed the owner of Ballistic, who runs that Facebook page and who admitted that what his customers were doing was dangerous. When asked if he’d tell his customers to lay off on the smoky brake-stands, the the owner responded “I’ll consider it.”
It sucks, because I’m a huge fan of burnouts, and—objectively—some of those burnouts posted to their page are true masterpieces.
But come on, telling people to do burnouts in rental cars and saying you’ll “consider” telling your customers to knock it off after the neighbors have complained? Don’t ruin it for the rest of us, Mr. Ballistic shop owner.
We’ve reached out to Jeff Bullock, the owner of Ballistic Fabrication, for comment but have not heard back yet. I’ll update if we do.
Update:
Jeff Bullock, owner of Ballistic Fabrication, has sent us a response:
As the owner of Ballistic Fabrication and the admin of Ballistic Burnout Diaries, I have changed the title and invitation to encourage our customers to keep the burnouts off the public roads and to bring the power to our private parking lot. Our customers and employees are gear heads and love everything about the culture that makes it possible to own a shop in this market. We’ll continue to cater to the offroad industry as a leader in manufacturing, while promoting the love for the hobby in the safest way possible.
Looks like the burnouts will move to a private parking lot, and off of public roads. Seems like a good compromise to me.