Took the words right out of my mouth, Kenny. I have run identical, (not close, not near enough) IDENTICAL terminal speeds with 60' times different by .5 of a second.
The jury is out on whether to drop tyre pressures for street tyres. Some people say drop em a bit (me included) and some say leave them as they are. What most people agree on is that performing a nice, long smokey burnout is pretty pointless. Get the water off of them, maybe a bit of smoke if you're keen and that's it. Street tyres tend to perform worse when smoked to hell.
The things that have made the most difference to my times are:
1/ Practice
2/ Tyres
Forget power, torque, dynos, "but my mates car does...", heresay, factory figures, forums, guestimates etc.
The best way to improve your times on a street car is practice and purpose made tyres.
Adrian