Catted Vs Catless: Solved For The Daily Driver

Original Story: Driveslate.com/Autoblog

A common question that comes up when building your aftermarket exhaust setup is the number of cats you should have in your system. A cat, short for catalytic converter is an emission control device that reduces the amount of toxic gasses and pollutants emitted out from your exhaust systems. For most OEM exhaust systems, the cats will be located in the header, and front/down pipe.

Picture of OEM frontpipe vs. Straight pipe

So why go catless in the first place?

Performance. Like most aftermarket mods, you’re aiming for more power, more torque, and better throttle response. Going catless has the benefits of eliminating restrictions in your exhaust + reduces back pressure on the engine to allow for more airflow, thus more power. Eliminating the cats will also have the added benefits of reducing weight, and therefore incremental performance gains.

Why going catless is a bad idea for daily driving?

So I’ll get straight to the point, for an everyday driver, you should never go catless and here are a list of the reasons why:

Smell of Gasoline: Imagine sitting in traffic, and you’re sitting with the aroma of your own exhaust. Hey, if you like that smell, koodos to you, but from experience, it’s quite unpleasant for myself and even for the drivers around me.

It’s Illegal: For most states, there is likely an emission standard you must meet for your car to be road legal. Depending on where you live, these emissions checks could range between yearly to every few years. On top of that, you have to worry about being pulled over, because probably won’t even pass a sniff test.

It’s (Slightly) Louder: This one is debatable, because yes, removing the cats will make your exhaust system louder, but ever so slightly. If you care about how loud your exhaust is, I would worry more on the size of the exhaust piping and resonators within the system.

Mother Nature: We’re living in an era of the notion of saving the environment. With more and more Tesla’s on the road, and motor companies such as Volvo committed to go full electric, reducing carbon footprint is definitely on the consumers mind. Assuming you’re probably a motor head, this is less of a concern, but nevertheless should be mentioned.

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