Hello all

I know this idea has been discussed over and over in other places, but I was wondering what the people here thought about it. I, like many other people, wish to make some enhancements and adjustments to my RX-8 when I finally get it. But I am walking a razor's edge, because at what point does a car become "rice"? Aftermarket wheels? Exhaust? At what point do mods to a car give it the stigma of rice?

Is anyone else worried or concerned about this? And what is the point of no return in modding a car that it becomes rice? I think when a body kit enters the arena you are getting close, but that is just my opinion.

i would say it iswhen the first sticker goes on the car but it could be before that depends on the body kit and wing

Excuse me tallguylehigh, but i'm digit from Italy , explain me the meaning
of "rice".....so i could improve my "culture":D

Matteo-

Ohhh rice, this is a tough one to describe, maybe some other members will help me out here...

In the US there is the import craze on Japanese cars, most often inexpensive ones. What people do to them include, giant wheels, gigantic ridiculous exhaust pipes that u can hear a mile away, body kits with excessive grills, stickers and wings. People label this rice in that it is usually done to Japanese cars. This is a stigma in the US, at least to me it is. To put it plainly it is "all show and no go" for cars. Hope this definition helped you out, if not, I'm sure others have their respective definitions.

Rice = When you add look like aftermarket "performance" accessories to a car that don't actually add to the performance of the car. Also could be defined as adding to many gaudy and tacky accessories to a car to cause it to become an eye sore.

well, i suppose it depends on one's tastes...
just yesterday, i was watching SPEED, and they had the McGuire's collector car awards preview or something... wasn't paying attention... all i could see was this beeeeautiful R33 or R34 Nissan GT-R, electric blue, with stickers all over it, and a wing on the back... Alan DeCadenet was blocking it, so i didn't really get a good look, but i had to question myself: "Is that ricey, or just pricey??" :p
well, my conclusion is this:
rice is a condition where the owner cheapens the car, trying to make it something that it's not, or just doing something rather silly. that car i saw was probably a show+strip racer, with a lot of real sponsorship stickers. sponsorship stickers aren't rice, but some loser in his Hyundai Accent covered in Mitsu "RalliArt" stickers is...
although i hate the sound of "performance" exhaust with +90mm tips, a LOT of people like them, and i suppose that's alright...
if i got a loud exhaust, would i be rice too?? what about a wing, like the factory spoiler kit?? what if i got a 1988 and put the 89-91 lights into an FC, would that be rice?? or the turbo mirrors on an NA motored car??
no, i don't think any of it would be. painting "TURBO II" onto the side of the car, with the turbo hood, and a S4 13B under the hood and the "phone dial" rims on the other hand would be extremely rice... i think it's just all about taste, and what you think appropriate...

i suppose then, that we should be respectful of other people's tastes, and that well done cars should be recognized as well done... poorly done cars, on the other hand, should be snickered at, and snickered at hard... ;)

Yeah, "rice" is a very general term that basically means "garish and useless" additions to a car. Alot of times, it is a matter of taste as to where the limit is.

Even if you did worry about what others thought, you can't please everyone. My style is actually quite conservative, yet there are some "country boys" who call my cars "ricey" (mostly because it is a Japanese make). So, go with what you like.

---jps

Ahhhh....... Like have a "fast and furious" car without have improved the mech!

Well, in my opinion everything not standard is a little bit "rice", althoug some little
modifies are accetable....

But here in Italy....real Motherf***ers make radical improves to the mech without
change nothing on exterior.

Germany is a "Land of Ricers".....(but they strongly modify mech too!)

Originally posted by Matteo

But here in Italy....real Motherf***ers make radical improves to the mech without change nothing on exterior
In America we call a car like that a "sleeper".


Also, it seems like these days I see just as many domestics that are "riced out", like the other day I saw a Ford Focus with Kanji stickers on it (along with the requesite cut springs and altezzas).

Originally posted by Matteo
Ahhhh....... Like have a "fast and furious" car without have improved the mech! Bingo.

---jps

To me "rice" means a modification that makes the car look ugly, stupid or just plain dumb... Like "disc brake" wheel covers.. hehe.. Or VTEC stickers on a non Honda automobile :confused: Or Mugen stickers on a Domestic.. etc, etc..

Rice:

cereal grain ( Oryza sativa ) of the grass family (Graminae), probably native to the deltas of the great Asian riversthe Ganges, the Chang (Yangtze), and the Tigris and Euphrates. The plant is an annual, from 2 to 6 ft (61-183 cm) tall, with a round, jointed stem; long, pointed leaves; and edible seeds born in a dense head on separate stalks.

