Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Performance SHO Shop Hi-Flow Y-pipe. Is it legal in California?

That is also part of the Catch 22 of smog laws.
As long as your vehicle passes the mandatory inspection, either visual, sniffer or both, then the state or federal government really can't do anything to you.
If your state doesn't have mandatory inspections, then obviously your chances of being caught are quite remote.
I know the feds have been attempting for years to mandate that all states implement some kind of smog laws/inspections, but so far only a few states have them & some only in certain populous cities.
It's not like the state or federal government has smog agents running around actively enforcing the laws, trying to catch people with non-compliant vehicles or businesses altering those same vehicles.
As is always the case with government appartchiks, it is merely the threat of possibly getting caught violating the law that is intended to be a deterrent.

Therefore that is why many owners, some on this very forum, have consciously defied these laws & replaced their catalytic converters with off-road pipes.

Personally I don't have a problem with others doing so but I decided to keep my vehicles smog legal hence the choice of H-pipe on my Saleen & eventually my Contour.
As long as the vehicle passes the sniffer test, then the visual inspection is really irrelevant, so why have it? Likely because it is an easy way for the inspection station to fail a vehicle & collect additional money in fees as well as the government collecting fines.
I think these laws are ridiculously draconian, realistically unenforceable & an example of the arrogant omnipotence in which the federal government & some state governments (like California) regard themselves.