So close to a catastrophic fail

it's the other way.
the more rake the less trail. 74 degrees plus 50mm rake would probably give trail of somewhere around 45mm. normally around 60mm is thought to give neutral handling. so it will be a pretty fast handling bike :)

Interesting. When I compare it to the old forks, both flat on the floor, the part where the wheel goes is about 6mm further away from the floor on the new forks. Does this mean the rake is longer and the handling quicker? That's fine by me :)