i guess im one of the ones who escaped the ricer-mood that was induced from the fast and furious movies.as far as what a ricer is, id say that i agree with the opinion that a ricer is someone who is concerned about looks , as in looks fast or looks good and nothing more. stickers, body kits, wings, things like that i have no care for at all. on the other side, even if its a honda, if its been built to perform, and on pump gas without 3 week anniversary rebuilds, i have respect for that. the kid at the high school with a rusted out, tired, worn crx with a body kit and a custom exhaust... that i have no respect for. the car sounds like a diesel it rattles so bad. :banghead:

 

hey great stories fella's! i am a C4 driver but i like reading in all parts of the forum. my 2 cents ... i don't like it when some civic pulls up next to me with a muffler that can hold watermelons and a ten foot wing, that thinks he can compete with no actuall mods. sure they can make them fast with a lot of money but around here it is all just trying to look like they are "fast and furious" , they start revin and wanting to race and i put them to shame. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? :lol: all i have is an L-98 with cut-lid K&N... oh well they will never learn.... :crazy: to

to me that is a ricer, an economy car with no real mods, just looks.
if they have a 4 banger and it can go - i don't call rice. they go with the best of us car buffs. :)

 

I could talk for hours about this, but I wont. But honestly, I HATE RICERS! 99.9% of them are all show and no go. I will admit, some are tastefully done, but half of the time, those guys also own a muscle car from the '60s or '70s. They add a really loud and terrible sounding fart pipe that does nothing, or the rear wing, which is useless because the car cannot go fast enough for it to take effect. Or even the racing stripes, or stickers, those make the car go real fast. What I don't understand is if you have about 20 grand to spend, why not buy an old vette, or chevelle, or camaro. With $15k - $20k, you can get a pretty decent show car, or spend $10k - $15k and get a really nice daily driver. Why buy a honda when you can spend equal or less money for a vette? If you absolutely have to tweak out your honda, do the work under the hood before you touch the body. I'd rather see a 'sleeper' honda running 10's then a highly body modified honda running 25's.
One thing, there are no ricers in organized racing. Just being there shows your all go and no, well maybe a little show.
Another thing, not to sound like a hypocrite, but I do drive my dad's 'old' '95 Mazda Millenia. Its a luxury car and nothing has or will be changed on it. It has a V6 DOHC(no 4bangers here). It is front wheel drive, and I will admit, they do handle well in the snow. I did a burnout in it once, and the front started bouncing like it was on hydrolics. Me and my friend got a good laugh out of it. Damn FWD :banghead:, I need to get a vette, but I got very little money :banghead:. Anyone near Southwest CT hiring?? (for my 3rd time) haha ricers make me want to :U

 

Its interesting but there seems to be a small shift in the opinions here in the C3 section of Corvetteforum. 6 months ago you would have gotten nothing but vitriol about ricers.

Now, I enjoy a good laugh like the rest of you, and some of these cars are just plain hilarious, but some of them will suck the paint off the nose of your car.

Here's my take on the situation for what its worth.

Ricers are no different than most (not all) of us when we were their age. In the mid to late 70's when I came under the influence of cars there were several trends.

>There were the guys who jacked their cars up in the rear using spring shackles and air shocks so they could put the biggest damn bias ply tires they could find under the back of their cars - they pasted Moroso, Accell, Milodon and such stickers on their fenders and windows. their cars werent modified but they looked just like their favorite drag strip hero.

>There were guys with hugh strips of neoprene hanging from their rockers so they could get the "Ground effect" of skirts, they had rear spoilers (usually factory pieces since there was little in the way of aftermarket) and front as well. they stiffened their suspension bushings with wood screws into the rubber (I might still have the hot rod magazine that recommended that) and they cut out coils. Now their car looked like a way cool transam racer - not that it was any faster.

The upshot is this, these kids enjoy their cars, they modify them, often with insane results, they spend huge sums of money. The reason they dont take that money and go buy a vette or a camaro is because THEY DONT LIKE OR DONT WANT a vette or Camaro. This is no different than saying to any of us. Mustang parts are much easier to find, why dont you go out and get a mustang with all that money you spent.

