Friends, there’s a valuable lesson to be learned from this video. Actually, there are several lessons buried within this 20-minute video, not the least of which being the consequences of repeatedly bouncing an engine off its rev limiter. Also, call the fire department at the first sign of a car fire, because small half-empty bottles of water are absolutely useless when it comes to extinguishing such high-temperature blazes.

This life-lesson occurred in Westlake, Texas and comes to us from Sinclair Photos on YouTube. We don’t know the details of the car in question, other than it’s a current-generation Ford Mustang with a thumping 5.0-litre V8 under the bonnet. The clip starts off with the Mustang spinning some wicked donuts – not an uncommon thing at late-night car meets. This particular owner, however, feels compelled to keep the skinny pedal mercilessly pinned to the floor when half-throttle should’ve been plenty to toss the Mustang’s backside around the lot.

As such, all those high revs and unburnt fuel literally set the exhaust on fire. We don’t know the exact point of ignition, but judging by the glow under the car, we’d guess the catalytic converters were hot enough to melt. That’s lesson number one.

Gallery: Mustang fire after donuts

Lesson number two comes shortly after the fire is discovered. Folks, tossing tiny cups of liquid underneath a car with glowing hot exhaust won’t do even a teeny bit of good, and actually, it might anger the car gods enough to just send the whole thing up in a massive fireball. If you’re going to play with big horsepower, always have a fire extinguisher nearby. Unfortunately, when extinguishers finally did show up, it was too late. That’s lesson number two.

As for lesson number three, we don’t know when the fire department was finally called, but it seems like a lot of time was wasted between the first realisation that something was wrong, and when the fire truck finally showed up. Perhaps the driver was scared of getting in trouble – not to mention the massive crowd on hand more interested in filming than helping. If your car catches on fire and you can’t get it out in 30 seconds call the fire department. Immediately.

We’re glad nobody was hurt in this blaze, but it’s sad to see a Mustang lost due to so much ignorance.