I hope you didnt take my "unlearning" comment wrong. I didn't mean it as any type of insult, and it wasn't directed at anyone. It was more a description of what I was going through when putting this together.
Anyway, I need to give you some history here. This thing was put together some time around 1992. Nobody(ok maybe not many people) were building stuff like this yet. I didn't have a target torque curve, and honestly didn't have much knowledge on this stuff. I started with the standard stuff to make a "go fast" car. gears, converter,etc.. I had the most complicated 12 second car on the planet.
The car was fun, but not fast. One day I decided to fix my weak posi diff. I wanted to drive the car while I was repairing the diff, so I slapped in a 3.23 "open" rear 3rd member. I drove the car and found it was doing exactly what you describe, but once the car was moving, it felt stronger. I had a factory stock converter laying in the garage, so I put it in. I drove the car and got a huge on my face. I litterally welded the diff up and went to the track. The car went in the high 10s. I started looking for a tighter converter. Found a place in town that built me a winnebago(rv) converter. That thing was awesome for awhile, but gave up after a year or so.
Anyway, incremental changes eventually lead to a different top end, cam, turbos etc.. in the pursuit of a faster car, and the stump puller engine eventually evolved into a more traditional race style motor and power curve. I sold the car in 2006. It was running high 8s at 3700lbs driving it to the track(and back home most of the time )