[Fot] Early Spitfire Splined Axle

[list at mackenzie.aero]

I have a question about my Spit for the group; I hope somebody can
help me out.

For those who don?t know the story, I own a very early Spitfire4
(FC921) that I autocross.  Although I don?t have the full history of
the car or its logbooks I understand that it was an SCCA racer at some
point before being campaigned as an  autocross car into the 80s.  I
bought it as a barn-find 3 years ago and got it race ready in early
2008.

When I started working on this car I inspected most of the parts and
re-installed them.  One of the first projects was addressing the rear
suspension which was collapsed due a missing diff.  I recall pulling
the brake drums, removing the shoes/springs and everything else and
putting it all back together after re-sealing the brake cylinders. I
don?t recall pulling the drive flanges or thinking they or the drive
shafts were anything out of the ordinary.  One feature that did catch
my eye is that the wheel studs.  They were 7/16 diameter and about 2.5
inches long.  I assumed that it was built this way so spacers could be
used to adjust track as required.

Last week I was getting the car ready for a club autocross when I
discovered a broken wheel stud on the left rear.  [I ended up dusting
off my street 1500 and having a great day  of racing but that?s
another story- http://tinyurl.com/qkjnpn ]

I went to pull off the drive flange yesterday to get at the studs and
was surprised to find the flange and axle were splined, not the usual
tapered shaft with keyway.

Photo:  http://tinyurl.com/spitspline

My question are:

Has anybody else seen this set-up?
Who made this?
Where are the shafts from?

Any help will be appreciated.

Robert MacKenzie
Austin, TX