Any small tips to help ET?

What brand, & size tires are on the car? Even street tires can bennifit from less air. And Dad may have something there with just hammering the car outta the hole. Spin isn't so much a bad thing, it's a whle lotta spin that's bad.

Do you have a tach. in the car? What's the trap RPM?

Things you can do that are low buck tricks in lowering ET and increaseing speed are;

Run a spacer under the carb
Block the heat crossover in the intake
Open air cleaner
(Re-jet carb after these tricks.)

On a stock converter car, power brake the car at the line. Press the brake pedal to the floor hard, press the gas pedal and load up the drivetrain with energy just shy of tire spin/breaking loose. You'll get the feel for it and find a good spot to load it up at. More of this is not allways the best, but some can be very good.

Loosing weight is good and less gas helps the wieght issue along with the spare tire removed. Leave the rear seat, it's not that weighty and it's just a pain to get out and it in afterwards.

On the distributor, you can twist it up some. Run a higher octane and then return it easy enuff. Mark where it is now and remark it later when you find best ET with it advanced.