no annual inspection requied? nice! if true

You can connect front and middle pipes directly without using cat. However, I definitely don't recommend that. OEM cat can cost you good few hundred bucks easy. Yet you can pay less than 100 bucks get an after market one, and it does the job! Tip for you:if your cat is original, ask it back, you may be able to sell it for 50 bucks:-)(there are people buy and recycle them)