what kinda pipes
 

i am one of the blessed ones who lives out in the sticks of wisconsin with no emissions testing. :D problem is i have a bone stock 88 convertible that needs to go faster. I was thinking is it best to run straight pipes, or does anyone have any better suggestions? dont care about loudness, but i am on a fairly restricted budget.

racing beat header , 2.5 inch piping with a midpipe somewhere.. to a single or dual mufflers...

if you truly don't care how loud it is and don't care about emissions at all then just have a shop make you some straight pipes. This will be the cheapest and most power effective exhaust. but be warned, it will be LOUD with no cats.

be loud with cats...

If you dont care about noise, get the racing beat header/presilencer for sure. After that, just pick a good catback system. Racing beat has a very good system, and the Apex'i N1 is good, too. Racing Beat also just came out with a new true dual system for the N/As. I havent seen anyone talk about it yet (I haven't been on the forums in a few weeks) but it should be very good.

Did anyone notice he said "restricted budget"? Racing beat and apexi systems are expensive and not worth it IMO...

My suggestion would be that if you are willing to pay for a header, get it, and then either have a shop make straight pipe all the way back from there, or get some cheap ebay mufflers and have the shop weld it up. No cats, no presilencer. No mufflers will be extremely, EXTREMELY, loud, be warned. I had the RB header with a test pipe and dual ebay mufflers and it was loud, very loud, but I was able to adapt to it. However, my parents and neighbors were not so I had to fix it. I wouldn't suggest going no mufflers though. Also, your 5th/6th ports open via backpressure and the split air tube going to the cat, so if you ditch the cats either wire them open or take them out completely.

Oh, I didn't notice the restricted budget part. He needs to have some sort of presilencer on it. They are rediclulously loud without one. If for no other reason, he needs one to operate his aux. ports. The racing beat DP/presilencer is 300 or so, and very good. The bonez race pipe is 160 at rx7.com. Its not as good as the racing beat one, but it gets the job done if you're on a budget. Another thing to look for is check for used ones. Try ebay or other used parts sites online. I even found a car in a junk yard that had a bonez race pipe and Apex'i N1 exaust on it.
I don't reccommend wiring the aux. ports open. I used to have the Bonex race pipe on my car but it couldnt open the ports, so the guy i bought it from wired them open. It had almost non-existant power below about 3500 rmp, or so. Just warning you.

Yah but you can take the ports completely out (actuators, sleeves, rods, etc). This will have loss in low end in nearly stock or lightly modded n/a's though, that is true (just like wiring them open). But the more modded you get the more gains you'll see when removing the ports completely.

would it be good to leave the presilencer and cat and take off the mufflers?