"As the exhaust goes back and cools it seems not to need as much room as it condenses. We make both full 3 inch test pipes and also 3 inch test pipes that cone back down to 2.5" so that one can see most of the gains and keep there old 2.5" cat backs. We did a test on my car going from full 3 inch to coning back to a 2.5" catback system and I kept all the early gains of going 3 inch and only lost 13 RWHP after 6000 RPM with coning back down to 2.5". The cars do feel faster with 3 inch catbacks, but the dyno shows some of it must be the sensation of the sound!"
Is more or less what I was remembering. I would have looked it up myself, but I'm always on here at "work" :)