Its hard to get a good sounding V6 I agree.

The stock down pipe, stock cat and if equipped with a u-bend is the most restrictive parts of stock exhaust. Next closest thing is where the pipe splits at the back to go to the mufflers, its not a smooth transition, like a free flowing "Y" its more of a "T" shape.

Reptiles commented on my cars exhaust, and has been in it with the cat back dropped at the track. I dont remember if it was a good comment or a bad.

At idle...I have a pretty good rumble, and a "ting" here and there which I think has a lot to do with the cat being gutted. Hard to explain...you hear it, you can tell what I'm talking about. I can start my car for you at Branson this year if you like.

A picture of my exhaust:
Before:


After being "refreshed" for this year:


Old installed picture when it was redone after my car was rebuilt after the accident.

I reused the mufflers, though the right one was bent, we made it work again. It only had like 1K miles on it before I was creamed, wouldn't you try to reuse it too. LOL

After the resonator its 3" pipe, but because nobody in town has a nice bender...its done the old fashioned way, crushed and formed. So some of the bends can get narrow is why we did 3". The first time we did the exhaust, before the accident, we did 2.5" and when we made the bends, it was down the same size as a stock pipe. We learned, and made changes.

~F~