Dude, it would be most excellent if you could post your smog results. I'm sure many others, myself included, who live in California have considered this modification and also dread the impact on smog.
Honestly you're taking out a relatively straight pipe with a cat and a simple bend in it and you want to replace it with a straight pipe, a flange at each end, and that bend in it. This is not rocket science and should NOT cost $500. Go to a local muffler shop and tell them you want some straight pipe/cat deletes for the track. They'll get out a fancy coat hanger, figure out the bend, weld on some flanges, and fab you up a set of pipes. I bet it won't cost you more than $120 or so. I did a muffler delete this way on my WRX and it worked great. You may have to install the pipes yourself though as it wouldn't be legal for the muffler shop to leave them on the car. Just my two cents...