And (I know I sound like a broken record, but people need to know), some insurance companies are now saying if you illegally mod the car (like cat removal), it's not street legal, so not covered anymore on your policy. Suddenly you aren't insured - and that's a bugger of a ticket, and even worse if in an accident b/c the bill falls squarely on you at that point.

And speed limits are set by the state - so they are state laws, not federal.

 

Who is going to write or call their insurance company and say: "excuse me, today I put on an o/r x-pipe"! I am still insured or are you going to cancel my policy? If you did that you deserve to be without insurance!!

State laws are mandated by Federal Laws

 

You need to brush up on the Constitution. The Feds cannot dictate law to the states, that's why they do it through falling back on the interstate commerce clause and blatant extortion--an example of the latter being threatening to withhold Federal highway funds if a state doesn't do as the Feds wish. Traffic laws, speed limits/etc, are state laws...

 

I could easily beat the insurance company on that issue in court, so I have NO concerns regarding the validity of my insurance. Some of us hate polar bears as well

 

Yep they can vary from state to state some even drop the speed on highways at night like some parts of Texas here.

 

A free flowing exhaust is mostly beneficial at high horsepower applications where you're moving a lot of air in and out. On a stock engine though, i've never really seen too much of a difference between a high-flow cat and an O/R pipe.. Now versus a stock cat, huge difference with a tune... Another benefit is the price difference of buying an O/R pipe against a high-flow cat.. As for the smell, I don't get why some of y'all think it smells bad. Maybe untuned it smell rich but tuned it doesn't smell bad.

 

I run an o/r x with magnapacks. The only reason I went with an o/r x instead of one with cats is because there is ~$200 difference between the two.

 

I have a 96 GT and the two main problems they had was a very restrictive exhaust and sucky heads and intake and I can say from experience that when I took the the factory pipes out and replaced with an offroad Xpipe it was a difference. As far as smelling bad I think that's just your imagination besides I'm not generally behind my own car while I'm driving it. I live in Maryland and as long as your car is an OBD2 car they don't really check it as long as they can plug in and don't get any codes, at least I've never been failed as of yet and I haven't had cats for about 5 years now. I also have a buddy that just cut an old set of cats apart and welded the cases around his offroad pipe and he's been fine. Also I have never seen a cop at an accident look under the car and write in the report that your car didn't have any cats, that would just be extra work and we all know that a cop is not doing nothing out of his way or anything causing extra work.

 

It's not about calling them to let them know... it's an illegal mod and it's all in the fine print.
And Cliffy already pointed out the mistake in which level of gov't makes speedlimits.


Actually, they'll take you to town on it IF they feel like it. I've watched it happen a few times now. Nothing to joke about.

 

The heads are the most restrictive part on a GT. The difference between at catless mid pipe and one with cats is about .4hp. You get no power just more sound which makes you put your foot in it thinking you have more power.