Less restrictive catalytic converters paired with a cat-back exhaust system will offer high performance and power. Though, the level of horsepower gained is not constant across all cat-back systems. It depends on the quality and performance of the catalytic converters. Because of the better flow of exhausts resulting from the mandrel-bent tubing and the larger diameter piping, cat-back exhaust systems manage to offer better performance. IE offers catback, downpipe, and midpipes upgrades to replace individual sections of your exhaust. Installing variations of these parts allows you to dial in your exhaust volume to your preference, from sporty to aggressive.

By running pipes from the catalytic converter to the muffler and from the muffler to the exhaust tip, cat back exhaust systems improve exhaust gas flow, providing small performance boosts. However, your performance gains may be limited if your catalytic converter restricts gas flow, as a catback exhaust system is installed ‘downstream’ of the converter. Header-back systems are increasingly rare, namely because of modern emissions systems. Since removing your vehicle’s factory emissions components is highly illegal, the previous two options are more common. However, header-back systems are still available for some older, pre-emissions applications. In these cases, header-back systems offer more performance and volume than cat-back or axle-back systems