Lastly, My definition of ricer depends on 2 things. Attitude and Ability. To me a ricer has the attitude that asian is superior to all, and they flaunt it. Ability, they dont have much of that, their idea is intimidating (to them mind you) looks and appearance - actual performance is not an issue. They do not know why they want a wing, or if they do, its based on incorrect reasons. they will tell you a wing makes them faster, or that adding a 5" diameter muffler to a 1 1/2" diameter pipe is worth 50 hp.

I dont like the looks of most of these cars, but the ones that run, and I mean run....I respect no less than the twin turbo Gale Banks mid-year running around town (ok maybe a bit less). The rest I ignore and laugh at.

rambling message ends. :lol:

 

Well for being an 18 year old I can definately say that most of you are true. I never really had the experience with owning imports though because they never appealed to me, ever since I was a kid I sat in awe at the old muscle(expecially corvettes) cars and the things people do with them, from custom to stock( I personally am going for the totally custom thing trying to make mine different from the rest). I for one love the way the old cars drive and the torque. I hate how easy it is to drive new cars for one, I feel like I want to fall asleep sometimes while I'm driving my vette I am always anxious learning more and more about my car. There are a feel new age inventions that would be great on our older cars and I will try to put a few of them on mine but when it comes to classic style an old car can't be beat.
Now on to my experience with a few of the topics:
Ladies: Being one of the 3 or 4 muscle cars at my school of 700 seniors I have to admit they actually dont get the attention that the imports do (maybe some of it is because I dont have a great looking paint job because I want to finish performance before I go looks). I do get a lot of interesting looks at my car but for the most part they are more curious than interested. A c5 definately appeals more to teen girls than c3's do in my experiene because of the cost of the new c5's I think (money attracts girls now adays. not saying I'm poor or anythign, holding 2 jobs to pay for my car is tough work but the pay off is worth every penny, until it doesnt work right).

Ricers: A ricer is definately a person who takes imports and doesnt do anything more than intake, exhaust tips, fartcans, wings, stickers, and taking there car back to primer to make it look cool. Another thing about most ricers (even a lot of new mustang drivers do this) is they peel out and rev there engine every chance they get. Ricers are in alot of kids though, not many out there like me who are die hard muscle car fans. Example one is a kid who had daddy's Le Mans and ended up selling it to get a fart can honda. Example 2 is a 70's Firebird owner who also has daddy's car and acts like a ricer in it, always gunning the throttle and reving his engine at any light he stops at. I think a key part in actually appreciating an older car is to get your hands dirty in it. My first main experience with my car was when I installed my new heads(Pro Topline Aluminum Lightning). Went on what I read and learned myself and with a little help from a friend who owns an engine shop and rebuilt my engine for me I was able to get them on. I pretty much went in blind folded and tryed my hardest. It was definately one experience I would love to do again and maybe I can do it a little better next time (ran into alot of problems last time).
On another note, there's not many cars at my school that can beat me or my friends 56 chevy wagon but even if they loose they will go around telling everyone how fast they are and that they beat a muscle car. Most of them are so full of themselves and so not willing to learn about cars that they will make up anything to appeal to their friends and girls. The few that actually work on their cars intently and have lots of future plans, I applaud them! As mentioned before, they are the new generation of what corvette enthusiast were when they first came out, trying to be the best. If I am ever beat by a truly worthy import, I will give the guy my full gratitude because he deserves it. I will never get pissed off at a driver that beats me because I know I will never be the fastest but I will give the most sportsmanship in any situation (unless it's some 100% ricer boy or a mustang -- I have a little thing with many of the mustang drivers but thats more a personal thing)

I am an avid car enthusiast and am trying to learn as much as I can but it is a really hard process and it's hard to do alot of it on my own because I don't have any help from a dad mechanic or neighbor. I'm learning this stuff on my own and have to leave alot of it to shops. I am planing to try and learn a lot in college over the next few years if i get a chance (going to ASU next year on a full academic scholarship and if I hold my jobs I probably won't get much of a huge chance to do this, but I will always find time for it no matter what it cost me in sleep).

