Andrew,
You're right, there are a lot of things happening during a speed run. The good thing is that it's not magic.
For starters, approach the problem from a Systems Perspective. The system in this case is the pilot, line(s), airframe, and engine. Look at the basic factors of flight - Lift, Thrust, Weight, and Drag.
The F2A and F2C models offer a lot of good design practices. Frankly, most of the traditional Speed models were probably not very efficient.
"Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition."
~Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations
"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be."
~Lord Kelvin