I'd think the pipe does something. Sure at a dead stop no, but surely at 60 mph it would. And How is the pipe held inside the cone?
Also, I'm setting up some 3" flexpipe and wondered if you cut away any of the fender metal to fit it. It's not a 3" hole all-the-way to the filter (at least for me is isn't) so I had to squeeze mine to 2.5" in one spot....