Money: Lastly, alot of kids at my school want to get spend 25-30 grand on a WRX or new mustang package. I would truthfully rather put 20grand into a project car (like mine) and know almost every detail of it. it allows me to customize it the way I want it and they ability to grow with my car, learning it inside and out so be able to use it to its full potential if ever required. With the cost of the car I am truthfully up to about 15grand (little help from parents with some costs) but I am almost fully satisfied with the car(Noone is ever fully satisfied, theres always something you could have done better or soemthing you want to change, a true car buff will never be happy with his car because he knows whats wrong with it, even if no body would ever be able to tell). Most of the rest of the money I plan to spend in the next year will go to make it looks good (only thing I have done so far is part of the interior, it was so bad when I got it I had to change it to live with it as a daily driver)

I think I went might have bambled on but I guess thats my $2.00 worth ($.02 doesnt cut it in this reply) :D

P.S. Everyone is entiled to there own opinion through there own experiences, I'm just sharing my own trying to look at things from both points off view on the matter. :flag

 

I'm a big fan of driving a slow car fast, as opposed to a fast car slow. The former is a lot more fun.

I drove my brother-in-law's stock Protege, with an automatic no less, and had a blast. The car was as responsive as anything I've driven in a long time, my Vette included. No, it doesn't have the monster torque or wheel spinning ability, but the car was so well thought out, driving it was effortless.

Now as far as bolting a 5 foot wing to it, NOS, or flames, or whatever. Well, not here. Nor would my brother-in-law. But the overall value of these small cars is hardly lost on me.

If I didn't need my truck for what I do, I'd quickly dump it for a small, fuel efficient, fun to drive car.

 

I just wish they would stop putting those stupid fart pipes on. They do nothing for the car, and sound like s**t. At least keep with the original or a free flowing muffler that doesn't fart. Hell, bolt on a mid eighties Beretta exhaust, it oughta sound better!

 

Some of the small displacement cars are fast, they just require a turbocharger and AWD to do it effieciently. But once you start modifing it the reliable goes out the windows. Or if you have a DSM you never had the reliability to start with. RX-7s are cool cars, so are the Z cars. AE86 Corollas are good little cars. Supras are good too, except for the headgaskets, them being dyno queens, and really not having any power until the revs get up. (What do a 600, 700, and 800hp Supra have in common? They all runs 12s in the quarter mile). They are sports cars. They are RWD. They have potential. I just don't see what would draw someone to a Civic. My Crown Vic can beat them and it's a two ton boat. They should be ashamed of themselves. Usually they can't even get out of the 18s. They don't know anything about engines for the most part. They just buy the parts and install them and feel all bad because they think they are tuning their car. You will never see me spending $200 for air filter ducting. I don't know why they say that they handle better. Sure they may handle well, but they would do better if they were RWD or AWD. FWD just isn't the best for handling. I'd love to see a RWD boat tear through an off road rally course that they love so much. Ricers just don't have very good mechanical knowledge for the most part. Hell, I was talking to one in my auto class last year when a kid had his Firebird in the shop and one of them asked me if it was carbuerated. Um, there is a carb right there on the intake manifold, I should hope that it is. They don't even know what a carb is! They don't even understand their own engines.

 

Kid, You're Neither Fast Nor Furious!
"You're a Riceboy"

by tersian@moron.com


It's a day like any other Sunday, I'm off to do some errands. I take the most direct route to the hardware store, through town, and like every other time I go through town I hear BRRRRRRRTT, WEEEEEEEEEEEE, BRRRRRRRRRRT. No, it's not something wrong with my engine, or the repercussions of last night's Taco Bell experience. It's the sounds of Japanese and domestic economy cars revving up their engines, some trying to spin their wheels others demonstrating the art of redlining while the car remains in "park."

They're the newest scourge of the road. Worse than road rage, carjackings and accidents, they're ricers. They have pack mentality, slow cars and dangerous driving habits and they really **** you off!

So what is a "ricer?" It is a pretty complex question so let's go to the experts.

Rice-Boy, from http://www.riceboypage.com offers up this pearl: " There are the ones that care about performance and want to make their cars go fast/handle well. Then there are the ones that want to make their car look good. But there is a third group [ricers] - those who try to make their car look fast."

So we start there, they are people who want to make their cars "look fast" without actually making them so.

The RiceCop website, http://www.ricecop.com offers up these definitions:

[A] riceboy starts by adding visual modifications to the vehicle, to give it the image of "looking fast." This can be done by adding a body kit, a performance uni-blade windshield wiper, vast amounts of stickers strategically placed on any part of the vehicle, performance seat belt covers, PIAA driving lights that are fluorescent or blue colored, large exhaust tip (at least twice the size of the actual exhaust pipe), 130+ decibel stereo system, and an oversized rear wing/spoiler.

