What comes across quickly when you talk to Didier Auriol is that he is very specific about how he likes his rally cars set up.
We chat on the phone after he has been testing the Rossendale Wines Team's full-specification two-litre BDA Escort he will drive in the Classic section of the Rally of Otago this weekend. There is a very French pause after he is asked about how the testing is going.
''It was not too bad. Not perfect,'' Auriol admits.
Car owner Brent Rawstron's team will have been busy that night changing the Escort's front cambre to hopefully replicate the handling of the BDA Auriol owns in France. The 1994 world champion speaks amiably about set-up compromise and making the best of what he has been given.
''I like to feel my car and have fun with the car,'' he explains.
After 35 years of rallying experience, 21 of which were spent in the WRC, he is well entitled to his opinions. Then he chuckles and provides some self-reflection on getting a car handling perfectly.
''I am never happy.''
He is, however, thrilled to be making his first trip to the South Island after competing 10 times in the Rally of New Zealand.
Conversations with other international drivers who have driven in the Otago Rally have given him high expectations.
''They always have good memories with coming here. The people are friendly. Good wine,'' he laughs.
He has heard great things about the rally's stages too, but ponders his competitiveness against younger drivers and those who have done the event many times before.
Auriol has made sure he is not out of practice, driving a Citroen Xsara WRC in the Spanish Rally of the Canary Islands in March.
There is nothing lacking in his competitive nature - he and co-driver Denis Giraudet, who will navigate for him again this weekend, won the event.
So, as much as Auriol talks about coming to Otago to enjoy the car and the people, deep down there is the unquenchable desire to win.
It was a potent combination as he went on to victories in the French rally, a record-achieving five more times, and lists the Cosworth as one of his favourite cars.
His other beloved charger was the Lancia Delta, perhaps because in 1992, driving the final evolution of the car, he won six events in one season - a performance which was beaten only by Sebastien Loeb in 2005.
His history-making involvement was with Toyota when he won the WRC in 1994 - becoming the first Frenchman to do so - driving one of the most famous cars in the history of the series, the Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205.
The following year, he changed co-drivers, beginning a nine-year stint with countryman Giraudet, whose longevity at the top level exceeds Auriol's 152 WRC events.
''I think I did 175 WRC rallies,'' Giraudet calculates.
An incredible feat, surely?''It is a lot but I am the oldest,'' the 58-year-old says, laughing.
The number of rallies is indeed a WRC record, as is his second place in the 2012 Rally of Portugal where he became, at 56, the oldest WRC co-driver to reach the podium.
His age is no barrier to top-level rallying, however. Giraudet was competing on our shores in 2012, when he navigated Russian Evgeny Novikov, in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, to fourth place in Rally New Zealand.
He began his co-driving career in 1981 and so far his participation in WRC events extends to 2013, when he read pace notes in the Rally of Great Britain.
Giraudet's ability to jump in the passenger seat with a variety of drivers gives him yet another WRC record: seven podiums with different drivers.
He is very much looking forward to being ''back with my old mate Didier,'' this weekend.
The pair rallied together from 1995 to 2004 and notched up four WRC wins.
Didier Auriol
Rallying royalty
• Beginnings: Born in Montpellier in 1958 and initially worked as an ambulance driver.
• Began rallying: At the age of 21 in a Simca 1000.
WRC history
• First event: 1984 Tour de Corse (Rally of France).
• First win: 1988 Tour de Corse.
• Last win: 2001 Rally Catalunya.
• Last event: 2005 Monte Carlo Rally.
• Overall: 152 rallies, 20 wins, 53 podiums, 554 stage wins, won WRC championship in 1994.
• Teams: Austin Rover, Ford, Lancia, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi, SEAT, Peugeot, Skoda.
• Favourite events: Argentina, Corsica, Greece and Rally New Zealand.
• Best cars: Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and the Lancia Delta.
