Going back to paleolithic times, I learned through observation, trial and error that with half-second intervals between lights on the drag strip "christmas tree", you could launch on the last yellow instead of on the green. That would give you about five car lengths on the street racer in the next lane at the finish line (at the 100-102 mph trap speeds common to my GTO and other muscle cars of the time).
Subsequent curiosity led me to do the basic analysis, including street tire coefficients of friction and weight distribution (plus weight shift), thus arriving at approximate max G. Since theoretical max G could be attained by virtually any muscle car at launch (or nearly any car, for that matter), basic arithmetic then could confirm what I had observed.
Anecdotally, when facing a very tough opponent in my class at the track, I'd often line up "crooked", facing perhaps five degrees right at launch. This would lengthen my potential rollout by about five inches or so, allowing me to launch even a bit before the last amber began to think about warming the filaments, giving me the win even with a slower ET. Doing the arithmetic shows you don't get much out of those additional inches, but enough.
You'd think the additional rollout would also improve ET, but I found that the side loads generated by straightening the car out (no matter how quickly or slowly you did it) negated that advantage.
I used to routinely say a half second, but now say four to five tenths because of the improved traction of today's sporty rubber, plus less time loss due to tire windup because of shorter and stiffer sidewalls compared to cars in the '60s.
Bruce