Man this thread brings me back. lol
back in my day we would put in bypass valves in the exaust right after the header. It was basically a pipe with a y on it. the header flowed into the main end, and one side of the Y went into the normal exaust system, and the other ran to short straight pipes that basically just lead to the front wheel well to get the exaust out from under the hood. When you wanted power you pulled the cable operated lever inside the car and the flaps opened up the straight pipes and the thing roared with no exaust restriction at all. Then you pushed the switch inside the car closed and the flaps closed and the car went back to normal sounding.
Great for street racing. Reaaly loud when open though. I did it on an old Chevy 350 in my '79 z28 and an oldsmobile 455 in my '74 cutlass. Freaking deafaning when you got on the culass with basically open headers.
Damn I miss that stuff... Now I'm just happy when my car gets me to work with no trouble.