I am looking at purchasing a used winged sprint car that has splined front hubs on it.
I am familiar w/ direct mount and with 6-pin hubs, but these look old-school.
Are they safe? Should I look to switch them out? Is the spindle different than a "better" style hub?

I have these on my car...they were briefly popular in the transitional period between 6pin and D/M... they end up being lighter than a 6pin set up and just a smidge heavier than D/M.... with this set up you use the same centers and axle nuts as you use on the rear end...they are available for each of the different types of spindles...

They have 3 advantages...the first being that you will have spare fronts with splined centers..this allows you to use a front wheel on the rear end to help give you more room width wise in the shop or on the trailer..the second is that you can move a front wheel in or out a bit by using a half inch or quarter inch spacer instead of having to get a wheel with different offset (provided the hubs have the longer splines)....the 3rd advantage is that you can find spares/replacements SUPERCHEAP!!!!! at swap meets and such...my car owner has somewhere around 10 sets of these hubs and probably 30 splined front wheels in his attic..

As for safety...it is a bit stronger than a D/M setup, and as long as you check your wheelnuts to make sure they aren't loose you should have no problems with the set up.

alot quicker to change out if need be. And we run them still. If you have mag. centers on your wheels they turn out pretty light also.