Motor vehicle safety standard MVSS 302 applies to the flammability of certain materials found in automotive interiors. A burn test was developed to investigate the flammability characteristics of selected automotive polymers under more severe fire conditions than those used for the MVSS 302 standard. The test was conducted using two infrared heaters to warm up the surfaces of the sample from both sides, to a desired temperature, prior to ignition. For this report samples were mounted at a 45°angle, and ignited using a :35-mm diameter Meeker burner. Two load cells were used, one to measure total weight loss due to dripping and combustion, and the other to measure the mass of material generated by melt dripping. The flammability behavior of two grades each of fire retardant polypropylene and nylon 66 and their base resins were determined using the burn test. Similar studies were also conducted for a nylon 6 base polymer and a nano-composite based on that polymer. Burn tests were carried out on samples preheated to three different temperatures, controlled at around 200 °F, 250 °F, and 300 °F prior to the introduction of the flame. Generally, burn spread rate and degree of dripping were more highly accelerated by increased preheat temperatures for samples that do not contain fire retardants. For fire retardant samples some preheat.