Here is our all new GoWesty driveshaft without the rubber "donut." VW themselves offered this simpler design, and it that was nothing more than a precision drive shaft with a U-joint at each end. The VW single and double cab versions of the Vanagon were commonly fitted with these. While theoretically not as smooth as the one with the rubber donut design, in practice most people can’t tell them apart. Many of us at GoWesty are now running these in our Syncros, and they are working beautifully. The whole rubber donut thing was probably Germans just splitting the proverbial drive shaft hair.