97 Ford T-Bird V-8
 

Simple and to the point. I was thinking of taking off the mufflers and just running pipes. Any thoughts or other ideas out there?

As a fellow thunderturd owner... I have this to say....
Absolutely not.

The noise will be deafeningly loud. You WILL get pulled over all the time by the cops, and get several tickets ( it is illegal, you know? ). The vibration from the noise will make bolts come loose.

Your performance will probably be hurt, unless you are running drag race cams and have a supercharger. All street engines require a certain amount of backpressure to cause the exhaust valves to close properly... and I doubt a straight pipe would allow for this.The smell coming out of the tailpipe will be nauseating , and will come straight into your car, as the pipes end about directly underneath where you sit...

If you are looking for a performance boost, how much are you looking to spend? You can get most exhaust shops to make you a dual pipe system for <$300...

I wouldn't recommended it....straight pipes with just cats would sound really horrible....plus like BooRadley said it would be louder than all hell. (if you want to grab attention go for it) Like Boodradley said take it to a good shop, around my area there is a place called the muffler shop (its a chain of repair places) it only cost my friends about $275 to get dual exhaust with glass packs. The other thing you have to worry about is if you have emissions tests.

Thanks for the advise. The straight pipes was only a thought. I figured it would be loud just didn't know how loud. Was already 90% set on a traditional exhaust system. Anybody have any suggestions or ideas. FloMaster DynoMax ect....

Sure turk. Check out the technical articles at the thunderbird club of america...
http://tccoa.com/articles/

If I was doing it myself, and wanted to keep cost down... I'd go for a 3" exhaust pipe and a borla muffler. Borlas are expensive, but the sound is nice. Flowmasters sound good too. Dual exhaust isn't really necessary unless you plan on building your engine a huge amount ( >50 hp over stock, whcih amounts to $1500+ in engine mods.... )

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.