mike*green

if you want to get down to it.. To break loose a tire on a 3200lbs car (weight transfer, different tire sizes, and rim weight all aside) you would need to put 800lbs of force at the tread, so a typical tire is 24", radius of 12", then that is 800ft/lbs of torque you need to apply to [the axle to] break the tire loose (grip phenomenon of a tire) and, in result, perform a 'peel out'.

So how do you get 800ft/lbs to the wheel? Simple, use a flywheel to store the energy. If someone wants to go into moment of inertia, go for it. But I am not on saturday nite :-)
The simple explantation is you spin up the flywheel which produces kinetic energy, then you release all that energy (dumping clutch) to the wheels at once. BAM! Tires spin.