Originally posted by Styjan
Rice:

cereal grain ( Oryza sativa ) of the grass family (Graminae), probably native to the deltas of the great Asian riversthe Ganges, the Chang (Yangtze), and the Tigris and Euphrates. The plant is an annual, from 2 to 6 ft (61-183 cm) tall, with a round, jointed stem; long, pointed leaves; and edible seeds born in a dense head on separate stalks.



what he said.

Ricey is anything that degrades the "class" of the car. or as i like to put it, "trash-bagged out" ofcourse one could argue then, that you cant make a car w/o any "class" ricey.
________
LovelyWendie (http://www.lovelywendie99.com/)

thank you Styjan for that wonderful post... once again you have brought light to my day lol

A comment on rice from me. To me another thing that is rather 'ricey' is when (and I did see this a few days ago). A previous gen Ford Mustang with 13 inch rims, low profile tires, 3 layer wing, tons of stickers, dual 3.5 inch canister mufflers, what looked to be a Blitz body kit, and lowered maybe 1-1.5 inches. I needed a digi-cam but I forgot it at home.

^-- That to me is another variation of rice. A domestic with a Civic racer boy look to it.

Strider-

I was thinking about posting a thread with this title recently. But since we're on the subject now, I figure I might as well say my piece. :)

Perhaps it's just me, but it seems that we Americans are getting used to some of the modifications being done to many 'import' cars. Five to ten years ago, things like 16" wheels and clear corner lenses were "rice". Also a 4" exhaust tip was obnoxiously huge back then. Nowadays, if we see a clean sports car with 17" wheels, proper lowering, clear front lenses, and a 4" N1-style exhaust outlet, most people like it. Including me, in some cases. I'm even finding myself beginning to like big carbon fiber wings (Lord help me! ;)) and a few body kits (mostly the ones that are high quality and in keeping with the style and lines of the car). I'm even thinking of getting a mild kit for my MR2 this summer when I repaint it.

As a bit of a test I posted a picture of my MR2 at some "Rice Or Not" rate-it site, and most people voted for "not rice". My car has aftermarket plus-sized wheels (+1 inch), clear front lenses, a custom stainless steel exhaust with a 3.5" tip, and two stickers (one SCCA club sticker and one International MR2 Owners Club sticker, each on one of the side quarter windows).

Have a look at this car:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bryan64/pics/tmp/buddy1.jpg

Five years ago if you'd shown me this picture I would have thought it was rice, but now I dig it. Very much so. [Okay, maybe this isn't the best example, since it's actually a race car... but imagine it without the stickers and numbers I guess. ;)]

So either I'm turning into a rice boy or everyone is starting to get used to modified cars. Hopefully it's the latter. ;)

BryanH, I would not condider your car to be 'rice' at all. Even with out the stickers the body looks very clean.

Also another thing that I would like to add about rice. I would also kinda tell it as: a car with no class or sense of style.
Although to counter that: to each his own.

Strider-

What is the origin of "rice"? Before I joined another car forum I had never heard of rice and wondered what the hell everyone was talking about. I have always called these cars "boy racers". I would be interested to know where this description came from.:)

It may have come from country bumkins that are only fans of domestics (American cars) and once they saw that Japanese cars were getting fast they had to discriminate against them by referring to 'rice'. That is what I've come up with....????

Strider-

In my understanding it was originally used in the 70s by Harley people in reference to the new Japanese bikes- they called them rice rockets. Since then, it's been turned into a derogatory term for a car with lots of show-but-no-go aftermarket accessories and stickers designed to make them appear to be modified with no real modifications.

Originally posted by BryanH
Have a look at this car:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bryan64/pics/tmp/buddy1.jpg

Five years ago if you'd shown me this picture I would have thought it was rice, but now I dig it. Very much so. [Okay, maybe this isn't the best example, since it's actually a race car... but imagine it without the stickers and numbers I guess. ;)]
Someone took the time to put "sleepy headlights" and a single wiper blade on an actual race car?

---jps

Yeah, wierd eh? But it's Japan, what do you expect. ;) I actually like the sleepy headlights, in fact I've done it to my car once just for kicks. (http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/cudaman/sleepyeyes/FrameSet.htm) I'll never do the single wiper mod though, I think it's silly.

Originally posted by Elara
...it's been turned into a derogatory term for a car with lots of show-but-no-go aftermarket accessories and stickers designed to make them appear to be modified with no real modifications.

That would be the closest to my own definition of the word. I started using "boy racer" in 1995 after hearing a Morrissey song of the same name; and as far as "ricer" goes, I always thought it was derived from "rice-rocket" and "racer".

It is best to show by example rather than try to explain it. This page has a few pictures of cars I would consider rice. Some of them are ok but a majority are a good example.

http://www.ricehatersclub.com/picpage.html

some examples of "rice" can be found on this site:

http://www.beaterz.com