Of course, applying racing anecdotes to street machines can lead one down all sorts of rabbit holes. We put a very radical down angle on the pinion flange, to minimize the U joint angle under hard acceleration. Spring windup under full throttle with a 400+ HP 327 Chevy engine, running in second gear of a Muncie 4 speed transmission against a 4.56 gear was considerable. Doing that full throttle acceleration out of the turns twice a lap put some incredible stresses on everything in the powertrain. My motto was "Build it three times as strong as you think it needs to be- - - - -and don't be too surprised when it breaks!"
Jerry
