"Maybe you could drill some holes in your downpipe."

At the risk of having BA remove this stuff 'cause it has nothing to do with lunar conspiracies ---- I have a broken exhaust manifold stud on my 6 cylinder Nissan, and although it makes a bit more noise than it should, it just isn't the same.

I remember someone theorizing years back that the North American car industry designed the exhaust system on their V8 cars to resonate at a frequency that was comparable to a slightly elevated heart rate. The theory was that the engine noise caused a resonance that made the driver's heart speed up - basically causing a feeling of excitement every time he or she started the car. I don't know if I believe that, but I do know that driving one of the old V8 cars from the 60's or early 70's causes a euphoria that I don't feel in other cars - even though my modern V6 would blow the doors off most of the V8 cars from that era. It may just be a guy thing.