in the process of building Larry's car he was fitted to seat,pedals ect. the stearing wheel wasn't comfortable to him so as a service I have made several of these colums that have the steering wheel lowered to make the car more driver friendly for driver comfort. I have installed them in comp and super stock cars for overv 30 years with no problems what so ever and has been looked at by many tech officials.I might add that there isn't many completely factory colums in any of these cars, the modifyed colums are a lot safer as a general thing than the other ones.
There is a stock appearing cover that is instaled when car isn't down for clutch service. As far as to the look of colum to floor I looked at photo with the lighting in photo how can you tell where it goes to floor? I can say that it does go through the hole in firewall that colum/shifter went through. I hope this helps your concern if not contact me and I will be glad to talk to you.