I have a Borla stainless catback on my 1990 GTU. Everything in front of it is stock, the precats are empty, the main cat is breaking up and the whole front half leaks. Needless to say it needs to be replaced. I took it to an exhaust shop for a quote and they told me that my car was made three months before it became mandatory to have a cat, so I am going to go without.

I could just slap a pipe in there. I think that would be too loud though, anyone have an idea? The other option I priced is a two-foot Magnaflow resonator where the main cat is now and pipe from the manifold to the resonator. That would undoubtedly bring the volume down a LOT, while restricting flow a bit (internal diameter is about 2.5", same as the front of the Y-pipe). Opinions?

 

why not just get an rb header and pre-silencer?

 

A header would be pretty loud, from the videos and impressions I've seen. I'm looking at keeping the manifold because the quote they gave me is pretty cheap, and the only reason I'm replacing it at all right now is because it'll fall off or smoke me out if I don't. I'm not getting as many hours at work as I want hence me preferring the cheaper route...seems every time I want to do something to my 7 I'm strapped for cash

 

People are going to disagree with me on this, but f*** 'em.
I'm using a cheap thrush glasspack from o'reily ($24 at the time) and a monza catback.

Good tone, reasonable volume. It's not loud, I can easily hear at the drive through, and can only faintly hear my car warming up in the morning if I'm inside. Gives a nice deep tone during accel, and quiets it down a lot at top end.

Mind you it's not the best flowing system, but it's nice for DD.