Ideally, you want the pinion and transmission parallel under cruise, because that is where a street cars spends most of its driving time.
The pinion is not static under cruise. Torque rotates it upward a couple degrees.
Ok, I wasn't aware that it rotated and held there during cruise. I assumed that the springs or radius rods (or whatever is holding the rear in place) would counteract that motion after the initial torque from accelerating had dissipated. Of course, we're only talking a couple of degrees which isn't much. You learn something new every day.
