Well the whole "smoking the tires" thing can be done with a moped motor. All you have to do for that is have a poorly built suspension that wont hook up. Find a Ford 9" with 3.50 gear or less and that is good for around town and also highway... 3.28 is nice for highway and still fine for light to light. Everything you do though needs to work together such as cam, tranny, rear end gears, tire size, etc. Someone here will pitch in and give you the info on where to start first and choose what you are trying to achieve.
Good luck.