I want to unbolt the muffler and drive around for maybe a day doing my normal routine, to see if I'd like the idea of going to the effort to do a straight pipe. But it looks like the pipe angles up a little bit so if the exhaust was dumping at the axle it will blow onto the underside of the car, are the gasses going to be too hot and damage anything, or be fine?

 

Just make sure your windows are rolled down while your driving.

The car will be fine.