im runnning a straight . i just got some1 to pass me for 300.

 

I had a friend who insisted on running a cat ( in cali) and you definately take performance hit running one. He was definately quieter with it though..
If you get a resonated test pipe it will quiet the car down some and not restrict flow. Takes away some of the harshness and makes it a deeper, quieter note without affecting performance like a cat will.
I always keep my complete stock exhaust to swap on emissions testing day.

 

http://www.siliconeintakes.com/produ...708cab808c44e3

Great solution to a test pipe that looks exactly like a cat

 

I'm in the similar boat. I just purchased tomei tbe. Trying to decide if i should trade out the straight pipe for a high flow cat or not.

 

Excellent find! Just put that in my favorites.

 

Right now I'm running a full tbe, cattless. I have no idea who makes it though...It's unlabeled. It looks like a Buschur? But, I'm not 100% on that.

 

damn wish i knew that place back in the day. I went to the most halfaszed shop in Marysville I could find, and still had to BS my way through the visual inspection. And my car wasn't even on CA plates...

 

but back to OP...

You're in CA. Personally i wouldn't consider running a test pipe there, unless the car very rarely sees the road. I think a few years ago the fine was $5,000 for first time offense for having no cat in place. That's probably in addition to other repercussions like driving privileges or whatever.

Look into a TBE, with a Mil.Spec 100cell cat. (milspec is a vendor here). It's not legal, like everything isn't legal in CA, but it'll reduce the un-catted smell, reduce the visible smoke out the tailpipe that gets on your bumper, and at least gives you a step to stand on if you ever have to argue about mods on your car.