Bob-
Couple of thoughts. First, definetely get the heater. It is great in the fall and winter and keeps you reasonably warm until the temps dip below 40 or so. Second, check the NY state regs, I'm not positive, but I think a defroster may be required for inspection.
As for the sidepipes, I'm not sure if other collectors from other cars will match up to ERA's primaries without serious modification to maybe both the primaries and the collectors, Bob P. can tell you for sure. As a compromise, if there are different mufflers you want to use, why not buy them and have ERA weld them into your sidepipes instead of using their standard muffler. They can make the sidepipes up with any muffler you want. I know, I now have 3 different sets of mufflers
