[CassiesMan]

Go practice how to launch. Draggin a wrong wheel drive car is fail boat if you don't practice the launch, ask me how I know. If you can launch the car, that is half the battle right there. Unless we are talking FI or the bottle, I doubt the mods your buddy has done on his Celica are really going to make up that much difference in power.

You aren't pushing enough power through the gear box to not flat shift, so I'd stick with method number one with a bit of practice. Just take it out some night and row through the gears to see how fast you can shift, so you know when to initiate the shift. For example, on my car, the 3/4 shift is a pretty easy one, so I don't bother lifting. Same for the 4/5. If I'm wide open going from 5/6 I'm going way to fast anyway, so I wont bother trying to make that a fast shift.