I sympathise, as someone whose downpipe has cracked on three occasions on different sections in as many years. Time for the Skandix/Simmons system for me I think.

It's amazing how loud it is when you hit the gas. Luckily with me I was always 3 minutes from a garage who welded it each time for $25. There is an exhaust bandage that you can buy that contains a foil-backed bandage and wire. It's very messy and certainly very short-term, but it might get you that 5-10k home or to a garage without, as you say, causing a noah's ark exodus of every living creature.

Tom