I tried the same on my 1g big power fwd car, although it would blast 2nd gear off on 22inch slicks. Yeah i dunno, i guess you'll have to do back to back passes to honestly make that choice.
As for comparing 2nd gear launches to v8 cars, your typical domestic V8 makes the pulling power(torque) to climb out of a longer gear ratio whereas a turbo 4 doesn't make the torque until that initial surge of boost and usually without expensive traction control it instigates wheel spin.
