I gutted my cat and it sounded like SH*t!!!!!

 

When my cat got clogged I chose to gut it rather than replace it with anything. It did not affect the dirveability of the car one bit. It also didn't change the sound of the car except when decelerating. Then it would get a little more raspy than before. There was no droning, raspiness upon acceleration or cruise, nor was there any true power gains (other than the increased flow from a clogged cat). All of this was with stock manifolds, SLP y-pipe, and the 2OTL exhaust. I now have shorties and a MAC catback and I still don't have any of these negative symptoms. My advise would be to go ahead and try it if there is something wrong with the current cat. If you don't like it then spend the money for a new cat or an off-road pipe. There are no ill effects to gutting the cat. I've been driving with mine gutted for the past 7 years.

FWIW, I too have a single cat car just like the OP. Maybe its different with dual cat cars. I just don't see how there is enough "turbulence" created to hurt performance. I gotta say that I would have to agree with Snake on this one. Just not the way he puts forth his argument.