ChanceWarren

Alright, so I've been wondering about this for quite some time now... many a long night spent debating with my fellow import owner buds... about exactly what constitutes a "ricer mod?" It seems to me that many people have differing opinions on what does and does not count as "ricer."

Lets start with the mods that people say are more or less useless.

Some people say big wings count as ricer... but how to define a "big wing?" Are there set dimensions that, once applied, scream rice? There are uses to having a wing; albeit not on the street, typically, but some people--many of you, I'm sure--track their daily drivers, and you need that downward force to keep you anchored to the ground. And what about the Evo IX and earlier? Those have a huge pointless wing on the back straight from the factory; are they ricey? What makes that different?

I've seen certain types of wheels get labeled as rice wheels; wheels which are painted to match the color of the car, usually. So if you have a white car with white wheels, it's ricey. But no one calls a black car with black wheels ricey..? What about red? Or pinstripes?

Many of us have body kits installed... two out of five people I've met and asked have said installing a kit makes your car ricey. Do you agree with them? I'm betting most of you either said No, or It depends. Depends on what? Why are some kits "clean" while others are not? If I chose to install a somewhat loud (visually) kit like the Veilside version 2, would I be ricey? What if it were Tanner Foust? Or a Kaminari/Greddy/Stillen kit? Would that be ricey? What if the Veilside were made by Duraflex?

How about lighting. How far can you go before it's a ricer? That LED conversion that someone was talkin about in the gen forum looks pretty sick, doesn't it? But if you added those fender blinkers, Z4 style, would that be ricey? Is that different from changing your front markers to LED? Or your tail lights to JDM? Or your reverse lamps to chrome? Or even neon underbody lights?

But what of the mods that may actually affect the performance of your car?

At what point is an exhaust tip considered ricey? Or the entire exhaust system, for that matter. They all look different, sound different, affect the ride different. And some have been deemed ricey while others have not. If it's about excessive size, how big is too big? Or loud? Or powerful? Of course, we all know (I hope) that huge diameters and bleeding ears do not a performance exhaust make. But that doesn't necessarily mean that such mods never affect a cars performance. Removing cats and giving yourself a 4.5in tip can make an engine sound like an angry T-Rex, and people have shown real gains on the dyno like that. Same goes for intake..

Where do you draw the line when it comes to the difference between a well modded nice car, to a ridiculous rice car? Does it matter who's driving it? Does it matter what kind of car it is? How about the manufacturer of the part in question? Or the shop at which it was installed? Do we take color or material into consideration? Inquiring minds what to know...

At first, I thought I knew what was ricer to me. To me it was any mod that didn't have any use performance wise. Watch any episode of Pimp My Ride for great examples of this. But then I got to thinkin... Wheels don't necessarily add anything... but we all change them. Switching out stock parts for JDM parts isn't usually considered ricer but they don't always add anything besides aesthetics, and the same thing goes for body kits.

The fellow in the other thread wants to buy a carbon wing for his Z. I don't think it's particularly obnoxious; it isn't that big. It isn't my style but if I saw it on any other Z, I don't think I would scoff. Sometimes they look nice- it really depends on the color of the car, and the kit, but now were really getting into rice territory, aren't we? At the end of the day, I feel I've come to the conclusion that the term Ricer is mostly contextual. Sometimes certain mods will look ricey, but it depends on the person looking at the part, really. What I find to be ricey may not be so to you. And what you find ricey may not be so to another. Unless I'm totally missing something and there really is a set formula for calculating a car's level of Ricedome.

What do you think?

L33TZOR

iTrader: (1)

First thing I say about someone who has stepped over their bounds and put down somebody elses car when its the same car model by calling it rice or slow or ugly or whatever. Screw everyone else, especially if they don't know how to compliment other people constructively. Rice is rice. If neons add rice, and a heavy amount of race inspired stickers, then so must be sunvisors, windshield wipers, antennas, or stereo systems IMO. It doesn't mean the person who thinks another car is ricey has any class or style. That person probably doesnt even know how to dress attractively. Most people I know who say certain cars are ricey dont even track their cars or rate in any type of competition or have any type of awards with their cars.
Final thoughts:
I say screw it all. Who cares? What matters is what matters to the person that owns it. (After all it's their money, right?)
I think rice is any or a japanese car basically. derived from "rice burner" as in non us domestic, but japanese origin. other slangs are "rice burner", "rice rocket" referring to motorcycles, "rice grinder" or simply "ricer".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_burner
I enjoyed your write-up though. Kudos.

