yes actually, I had a mk3 diesel shaft on mine at the trackday in that picture above. Even though the car is only lowered 60mm the shaft caught on the edge of the sump and even the block, noticed this when I took the engine out recently:
if you can make that picture out, the shiney bits are where the thicker diesel shaft wore the actual engine block!!! Although I'm thinking this wont be a problem with some stiffer suspension. I can only guess it happened during hard cornering on the track day when I was suffering quite a bit of front end roll as can be seen in that picture. The nice stiff coilovers I'm putting on should help that out.
The shorter shaft on a diesel polo is no different from a normal one.
Additionally, the point where the shafts usually break is where the spline end section finishes and on the diesel driveshaft this is no thicker than a normal polo shaft anyway so I think it's debatable if those shafts are actually any stronger.
I only put this diesel one on just before the track day as I got them for next to nothing off a friend who used to have a g40 (Mike King, some people on here will remember him). For years before that I had normal non-g40 shafts with a gemini diff and then my gripper diff and never managed to break a shaft, although I know others certainly have, I guess I've been lucky.
