FWIW...Peter Seikel stopped by my place for a few hours
today during a visit from germany.  For
background...Peter has driven a bus across the saraha,
has competed in Paris-Dakar twice, once in a VW and has
lots of other Ralley experience with 16" syncros.  He
has done a lot of prep work on syncros in his shop too
for off road ralleys in africa and elsewhere, and
syncros are in his shop regularly.  Anyway, I asked him
how the new syncros stack up to the older vanagon
syncro.  He has had several in his shop for
strengthening and outfitting...and he says they are not
as strong or heavy-duty as the vanagon and need a lot
more work for any serious off road use.  I guess that's
not surprising.  Is SDP involved in the new syncros?
steve