I suspect that the converter has a lot to do with the quick spool but it's hard to envision how well it is hooking and going. Looks to be slingshot quick to me. There cannot be any wasted timing spooling up to full boost.
Alky per volume has about half the heat content so I guess they are getting it back by spraying so much. Perhaps there is a lot of timing to go with it?
If I recall, years ago when Dave Bamford came out and ran so fast, he was running mid 1600's and perhaps a bit higher on EGT's. I recall thinking 1650 was a good target on alky but I never had more than one probe located under the turbo.
I think Russ is constantly trying things and Dan has told us that they race the car all the time. Russ told Julio that the car has made about 350 passes in the last couple of years. I think most of that was heads up racing against any car that pulled to the line in the next lane. Melissa can flat out drive the car and Russ does all the tuning. I don't think they pay any attention to what ever everyone else is doing either from a parts combo or from the tuner of the moment perspective. They do whatever it is that they found to work during those 350 passes in a car that is completely streetable if you don't mind crawling thru the roll bar to get in.
From what Dan has said, it looks like the alky class is going away. Everyone else does not want to race because they break too many things and the cars don't survive a full week end of racing. It's too bad because I enjoy watching cars in the nine-ten second classes a lot more that I can relate to than I do the rockets that run 7 seconds with the panels flapping in the wind altho I appreciate them. I just like drivers.