So I've established what a ricer is, so what about someone driving one, a riceboy, what is the hobby that has become a lifestyle? Let's look at few items on Ricecop's list:

Riceboy has a vehicle that is generally not considered a performance car, ("performance car" meaning it stems from the sports car or muscle car background).

Riceboy starts by adding visual modifications to the vehicle, to give it the image of "looking fast." (see above)
Riceboys "race" from a rolling start of about 30mph. This is not a real race.
Riceboys call their exhaust systems "high-tech" sounding. We don't know about the rest of the world, but our farts sure don't sound remotely high-tech.
To draw more attention to their vehicles, when large crowds are in the area, they tend to drive by several times at about 6000rpm so everyone can see their immaculate vehicle speed by and fart. Riceboy drives fast or in crowded areas doing all that he can to attract the most attention and turn the most heads. Ultimately, this is riceboy's goal.
By now you should have a pretty firm grip on what a ricer/riceboy is. If you can't remember seeing one lately, then you must be from Big Moose Knuckle, Alaska where there are only two vehicles in the whole town and one is a snowplow. However, just in case you didn't get it above, Ricecop offers this:

There are literally several thousand 4-banger, 6-banger, and even some 8 cylinder vehicles roaming the streets with extremely poor taste in exterior body modifications. This poor taste somehow translates into an image of performance, and to the average person these vehicles might actually look "fast." Keep in mind that riceboys can drive any type of vehicle, not just an import.

This makes an important point, the ricer lifestyle is not based on make of vehicle, it's based on attitude and well, what we used to call being a "poser." I will admit, there are some pretty fast high performance import and domestic cars out there, but these ricers neither own or drive anything fast or high performance.

So why do I even care? Well, if only the riceboys would keep to themselves, drive safe and leave others, who may, or may not, be driving high performance cars, alone. On too many occasions I have see these riceboys pull up next to a four-door family sedan and demand a race. Usually the person inside the vehicle is simply on their way to a destination and has no interest in racing, plus, even if they were interested, all that gadgetry on the riced out vehicle surely makes the car look fast to the casual observer. So the driver of the family car tries to ignore the riceboy but only ends up getting cut off or has to eat big black plumes of the ricer's fart cannon as the rice boy darts in from of the family car.
On other occasions, I have been assaulted by riceboys on the way to car shows. I drive a classic Chevy Corvette and have done a few performance modifications to it. However, it looks stock on the outside and since I have no stickers on it, a big fart cannon, or racing stripes, I suppose the riceboys think I swapped the big block V8 with a VW beetle motor because they always pull up next to me at red lights and rev their engines, expecting me to race them. Well, I used to show them that there is "no replacement for displacement", but now I usually just tell them that racing them would be a waste of fuel being dumped down my carb and if they would like to race they can either hand me across twenty bucks for fuel or I will see them at the local 1/4 mile strip. They call me all sorts of names, claim my car is slow, etc. but never take up my offer.

Not only are they ignorant of aerodynamics, modern automotive powerplants and vehicle performance tuning, but they drive like idiots. I have seen many riceboys doing 65(most of their top speeds) down a 35mph road weaving in and out of traffic. Not only have I seen them crash their own cars, but I have seen them make others have traffic accidents because of their bad "performance" shenanigans.

It's not like this is a new phenomenon, I remember the days of Chevy Novas, El Caminos and Monte Carlos racing in the same town a decade or more ago, except there were a few differences. These "gear heads" or "motor heads" as we used to refer to them, knew thier cars, worked on them religiously, and most didn't care how they looked, as long as they were fast light to light.I can remember seeing many "primer colored" cars giving smoke shows at lights, but when they raced it was always straight, short and fast. Yes, they did have accidents and probably caused their share, but nothing like the riceboys out there today.




[Modified by tersian, 6:57 AM 3/29/2003]

 

Well, fashion has a lot to do with it... Since this is popular, of course kids are going to want to be a part of it. ('cept me.. never really found it interesting)

Price.. I nearly bought a new, fully-loaded Honda Prelude type-SH for 22 grand. Try buying a new, fully-loaded z06 for that cheap. Or step down a bit, try buying a new Camaro SS for that little. And a Prelude is a nice car, nothing like the Cavaliers and Civics these guys go after.

