Originally Posted by senseiturtle
All depends. You're adding un-needed stress. It could work great 1000 times, and break on the 1001st. Or, it could break the first time you do it.
Yes. Increased fluid pressure allows harder clamping. You will feel the pedal depress farther.
Do the thing in neutral, and HOLD the pedal down in that "deeper" position with your left foot. Put in Drive. Rev the engine up to your chosen starting RPM. Wait for signal. Release the brake, and floor it.
you MUST be at idle rpm's when shifting from N->D . Yes, you re-rev while in D. If you go from N->D while giving it gas, you will break it. That's called a neutral-drop, and let me say it again... YOU WILL BREAK SOMETHING.
Practice to find that key RPM. You want the tires to sqeak a little, and have the engine to not bog down and pull itself up and out.
I raced an Eclipse Spyder GS (2.4L I4, stock) (95-99) last weekend and didn't use the powerbreak method and got destroyed. I raced him this weekend using your advice and I'll just cut and paste what I posted in my livejournal:
I tore him a new asshole off the line, I'm serious. The last time we raced he DESTROYED me. Anyhow, I was trying a new style of shifting tonight and decided to leave it in D3 and just floor it. Anyhow, I FORGOT I was in D3, shifted to 4th thinking it was 2nd, then shifted to NEUTRAL thinking it was 3rd so I hit my REV LIMITER (horrible noise and the car refuses to go) and once I realized what I had done he was already pulling on me and BARELY GOT ME BY A NOSE. I swear, if I wouldn't have ****ed up shifting, it would've been over. I really figured out tonight how to launch an automatic though, and in the future, I'm just going to shift manually so I don't **** up and forget what gear I'm in.
I know, I know. I messed up BAD by hitting my rev limiter. I think it bounced twice before I was able to get it back in a drivable gear. Anyhow, I did A LOT better (albiet was hard on my car), but it's all a learning experience. And hey, if the transmission goes out for some reason in the future, it's all the more reason for a 5spd swap.
