Living in mostly flat Florida I find 2nd to work much better for take off .I only use 1st if I'm tooling through a parking lot or starting on a hill .
Of course if you are trying to haul buggy taking off in second is much quicker but generally do most of you use first?
My 1st to 2nd is anything but buttery ! When I start in first unless I am really going to wind it up I always have an aggressive driver on my butt .
Thanks for the input / read a good bit of the Forum but never noticed a thread on this subject .