New 4-cylinder engines are making significant amounts of power. The Prelude is a good example -- 220hp. Yes, torque is low, but when advertising a car, who ever mentions torque? Beyond that, look at the Ligenfelter Ecotec. 1000+hp from 4 cylinders is amazing.

They're smaller than our cars. Well, except for cargo space.. I don't think any car has a smaller cargo area than my c3. Now I do love the incredibly long look of my hood, but there's just something fun about driving a small, zippy car. Anyone that's been able to wedge themselves into a Miata knows what I mean.

Still, given the choice I'd rather have the sound of a huge-bore engine under the hood that could be annoyingly loud WITHOUT the exhaust system's equivalent of a 10,000 watt amplifier. It's strange, the muffler has a 1" inlet, and a 5" outlet... You can almost see the valves opening and closing.

 

You do not have to spend lots of money to get extra power. Here is a fellow who did much (added 50hp) at little cost.
http://www.angelfire.com/nc2/mycoffeecan/page1.html

 

There were the guys who jacked their cars up in the rear using spring shackles and air shocks so they could put the biggest damn bias ply tires they could find under the back of their cars - they pasted Moroso, Accell, Milodon and such stickers on their fenders and windows.

I remember those cars well. One of my favorite smart comments at car shows is that the cars are not in the original primer gray I remembered from high school. I remember guys fixing up roadrunners with the slant sixes thinking they were hot stuff. I am sure people were shaking their heads at us then. There are also more cultural influences on the automotive world now than there were when I was growing up. While the ricers do not get a lot of respect here you must admit that they are carrying on the great American Tim Taylor tradition of modifying whatever you have. A lot of ricers are just learning about cars and how to behave on the road. I may still :lol: at some of these guys but will also remember when. Rather than scalding them all the time try and find some common ground.

 

I have been to a honda tech meet the other weekend and, yes, there were the traitional import guys with hideous looking wings and stickers all over their car. I even saw one guy pull up in a neon green Integra and drop the car to the ground after paying with his hydraulics for about five minute. I have always considered "ricers" to be the the guys, not just import (I had the pleasure of seeing a Ford Contour with a double wing and a Type R badge :nopity ) who don't do anything to performance and just make their car an eyesore to the surrounding public.

When I bought my car (a 79 Vette with a hot 454 under the hood) I was very willing to eat anything else in my town like that new Trans-Am commercial (the one where it eats the car infront of it). Though there are no cars save from the two Vipers and the 11 second Grand National that can rival my car, this meet enlightened me a little bit. I stood looking at a an integra which has 400HP. Yes it had a turbo in it, but still being able to get 400 horses from a four and still have it streetable is an accomplishement.

I guess what I am trying to say is that the other guys who are performance conscious like us, we should respect. However, those who try to pull off the "Fast car" look and haven't attempted to improve or learn about thier car should be shown the true light by all those people who care about performance.

:chevy


[Modified by dudeskie, 7:51 PM 3/29/2003]

 

Import Dudes aren't bad at all. It's just those idiots with the my car rides is better than your POS attidude that I hate. Honesty is also good. When you lose a race, admit it!
I love Corvettes, but I like RX7s, Skylines and Supras too! (and just about any fast car)
Also, it's pretty hard to find a cat-back for the previous 3 cars w/o a huge tip



[Modified by garagedweller2, 1:41 AM 3/30/2003]

 

Here is one quick example of why people spend time/money fixing up 4 cyl engines: http://www.extrememotorsports.com/team/philb.htm

And as a previous poster mentioned, it can be damned hard to get an exhaust without a big tip for these types of cars. When looking for a turbo back exhaust for my AWD Talon I got into a polite debate over this. The guy at the performance shop couldn't understand why I wanted a 3" tip on a 3" exhaust even though he admitted there is absolutely no performance improvement with the 4" (smallest I could even order). I ended up selling the Talon before buying the exhaust, but I would have had to cut the tip off and have a smaller one welded on (probably dual 2" for a stock appearance).

 

Well I will admit I do watch Super Tuner TV on TNN. I trip out on the money and electronics those ricer folks come up with. I often wonder how a 19 year old kid can build a 100k Supra :rolleyes: I don't slam them but I'm thankful my generation was into musclecars and not imports.