Redline5th,

Safety - All doors secured, hood/trunk/hatch locked, no loose crap in the car, seatbelts on, helmet on etc...

Burnout - Drive up to where the wet spot is (you know about those dont you...lol).  disengage traction control if you have such mechanism, Clutch in, first gear, right heal on brake, right toe on accelerator, accelerate over 2.5 - 3K rpms, dump clutch, hold brake but only enough to hold the car and not brake the rears (assuming you don't have line-lock),.If you've heated up your tires by driving around or whatever you don't need to smoke the crap out of your tires, just enough to get them gooey and clear off any debris/pebbles etc...  any extraordinary burnout/smokeout is just a waste of rubber.

Stagging - This is what you do to line up your car at the tree (lights that go from red to yellow to green indicating the start of the race). After your burnout, drive up slowly, you will notice there are some other lights on the tree on the top, there are three beams(usually) of light when you drive up your front tire will break the first beam, go very slow you will now break the second beam and those staging lights (the little ones) will now indicate that you are ready to start.  (If you are doing deep staging then the third beam is to be broken, but one you must be experience or you'll draw a red light and two you must write on your car in the specified location <they'll tell you>  the word  "DEEP")  you are now ready to Launch.

Launching: If you don't know where your car will hook, then you must do trial and error. Make only ONE change at every launch.  Let's say you dont change your suspension settings or tires and lets start with RPMs....There is a point (rpm-wise) that your car will hook to the tar with no spin, but there is also a point where at a certain RPM launch that your car will probably spin a little and hook majorly....this is what actually happens ----- lets say you dont spin at 2000 rpms and you hook and you go, there is another point where you launch at 2200 rpms, you tires spin BUT then they hook, by this time your car has broken the exit beam because it now has slight foward motion AND your rpms are starting to climb faster, the centrifugal on your tires are now also making them taller pushing down harder on the tar hooking more, and because of inertia your true balanced weight is now shifting towards the rear and downforcing your car to plant even better, AND so your tires will gain adhesive  and with the RPMs now climbing higher your tq/hp are reaching optimum levels while you are still coming out of the hole, know your rev limit for peak HP and when you just pass it is when you should shift --- I say pass the limit of peak hp so that when you shift you drop as close to peak as you can, continue this until the 1/4 (or 1/8) depending on your track. 

(think about what I just wrote in slow motion....you'll get it)

Repeat this process over and over SYSTEMATICALLY changing only ONE thing to know what makes the difference whether better or worse.

There are just endless things you can change to make your car hook, many out there think it is just a matter of HP, while HP is good, it's NOT good if you just can't flippin hook.  SUSPENSION is a huge key, drag shocks that allow the front to go up and send the weight to the rear, tire temp, air pressure in the tires, gas tank, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, note if your tires slip/hook from one side only or two, air temp, humidity, etc.. etc.. etc..  just a myriad of things.....but ANYWAY....thats a basic start on how to launch.

yes, ALL chassis stiffing components help.

Feathering is clutch play to know the dump point and minimize reaction.  put it this way......if you are right handed and are going to punch someone and you're standing in traditional side stance, you know with your left hand in front and your strong arm/hand in the back...you punch with your right, You punch stong BUT since your right hand has more travel distance your target/opponent has a better chance of avoiding it because of the traveling distance, but if you are still right handed and you stood south paw (with your right hand in front) chances are your target won't be able to avoid it.....same with the clutch.....if your know the dump point your reaction time will be quicker and your shifting time will be minimal. 

"Everything is relative" - Einstein

"I'm not smarter....I just stick with problems longer" - Einstein

Love that guy!

if you have brakes like mine....you can STOMP on it.....I don't have rear brakes....LOL

baer, brembo, wilwood, and all others vary....

It's all about trying.

No it's not my daily driver, but it CAN be driven daily.  about 80 % of braking is done up front, which is why front brakes are usually larger/better than the rear and in my case discs up front and drums (if the were there ) in the back.  I'm going to convert from 4 to 5 lug (baer probably) and so I haven't put anything back there....

Well, as far as doing a burn out with street tires, dont to it in the water.  Just drive right past the water, the do a burn to clean off yer tires and get the water off.  If you burn out in the water with street tires, the water gets inbetween the treads and at the staging line the water drips off from inbetween yer treads onto the ground leaving you staged in a puddle of water.  Thats why peeps that dont know how to race with street tires squeel the tires off the line as apose to just spinning.  Ever notice that? 

I do my burn out in second gear because first doesnt get the tires spinning fast enough to smoke the tires right away and you have to sit at a higher rpm for longer in first.  I rev to about 4k, dump the clutch and then stand on the brake.  After Im at a stand still, I lower the rpms to about 2k and sit for a second and enjoy the fat cloud of smoke in the car.

At the line, with street tires, you want mass tire spin if yer running stock because the tire spin keeps you in the power band.  If not, it takes longer to accelerate to the power band and gives you lower ETs.  You pretty much have to play around with the clutch to find a good spot while spinning to finally dump it.  Feather it so that yer not losing to much RPM but arent spinning eratically.