Questions about headers and bypass

[23109VC]

I don't have headers, and I'm no expert, but I've read about it a lot here...

this is what I BELIEVE to be true...

on YOUR car, a 2001 model, you have cats IN your headers and secondary cats in the next set of pipes that are in between the headers and muffler.

you can remove the secondary cats and likely still pass a CA sniffer test. techincally you would flunk the visual, asyou modified the exhaust system and removed cats, but the reality is probably NO smog tech knows that boxsters have TWO sets of cats, and if they see the first set, they are happy and pass you.

if you removed the front and secondary set,, you would fail.

i dont' know what would happen if you took of the fronts, but left hte secondaries.

the 97-99 cars had only cats in the headers...and there is sometimes confusion because what works on a 97-99 is not what is true for 2000 and on.

I believe the most common setup on a car like YOURS is to retain teh stock headers/cats and just put on a muffler and then maybe add the secondary cat bypass pipes.

another unforutnate thing is that nothign on these cars is cheap, and any reputable company seling this stuff wants an arm and a leg for it. for example, the NHP muffler and their bypass pipes are about $1200. it probably sounds cool and likely yuou'll get no ral power gain out of it. $1200 is a lot to sound cool.

my next mod will likely be a pulley...as you can get that for about $300 and you will actually get gains you can feel...