Back in the early 1990s Jay Leno was just getting going with his run on the Tonight Show. His friend, and fellow former standup comedian Tim Allen was doing rather well with his Home Improvement TV show and the start of his movie career. Allen was also about to partake in a successful run with the Saleen racing team. He even drove one of the “RRR” (named after his antics on Home Improvement) racers a few times.

We’re not sure exactly what year this clip is from but Leno and Allen get into a discussion about cars and burning rubber. With both he comedians also big time car guys of course the egos are high. This sets the stage for a burnout contest in the parking lot behind NBC studios. Allen at the time was driving what appears to be a supercharged 1993 Saleen, while Leno has his Shelby Cobra (we’re not sure if it’s a kit). Both claim the cars belong to their wives, and Allen’s even has a child seat strapped in the passenger front seat.

We can see in the video that water was put under the tires of both cars which were “brought around” for the two to do their little burnout contest. Some smokey tire mayhem ensues, although it wasn’t the sort of big tire smoke drifting we see today, this was more about laying strips of rubber than making tire smoke. Hearing the two Ford small blocks roar however is really cool, and watching two rather big celebrities wheel these Fords in some testosterone fueled, teenage level antics was really cool too.

A winner wasn’t officially declared, but this set off a series of burnout contests between Leno and Allen that ended when Leno showed up with a modified Grand National and Allen brought out his Saleen “RRR” racer laying out a massive strip of wide rubber tracks across NBC’s parking lots. If only late night TV were still this much fun to watch.