Its just that I was under the impression from some of your past replies that your engine is going to be something a bit special (?) and I was a little surprised that you would let something as silly as a paper gasket remain in that condition.

Its a bit like building a spangly engine and using a second-hand exhaust manifold gasket, you just wouldn't do it IMO.

As for how much air is coming out, you would be surprised. In terms of pressure. We recently diagnosed mine to have a leaky Injector O-Ring and I was losing around 10psi through that. I dont think that the TB Gasket would cause it to lose that much, but its so worth changing it. Also, if mine were found to be knackered, there is no way I would drive it hard until we checked the MAP.