Was watching WRC coverage of the Acropolis rally. Solberg's in-car footage of his co-driver belting out course notes in Finnish, Solberg comes back "the brakes have failed" as they crest a small jump at about a buck-10. The co-driver in English, "oh-kaaayyy...Next turn (into Finnish again).
Absolute calm in his voice. I was amazed. I can't keep that level of calm in the passenger seat of my street car while my wife drives. I can't imagine finishing an 18 mile stage with no brakes, and I sure can't imagine riding along for that stage just to read course notes. Wow.

 

I'm sure riding in a rally car like that would make me puke all over the myself. *shutters*

 

It's actually kind of fun - if you are riding with someone who has the skilz.

I did 40+ rallies as a co-driver for a guy named Todd Hartmann in Washington state. To his credit, I was never more than 6' off the road in all that time, although he did throw my brother down a bank and upside-down into a fir tree once...

When I first started out, I got a little woozy but got used to it. We had just gotten reasonably proficient at pace notes - making them the first time through a stage and using them later in the same event - when I had a really bad ear/nose/throat infection one winter. When I came back that spring, I got debilitating motion sickness...and actually blew in my helmet at an event in Oregon. That is NOT something you want to experience...or listen to on the intercom, I understand.

I tried another and literally had to be lifted out of the car part way through the day. Time to retire.

Now I try to ride roller coasters any chance I get to coax my system back into tolerating odd loads and it seems to be working, even to the degree that I get less wobbly on rough flights than I did after the ear thing. It would be interesting to see if I could ride in the right seat again...

K

 

Why do you think all their helmets are open faced?
Yick.