I have a pretty grunty NA Pinto in my race car (power output as arbitrary as the numbers people seem to throw around as "limits" of an English so I won't include them here, but it has big capacity and is race fuel only). It has an English axle and has not broken yet, and it didn't break for the previous owner either. I have done a lot of sifting through forums and see a lot of opinions like those reflected in this thread. Which are, an English is weak and must be replaced.
It has seemed to me that for every 7 people that are replacing their English axle only has actually had any first hand failure with one, and the discussion or exercise of thought surrounding everyone elses response doesn't tend to include consideration for the variables of circumstance and driving style, i.e big slicks and dumping clutches. not to mention people often have unrealistic ideas of how much power their car has thereby lowering even further the true expectation of the English for their application.
There are also numerous anecdotes of people doing plenty of burnouts and hard hill climb starts with English axles that haven't broken yet, but these are not as relevant when the tendency to want to naturally improve and make stronger is prevalent anyway.
 
So by no means is my point to say an English is for everyone, if you are a bogan who cannot go for a drive without doing a burnout in your clapped out 30yr old diff or you have any sort of forced induction, you need not apply. I'm only on this bandwagon because I have reached the conclusion that many people choose to add 40kgs to their car due to misconceptions and fear.
 
So I would like to ask the question here, as it is a good opportunity to do so. Has anyone here broken a English diff first hand? and can you say that it was in good nick as well?
And that's not a rhetorical question, please jump in everyone. I'm just as keen to be proven wrong as keep believing all I wrote above, but simply trying to stimulate the discussion out of interest.