Street tires can be very tricky to launch on in a 5-speed car, so I like to take as many complications out as possible; the main one being the clutch.
1) Spin the tires a few times just to get the chit off of them.
2) Left foot on the clutch, right foot on the brake, let the clutch out until the revs drop to about 600 RPM. The car should be moving on it's own, only being held back by the brakes. Actually, the car should actually pull pretty hard for not using the gas pedal.
3) Prestage the car doing this, holding the clutch in the same position that allows it to be semi-engaged.
4) Letting off the brakes (SLIGHTY), creep into the second beams until the car is staged.
When the light goes green, it makes it much easier and your launches much more consistent. You just have to find the happy medium between too much, and not enough throttle. Engaging the clutch before the green, takes the guess work out of bogging or spinning.
fyi, there is a race tech forum on stangnet, they talk about this stuff all the time.
As for me, I just rev it to about 3000 (around the peak of the torque curve) and ride the hell out of the clutch when the light goes green. I've never been to the track with a manual before so basically I'm a stoplight warrior. I posted something like this a while ago and Killercanary (1/4 mile Master Yoda) called that "mastering clutch slippage." I do know though that if you're going to the track you DON'T want to do a burnout in the water box. This will just coat your wheel wells and drop water everywhere as street tires are meant to perform best when dry. A tiny burnout is all that you need to warm them up. Definately drive around the ol' water box if you're doing a burnout on street treads.