One way to look at these mods that essentially only free up power (such as pulleys or lightened flywheels/axles/wheels etc.) is that the car will behave identically to if you did a massive cut in the overall curb weight...just switching to a 9lb flywheel over the stock one is similar to removing nearly 300lbs from the car for first gear...second gear its like 180lbs or something (there is a calculation, but it is dependant on the gearing...so it is mostly beneficial in lower gears...but you get the point)...
aside from that though, there are excellent increases in throttle response...which makes it much easier for rev matching, and fast shifting overall...