[kerpow]

When I lived in England Essex was the Rice Boy hotbed and now I'm in the states I've seen several in rural Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky. Are there many in your area? Is it a dying craze or as strong as ever?

[FearM9]

It's strong as ever.


Now in the past I have dissed folks that rice up their Civics and Integras and Neons and what not but I think I have discovered a new found appreciation for them. They are basically like the folks that way back in the days were making hot rods to race and cruise the streets in. And I'm sure they had plenty of detractors.

What I am not fond of is the whole gangsta persona that some of them have. Now that's lame.

And manufacturers are seeing this trend. Look at the "R-Type" cars that folks like Nissan, Honda, Toyota, etc. are coming up with. Dodge just recently "riced" their damn Neon. I know Ford worked with aftermarket folks on the development of stuff for the Focus.

Oh yeah...another thing I hate with "Rice Boys" is that some of those idiots think they can treat public streets as their own F1 race track. I was on Interstate 80 heading from the Bay Area back into Reno and was in heavy traffic when two riced up cars come zooming by zipping in and out of traffic. I would say that they were probably traveling at speeds in excess of 100 mph.

[kerpow]

I don't have anything against them, it just makes me laugh. There are worse crimes than making a crap car look fast.

Adding a bit of body panelling to an OK car is quite cool. Take and Audi, for instance, and rice it up like the Rally cars - thats pretty cool I think but a Kia or Hyundai is just plain stupid.

As for the gangsta element, the sub-woofers are obviously part and parcel but do race cars have shiny elaborate hubs? I don't think so.

[ruudboy]

Come to Cali, they are all over here, they race them up the street from my job(illegally), and there are a lot here at my work, some of my friends even have them.I don't think the fad will die out here, plus Sears Point race way is only like 45 minutes away, so every weekend they time their rides. We also have a lot of muscle cars, out here in Cali, people are into their cars.

[Foosinho]

Originally posted by FearM9
Now in the past I have dissed folks that rice up their Civics and Integras and Neons and what not but I think I have discovered a new found appreciation for them. They are basically like the folks that way back in the days were making hot rods to race and cruise the streets in. And I'm sure they had plenty of detractors.

Rice boys primarily appearance mod their cars, but typically don't performance mod 'em.

Giant body kits are usually a waste of time, and actually hurt performance. A "type R" sticker won't give you 15 more horses.

Don't get me wrong - I dig good looking cars, and some of these import tuners know how to make cars look good. But if you are just making your car look fast, but not be fast... that's hella weak, with extra weak sauce.

My Audi is virtually virgin, with the exception of red dome lights (to match the dash) and some aftermarket rims. I'd rather drop bank on a new chip that gains me 50 hp than an RS4 bumper that looks dope. The RS4 bumper won't get me around the rallycross course any faster, and will probably get damaged in the process anyway.

I can't wait until I get my hands on an '88 Mazda 323 GTX. My little POS-looking AWD turbo will kick the crap out of 99% of these ricers.

[Alex_1]

I can't stand the "rice boys". I didn't know that's what they were called. I have an IS 300 right now and have done absolutely nothing to it. Everything was stock - from the gearshift to the tires, rims and lights. I want to shove my fist down Tyrese's face in the preview of "Fast and Furious" when he says he has a problem with authority. Assclown - the main problem I have with these idiots is when they put other people's lives in danger by being complete jerk-offs.

I guess what I also don't understand about the "rice boys" is that what is the point of putting all of that money into the car - just buy a better car and put your money towards that. Cars are definitely a hobby of mine, but let's face it they lose so much value over time - only if you have a real classic or masterpiece can it be worth something of value in the long run.

Having said that, I still want the Z . I'm getting rid of my car next summer anyway, and hopefully can get some sort of little truck and pick up a sports car in the winter and keep it garaged. But I'm starting to get curious about the newest version of the Renesis Rotary that's in the RX-8. If I ever put more money into the car, I might consider doing something to one of those.

[Foosinho]

Yee-haw!



I didn't know the Geo Storm came in a "Type R" trim level!



Say what?

[Alex_1]

I've seen some owners of Honda Civic's/Accord's put the Lexus emplem that's on the grill of my car on theirs.

[slipknotter]

It gets worse:
I saw a Toyota Tercel on the freeway one day, that from a distance, as I was catching up to him, has the same bodystyle as the BMW 318ti (the hatchback 2-door). Well, as I got closer, this doofus took out the Toyota logo from the center of the trunk door, and put a BMW logo on there, of course removing the TERCEL letters from the trunk door. He also had the audacity of putting in the front grills that look like a BMW AND the BMW logo in the middle of the bonnett.

[Own Goal Hat-Trick]

call me a riceboy but i just upped my boost to about 17/18psi and im getting my GReddy turbo back exhaust installed tomorrow.

ricer. sure. but my car is faster than yours


(of course, im not going to EVER put anything like another automakers badge on my WRX or something as audacious as that.)