Trust me, your thoughts and mine about noise are more similar than different. I've been aiming to keep my cars quiet for years. I turbo'd my miata _partly_ because the turbine would help to further quiet the STOCK exhaust, and the added power would allow me to run lower revs to get the same output.

Well... I've done that too. No one has complained about noise. I've been privy to this "noise complaint" groupthink since about 2009, and the one thing that's been true all along is that people have no idea what noise is or how it will affect them compared to how they think it will affect them.

I have two comments for this thread. First, The Transporter is absolutely right about how the housing developer insidiously destroys the town he works in- it's happening right now in mine.

Something people don't realize on their own is that being a good passenger is a skill, just as being a good driver is one. Rally co-drivers aren't just born, you know. It takes a lot of time and commitment in order to get to the point where you're not only comfortable being driven at speed -often by someone you've…

In any case, it makes me wonder if the old 850 is really that complicated by today's standards? Does your car have more computers, or are car companies better at organizing electronic brains than they were a couple decades ago?

Just a clarification:

In other minor complaints, I'd like to be able to shift gears with the lever. In a turn or away from a stop, it's sort of a natural impulse to reach down to the console. The paddles feel good and have a great weight, but the option to use the lever would be a nice touch.

Rally cars usually have special jack stands that insert into sockets on the frame like this:

Jason, apparently I'm late to the comments on this, but wow- I was thinking of the EXACT same thing last week. In fact, I'm wondering if you're spying on me somehow.

Patrick, I agree, but I'd like your opinion on this one, my favorite and most inspirational:

From the level of interest you've been showing, it seems like you might enjoy reading through our team's blog (go through the "past rallies"):

Hah, Perce Neige... What an event. In 2012 I remember it being in the double digits in the negative every morning, and every surface was covered in ice. At service we set up our tent and draped tarps from all the sides, and set up our propane heater. This gave us a nicely insulated heated working area- and we were the…

I just wanted to add that the role of "sets up the car and diagnoses things" gets to drive the car a lot too- just not at the events.

Raphael- I kept looking for you around the service park throughout the event but didn't end up finding you. Were you really there? I wanted to say hi.

BTW, this is the "Phil Mills Crash Position" we were referencing in the video:

The kind of people who volunteer to be codrivers are actually looking forward to this kind of torment.

"literally no one ever takes their kids to school in a GT-R"