gut the cat. meow.

 

A good modern style cat in good condition, and of the proper sizeshould create very little restriction or power loss. An old style cat(pellet type) or a modernone that is in poor condition will create a noticeable power loss. A totally messed upcat can cause the engine to choke on itself and even stop running. IMO most people that state they experienced a noticeable power gain by removing the cat, had a bad cat to begin with.

 

When I bought the car the exhaust had already been done, with one cat left, the others eliminated. As far as I know it is still fine, however it is a little banged up from bottoming out. While it's just slightly caved in in a few places, will this make an noticable losses in power?

 

If it got banged up there is a chance that the stuff inside got crumbled up and blown out the exhaust. You may just have a gutted cat in your possession, LOL

 

why not just get a high flow cat? they seem pretty cheap and increase airflow by like 80%

 

because a gutted cat increases airflow by 300 %