There is nothing secret about a v-drive. They come in two general angles, the 12 degree and the 10 degree. There are a few 8 degrees and one or two sevens that I know of. But forget about those.
The prop comes in at the angle determined by the strut. The v-drive takes the engine torsional power and gears it to the prop shaft. So nothing super trick. The 10 degree is shallower, and so with solid mounts, it gets the engine lower in the boat. Lots of race boats prefer 10 degrees for this. 12 degrees are common in family boats and ski type boats. The engine sits higher in the hull (typically). You can use solid shafts from the engine or u-joints. With u-joints you can alter the alignment of the engine slightly. Solid mounts have to be pretty true or they will bind and wear stupid. The better way to run the power out of the engine is off of they flywheel. This is called "drag style". Engines like it way better, as the crank can have a dedicated harmonic balancer, and the power leaves the engine off of the side of the crank that was made to have the power bolted up. However, if you plan on turning left, running the snout of the engine to drive the boat naturally causes the rotational force of the torque of the engine to help the hull load left, and turn left. It is harder on cranks, but this is the way 95% of the circle flats are set up. Rotating either way does not change v-drives or any of the other hardware on the boat. Just the prop. (and direction of the whirl-away, of course)
Don't run a circle prop on a drag boat. Or vice versa. It can get ugly. Like running in reverse.
Oh, and the more power you have, the better you need to tie off and solid mount your v-drive. 100% of the forward thrust of the boat comes through that bottom shaft. So make sure you realize this when rigging your boat.