Wheel hop occurs in most stock FWD cars...When the traction of the front tires is compensated due to ridiculous wheel spin (a.k.a burn out) the tires clamor for grip...gripping for fractions of a second and then loosing it again...as this repeats itself the surge of "back" torque when the tires grip cause the engine/transaxle to rock back and forth, and if the wheel spin is fast enough it can get pretty violent...the rocking of the engine can actually start to bounce the front of the car up and down enough for the tires to skip off the pavement even worse...So it starts to sound and feel like the wheels are "hopping"...It in no way adds any benefit, it is terrible for the gearbox internals, clutch, crankshaft, etc...and really bad for the engine mounts...
Stiffer mounts will fix it...they do not allow the engine to flex nearly as much...but the trade-off is the vibration and interior noise will increase....Well worth the compromise in my opinion...
We have stupid soft engine mounts stock, but a number of companies make replacement urethane mounts which will remedy the wheel hop pretty much completely...AWR makes full replacement mounts for everything but the transaxle and timing belt (front of engine) mount...You can pick up a much stiffer, yet still rubber mount for the MSP from your dealership...That one by the way replaces the timing belt area mount, but it is about $140...Kartboy is also bringing out a full set of urethane inserts that should be available soon...They fit into the stock mount brackets and will probably be much cheaper than any of the available mounts currently...
