If you want to improve car performance there are several car after market products that help you do that. There are many options you will need to evaluate before you can make a confident choice.
Some like a cold air intake do it by improving combustion other such as some components of body kits do so by improving the aerodynamics. Some do it by reducing the car weight such as a carbon fiber hood. Some even do it by reducing component weight such as light engine pulleys.
Amongst all these products there is one product that improves engine performance in an elegant manner. That is a cat-back exhaust. Why is it elegant? Because in improving the cars performance it doesn’t stress the engine more. Rather it reduces the stress on the engine.
To understand how a cat-back exhaust improves engine performance you must understand in simple terms how an engine generates power. An engine is where fuel is mixed with air and then compressed. Once it is compressed the mixture is ignited and the resultant energy generates the power. However along with the energy exhaust gases are also generated when the fuel air mixture is ignited. And before the next lot of fuel air mixture can be ignited these exhaust gases have to be removed. Now exhaust gases travel out of the engine through a series of components such as a silencer and a catalytic converter onto the final exhaust pipe. The resistance they encounter in leaving the engine creates what is known as the back pressure. The lower the back pressure the faster the exhaust gases can leave the engine.
The size and design of the final exhaust pipe impacts the ease with which the exhaust gases can make the final exit. In a cat-back exhaust the pipe diameter is larger than normal. Also the bends are designed such that back pressure is minimized. By allowing exhaust gases to leave quickly a cat-back exhaust enables the next combustion cycle to take place more easily and therefore it improves the engine performance.
