When should you brace an 8 3/4 housing?

It's all in the impact not the power of the engine. If it hooks hard that's when the damage is done. Some racer friends with a 64 Max wedge used leaf springs and a pinion snubber for years. Then they went to Cal Tacs. First time out the car hooked hard launched flat and straight, 60 foot times went down. When they got it home they had twisted the tubes on both sides! Big spiral cracks in the paint and the pinion sticking up toward the floor. But that was a dedicated drag car - they went straight to a Dana...