just had MID-AMERICA tru-duels installed on the vette;WOW!!!!MORE POWER, BETTER (WAY BETTER)SOUND, QUICKER,over all 100% differance to the good.I PUT on FLOWMASTR 40,S also;couldn,t be happier, eliminated the cats,THE only drawback was is that i had to get them professionally installed,(some tweeking involved)the shop did a great job;LOOKS LIKE ART WORK.I HIGHLY recommend this fix for anyone out there with a 80- vette, and that silly factory set-up

Hey Shady,

Can you get away without cats there? The county I live in (chatham county, North Carolina) will be machine testing cars next year at inspection time . I bet that exhaust does sound great!

When you had your original exhaust removed, did they have any problems with breaking studs at the exhaust manifold? I have been looking at the MA product but was concerned about fit and quality? Did you add in an H pipe to equalize? I'm hopeing to do mine this summer.

HI FLA-VETTE!!! like i said, I took the vette to a muffler shop,for installation,and i have to say this again, the guy was a artist with pipes.He had no problems that he could,nt handle when taking the old off;and i didn,t use a H-PIPE;DIDN,T NEED TO.I bought the mid-america system for $250.00 the flowmaster 40,s cost me $135.00 for both;and the muffler shop charged me $100.00 to install;not bad considering every shop i tried wanted $550.00 and up for there total package.I HAVE TO TELL YOU;THE DIFFERANCE IN SOUND IS NIGHT AND DAY;IT REALLY SOUNDS LIKE A VETTE SHOULD.VERY VERY HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS,AND YOU WILL TO.It,s a tough job to tackle on your back,so if you could find a good shop to help with installation,you WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED with this system.I HOPE THIS HELPED WITH YOUR DECISION.GOOD LUCK!!!! bY the way NICE CAR.....

|UPDATED|4/18/2003 5:01:43 AM|/UPDATED|

Hopefully soon I'll get mine done. I would think that after 23 years my cat has got to be pretty plugged up. I am looking forward to the boost and may have to move it up my list of priorities.

shady80 I couldn't agree more. I have a 1980 L48 4 speed that I did the same thing to last year. What a difference! I went with a turbo muffler that will be quickly changed to flowmaster this year. I have headers on it so I had to do some modifications to it. I did the job myself (with my son's help). We took the old exhaust off as one unit, looked at it, and discovered that the cat was put on BACKWARDS. The flow arrow was pointing towards the engine. Like it says in the catalog, you get a "seat of the pants" response. I would recommend this to everyone. And yes, we have no emission test in Michigan.

I'm amazed that so may of you have been able to avoid the emissions testing for so long! We've been stuck with that here along Lake Michigan (lousy EPA) for over 15 years now! In fact, they even wanted to test my '69 before they would give me plates (yeah right, like it could pass). Fortunately there are ways around it.

PS - definitely find a good exhaust man, it can be a miserable do it yourself job. And yes, I have broken the exhaust manifold studs!!!

where i live in florida we don't have any inspection of any kind not just no emission -no inspection at all, and thats for all cars not just classics. if you live in a tampa or miami they check for emissions only but outside of the large xcities the don't check anything

Has anybody attempted to install the MA dual system without a muffler shop. I bought the kit for '80 and the Passenger side turn out over the rear leaf spring goes too deep into the right rear tire? any ideas on what to do. Best guess is to take it to a shop. Have the exhaust system installed back to the tires, just need the right side to fit.....