I think for the average guy an 8 3/4 will do the job 4 the ET chaser. Or average weekend warrior. However I myself have witnessed the destruction of 8 3/4. Including ones that justadart have destroyed.. that Blue Dart is known to be in the final round at some big money bracket races including hundreds of miles of travel.. very few people I know put as many laps on a car as he does wearing out multiple pairs of slicks in a year. So I would think there would be nothing worse. Than going 8+ around 300 miles away from home and having a ring gear failure. At some point a 9-inch makes more sense..