I see it a lot on drag week cars. While the cars don't seem so loud those guys often wear ear muffs on the road.

I think you have to take the noise out of context. At drag week or at the track they don't seem so loud because there is several more loud or louder cars nearby. How loud is it when you are the only hot rod around? Thats what makes me want to run the exhaust out the back on mine when I eventually put a Turbo on it. I would likely pipe it to my two tailpipes but put a big boost actuated exhaust dump on it.