Tuning a carb for 1st gear performance

YOu guys are going to give me so much crap. We hooked the vacuum guage up and got half an inch. We were like, what the hell? We started looking at everything, and my friend reached back to adjust the timing on the distributor and got a massive shock. While he was hopping around holding his hand, I took a closer look at the distributor.

Cylinder #7 didnt have the wire hooked up, and #2 was about to fall off.

I do not know how that happened, or when. But suffice it to say that now the car goes. If I stomp it now, it doesnt stall. Doesnt really go anywhere but it _DOES_ spit out a series of fireballs out the intake so I think the timing needs to be backed off. The car drives smooth and I'm loving it, just a question of getting the timing set properly.

Thanks to everyone who helped! It was a fail to fire on at least one cylinder.