cutout or no? vote please!!!

[birdOFprey]

hey guys, im in a bind... i live in california and cant go longtubes on my car cause its my dailydriver.... i am also a college student so money is kinda tight... i think im gonna go with the pacesetter mid-tubes, and i was wondering whether or not a cutout or two would help me gain some more performance... and if so how much... its a 00 ws6... if you can give me a rough hp estimate with both headers and cutout that would be great, but if not atleast please vote... cutout or no cutout.... thanks guys!!!!

[Z Ya Later]

I may be wrong, but a cut-out will get you an automatic failure on a CA smog visual inspection. If I'm right, then I'd definitely advise against cut-outs.

[Injuneer]

A well-designed exhaust system can minimize performance losses. IMHO cutouts sound terrible on a street car and should not be used. In fact, our local track does not permit the use of open exhaust (including cutouts) on any vehicles (exceptions are made for certain competition classes on Sundays only, and events like the NHRA Nationals). For street vehicles, they requires mufflers consisting of at least three baffles. And the exhaust system must exit behind the rear edge of the driver's door. My Borla XR-1 mufflers will not pass tech because they have no baffles. During an SLP-sponsored event, they threw the SLP test mule off the track for running open cuouts.

[birdOFprey]

k thanks alot guys!!!! much respect and appriciation!!!!