I've got a spare collapsible shaft section from an old 85 vette sitting on the shelf. I plan to integrate that for safety outside the firewall. I've seen a interesting variation on the split collar theme. A guy used a aluminum rod from a drag race engine as the clumn drop and split collar. Worked great.
In that example the car had a regular column and the column outer ran through the big end of the rod. He just cut off the rod in the middle. You had to be inside the car to even notice it... but it was a nice touch.
That's my mentality. It kills me to see the fenders I'm not using sitting outside. I hate wasting good steel.
That Stude motor is a dead ringer for the 226 Super Hurricane in my Willys... There plenty of stuff you can do to hop up that little six. It just cost a bit more $$$ and you need to be a little creative. Sounds like you've got the creative part down already.
Okay, that's better (safety wise) than a solid shaft, but you still have to worry about pulling the mechanism off the 'colapsible shaft' section, as I don't expect you'll weld to it. I've seen the con rod collumn drop, they clamp to the mast jacket. You say you wanted to run without a mast jacket. My biggest concern is for you to prevent the steering shaft from dis-engaging anywhere between the wheel and whatever you ultimately hook it to (rack, box, ???). FWIW at 6'3" X round X 14EE I fully understand what you are saying about saving space, but it didn't save enough in my A to justify running a naked shaft (that and it's Fugly in a car w/ plates IMHO).
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