Lou, In most states a car with a missing catalytic converter could have passed up until a few years ago, assuming the inspector didn't physically look for a catalytic converter. That's really no longer true. In my state (Virginia) they now have a four-gas test that specifically looks for nitrous oxide. My car had had the converter hollowed out by a previous owner and I tried and tried to get it to pass (even testing it and getting it to pass on my own three-gas analyzer) before finally taking the catalytic converter off and realizing it was empty. I will say that when I put a new converter on it I could definitely notice a difference in the performance and exhaust tone. The performance hit is not noticeable at low RPMs but you can tell the difference between 4 and 6K for sure. An inspector definitely wouldn't notice a lack of a converter based on exhaust tone as most of them have never even seen a DeLorean before, much less know what it's supposed to sound like. Hell, I've had one or two ask me if mine had the Ford or optional AMC engine! :) --Rob Hook ----- Original Message ----- From: "Louie Golden" <louie@xxxx> To: <dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 9:44 AM Subject: Re: [DML] Catalytic converters > I know a guy who recently took out the catalytic converter on his car and put a section of pipe in its place, and believe me, it won't go unnoticed.