Catback or muffler?

Ok so i been looking around and my stock exhaust piping is 2.25 inches and a lot of catback exhausts are like 2.25- 2.5 inches. My question is since my car has pretty big exhaust piping stock would it be worth my money to buy the 400-500 dollar exhast that has like 2.3-3.0 inch piping or can i get the same sound and relativley the same horsepower gain from just a muffler and removing my resignator? Which mod would you guys recomend? Thanks

it depends how serious you are about performance and what muffler you're looking at buying.

In general, yes the stock exhaust on the GT is fairly good and the muffler is the biggest choking point in the whole system.

I have a 03 GS not GT and is the horsepower difference gonna be significante ?

The hp gain is going to be damn near negligible with any catback on the market for our cars. I think the highest hp gain recorded was like 4 hp or something like that. Unless you're going FI in the near future I wouldn't recommend a 3" catback cause you'll lose hp being N/A. If you just want the sound and you're under a budget just pick a muffler you like and have at it for cheap. You have to decide for yourself if you want to pay 500 for a 4 hp gain.

The hp gain is going to be damn near negligible with any catback on the market for our cars. I think the highest hp gain recorded was like 4 hp or something like that. Unless you're going FI in the near future I wouldn't recommend a 3" catback cause you'll lose hp being N/A. If you just want the sound and you're under a budget just pick a muffler you like and have at it for cheap. You have to decide for yourself if you want to pay 500 for a 4 hp gain.

agreed

Yah so screw the catback does any one know any good sounding mufflers for a 03 GS that are cheap. It will only be temporary b/c eventaly i will be going foreced induction. Thanks for the advice guys!