Small front silencer?

[WHITEY_]

I was looking under my 03 mini one earlier at a friends house to look at the new playmini slushcut exhaust that had been fitted (which i must say is awsome...was surprised how much louder it gets after about 30 min of driving). Anyway I was looking all the way through the exhaust system at the back of the engine bay, and by following the manifold down came to the cat, then a bit further down under the car there was a small can-like thing, does anyone know what this is? The only thing we could think of that it could possibly be is a small silencer? The playmini exhaust I bought was with the unsilenced mid section pipe btw.

[Ant FR]

i think the middle pipe is usually referred to as the resonator section, its a primary straight through silencer used mainly to eliminate drone from the exhaust being heard in the cabin at motorway cruising speeds. Most performance systems take it out and i assume some like the milltek will make it optional, either resonated or non-resonated. Although saying that i have never checked mine. on my old ibizas i went for non-resonated millteks and it made a much better sound with slight increased cabin nouise.

[WHITEY_]

heres pic of what i mean

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c.../2107_17lo.jpg

[Ant FR]

the bigger one is the cat