*Boose*

iTrader: (3)

If it comes from HKS, Amuse, Top Secret, Cusco, Jun, or Mine's. It's tastefully clean. If it comes from Ebay, Autozone, or Pep Boys it's because you either 1) couldn't afford Authentic or 2) didn't want to buy Authentic. To me I like to buy tested and true items. It just so happens to be that a Pep Boys item is not tested like the 10000 Japanese Domestic Market products are. There is no rice there is no JDM bling. Simply what you like and what you'd like to pay for.

GeauxLadyZ

iTrader: (9)

Its all about taste.

be tasteful. Unfortunetly, in the a/m car parts game,

more money = tasteful. The only cheap thing on the Z should be your RDX antenna. Dont go cheap on mods, and youll be suprised how far you stay away from ricey, no matter your mod/look choices.

zman1982

iTrader: (19)

It shouldn't be called ricer, that is a term the muscle car scene gave the import guys in the early 90's. It should be called the Fast and the Furious Effect.

*ICE*

iTrader: (48)

if you been in the game long enough, a 2 seconds look can easily distinguish between rice and clean.

ChanceWarren

Thanks for the response guys. Input is always appreciated- I love hearing what people think.

Entaille

iTrader: (16)

I started to read your post but lost interest quickly / about half way through, because it seems like you are entirely too interested in what *other* people think of your car.

here is some quick and easy advice: it's your car, you paid for it, do what you want to it. who cares what anyone else thinks? ricey or classy, it is all opinion. mod tastefully (and according to your taste). a lot of it is common sense if something doesn't look in place.

ChanceWarren

I think you miss the point. I don't really care what you think of my car My car isand will continue to become more and more sick as I continue to develop it. That's neither here nor there.

it's about what we all think of the tuner industry.

Entaille

iTrader: (16)

based on your reply I read the entire post. I think it is all subjective and opinionated and it is impossible to narrow down what exactly constitutes as being ricey.

Subdermal

I think 'rice' is less a definition of the car and more a definition of the owner/driver. people that try to mod to cast a certain image so to speak. if it flows with the car then chances are you can get away with it. if you're a douchebag and too cheap then that shows too. either way it comes back to the driver.

FineWine

iTrader: (10)

Yep.

Another nail on the head. Quality is important, too. a $5000 clean looking body kit quickly becomes rice if you installed it yourself, didn't paint it (and the color doesn't match at all), and failed at getting things ligned up.

World Famous Z

iTrader: (42)

this old debate topic?

I mean no offense, but does it really matter what's rice or not? it's not like there's a dictionary to define it.

Highway Riding

iTrader: (6)

Two examples of "Rice" would be Huge wings on slow cars coupe and sedan. Huge 4-5 inch Chimmeny pipe Muffler with stock exhaust piping.

I actually hate the term rice!

loudrims_inc

iTrader: (4)

true story

ChanceWarren

So do you guys think movies like The Fast and The Furious have had an adverse effect on the industry as a whole? Setting asside for a moment the term Ricer, as it was originally defined in the 90s. By casting a somewhat ghetto light on us for having a more intimate relationship with our Japanese cars, figuratively speaking? Some of the cars in those flicks are pretty rad if you ask me... Are we saying that those cars are ricers?

FineWine

iTrader: (10)

It's not the cars in the movie that were a problem, it was the people with $100 budgets who thought they were like the people in the movie that were the problem. Paul Walker might have been a douche in the movie for needing "two big bottles" and for having parts "overnighted from japan", but anyone who would put down a 10 second eclipse is floating on a cloud of their own poop.


It reminds me of my Mazda days. There are hundreds of stories of camaro/mustang's pulling up to Miatas and making fun of them, just to have the same miata pull 10 car lengths on them. The camaro made the mistake of being arrogant, instead of asking the Miata driver what he had under the hood. Which happend to be a huge turbo, or a V8.

But the same story on the otherside. For example, There's a ~18 y/o 2 houses down from me with the license plate "V8 Killa". There's nothing fancy done to his honda civic other than a huge wing and a body kit. (His paint job is actually nice from what I can see, though.) He constantly rev's at my 350z as he's leaving the neighborhood. The other car in their driveway, a 3G eclipse, constantly tries to burn out as he turns the corner by my house. I've yet to tell him that he's burning clutch, instead.


Definition of rice aside, Just don't be either one of those guys, and you don't have to worry about a thing.

zman1982

iTrader: (19)

^

This hits the nail on the head.

GeauxLadyZ

iTrader: (9)

Off topic, but im thinking i wanna piitb of your avatar.

*ICE*

iTrader: (48)

i already did but you can keep dreaming


Back on topic, some cars below is my definition of rice or clean.




Rice





















Clean




























In between (borderline rice)