I live in CA and need to stay smog legal, so that means I'm going with shorty headers, and the cat needs to stay in its original position. With those being my limiting factors, any ideas on how to get max performance out of an exhaust setup? I'm gonna throw some ideas out there so bear with me.

I've read a single cut-out sounds like crap, so what about running dual cutouts somwhere in the y-pipe? I mainly want to go with dual cutouts because of the performance and sound quality increase, but are the gains really that noticeable over a single cutout? Because a single cutout after the car would be a hell of alot easier to pull off. I'm sure a muffler shop could hack up my y-pipe and put in cutouts, but I'm not sure about the clearances, haven't had the car up in the air yet. Ideas welcome.

Edit:
Its a 94 Formula.

 

Might want to mention the year of the car, engine, etc.

 

If you have two cutouts in the y-pipe, you may have to deal with alot more vibrations and cabin drone. I'm sure the power differences between and single and dual cutout would be small. The common spot to put a cutout is right before the rear axle.

 

Yah, I'm thinking dual cutouts its a little unecessary. I'm gonna put the cutout in the I pipe. I want to run 3" exhaust all the way to the cutout, and then after that I dont care. Does anyone know the input/output diameter of the stock cat? I'm guessing I will probably have to buy an aftermarket 3" cat.