mikeb

where the hell were you guys a year ago

I had to fight dozens of people on my own ^^^^^^^^^^

SHOWOFF

Yeah I guess Auto Exe wind tunnel tests all of their kits for "style"

SHOWOFF

Mike that Civic is CLEAN!

webba_az

mike: like I said, the overwhelming majority of people here are just dead set in their ways, it's really not worth getting into it with them

shigginsrx8

I think for liability issues most of these companies would have to do a very limited wind tunnel test. You wouldn't want a kit that at 130mph cause a lot of lift at the front or back of the car, which may cause someone to crash. That would = Law suits $$$.

I doubt that many, if any, of these companies optimize their bodykits for aerodynamics, they appear a little to extreme to be aerodynamically efficient. But they looks cool, so that's what matters

I have offered my services to many car companies in the aerodynamics departments, and I have never heard back.

That spoler is alright

BaronVonBigmeat

I have a simple definition of "rice". It's a mod that improves neither appearance nor performance nor comfort. It serves one function only: "LOOK AT ME! BECAUSE HEY, ATTENTION FOR A BAD REASON IS STILL ATTENTION!"

And ricers are NOT the modern version of hot rodders / gearheads / whatever you want to call them. No, their closest relatives on the aftermarket family tree would be the minitruckers, which was real big 10 years ago and seems like it's fizzled out a lot since then. Murals of ugly naked broads are out and faux performance is in.





Disclaimers: Not everyone who mods an import is a ricer. If you do something to actually increase performance, it is not rice by my definition above. And there is nothing wrong with making improvements to a car's appearance. And yes, there was/is plenty of tacky crap going way back in the days of custom rods and such.

RXP33D

Haven't read through these 8 pages or "RICE" and not sure if anyones added this.
A perfect example of rice is any exhaust or intake that goes on the 8.
FULL STOP.

Exhaust is made for better flow, this thing is loud, its big, it stands out but doesn't do its job, and that is to make the damn thing more powerful, it doesnt.

SHOWOFF

You posting this is RICE. Take your "I like going on peaceful spirited drives through the countryside" *** and find another thread. My 8 is insanely loud. People love it.

SHOWOFF

So wrong. We'll see in 10 years when this stuff is STILL around. The days of the big V-8 Muscle car are OVER. Who cares if Dodge has intro'd the HEMI. Their Magnum will follow the ways of everything else they build, it will be hot for a while and then it wil look dated as all of their products end up. I used to be a big muscle car head but I realized those cars are becoming a thing of the past.

You used to be able to slap a big carburetor on a car and open up the exhaust and have a fast car. Or cram the biggest engine you could find into your car in an afternoon with a do-it-yourselfer's tool box and a buddy's help, but now you can't even get modern cars running right witout a dyno and some ability to tune it.

Hell even tuners like SHM (sean hiland motorsports) known for their Mustang tuning abilities are tuning cars like RSX's.

Small displacement cars with big HP are the thing of the future. Hell I was tuning my 1st DSM car in 1992 over 12 years ago. That was back when I was using Allied Signal turbos off of over the road diesel trucks.

shigginsrx8

Why?
Different strokes for different folks 'showoff'

I would never ever consider buy an economy car and making it 'unique' I would however, consider buying a modern muscle car.

SHOWOFF

Camaro- dead
Mustang- Don't get me started, might as well be
Firebird/TA- Dead
Magnum- WTF? It's a glorified station wagon. It'll lose it's "pizazz" soon enough

If there is soooo much demand for these cars then why are the "Big 3" killing them off?

SHOWOFF

Camaro- dead
Mustang- Don't get me started, might as well be
Firebird/TA- Dead
Magnum- WTF? It's a glorified station wagon. It'll lose it's "pizazz" soon enough

If there is soooo much demand for these cars then why are the "Big 3" killing them off?

A lot of the guys I work with have teenage kids in the 13-14 year old range. You know what they all want to have for their 1st car. Ususally a sport compact. I really don't hear any of them asking their parents for a Mustang or a Camaro. These kids are the future, they will be on the showroom floors of America in a few years buying their first new car. The only 2 door V-8 muscle car they can choose from is the Mustang. Trust me they are not beating down the doors trying to get one. The middle aged guy is the typical buyer on that car. The Magnum isn't marketed at the youth market, the SRT-4 is.

BaronVonBigmeat

You missed the point of my post entirely. I have nothing against imports. I have an RX-8, after all.

I am not saying that performance modifications ("tuning", "hot rodding", etc.) are the exclusive realm of traditional V8 muscle cars by any means. There are plenty of guys making RX-7's, Supras, Miatas, Z's, etc. faster. Those are not ricers. "Rice", by my humble definition, is mods that don't make the car faster, but don't make the car look better either. They are faux performance mods that look like dog ****.

Camaro--soon to return, actually; but GM cannot discuss it publicly due to a legal contract signed with Quebec over the name "Camaro". And the "big 3" (2?) killed them off--along with just about all of their other cars--because they were shortsighted and went after the pickup/SUV market and neglected them.

(If you want to say that the younger crowd isn't real hot on the whole retro style trend--yeah, I'll agree. I think the Mustang and/or a resurrected Camaro would have a lot of appeal if they just had a more forward-looking style to them. I think Ford has forgotten that the original Mustang was actually a somewhat futuristic Italian-looking type car, not a retro-machine. For it's price tag, I think the Mustang GT is plenty competitive however.)

Kids want a sport compact, there's a surprise. A very, very stupid movie comes out, aimed at the high school demographic, in which (mostly) economy cars clad in tacky fiberglass crap and big sparkly bling are portrayed as being too fast and too furious. Wow, slick marketing and hollywood pulp influence gullible youths, film at 11.

Let's be honest, most kids driving a riced out civic or cavalier or what have you are driving it because it's what they can afford. Or their parents are willing to pay.

mikeb

showoff
you make several valid points
I understand what you are saying

XeRo

i always kinda thought of my Integra as pushing the rice envelope...but i tell ya...after FI and Nitrous..it wasn't much of an economy car anymore..

i did get smarter though...i purchased a 95 300zx SMZ for my second car...

shigginsrx8

While I have respect for the amount of work that went into a car like that, I just can't respect the actual car, IMO. With FI and nitrous that car was probably pushin a ton power through the front wheels, it just seems *** backwards to me. That is my single biggest complaint with tuners today. If I were a kid right now, I would be petitioning car companies to make an affordable RWD car, to hell with this FWD bs. A RWD civic type R would be a sweet little car.

The coolest sport compact I ever saw was a a Toyota? Starlet, I think. Anyhow, it was naturally rwd, about the size of a golf. That thing just looked like a blast to drive.

300zx though, thats good **** right there.

webba_az

I think the degeneration of this thread proves my point very succinctly. Rice is, as proven here, anything that you don't like Can we all move along now? I'll go back to spending *MY* money on what *I* like.. not what you don't like or think is useless

shigginsrx8

who told you otherwise?

XeRo

yes shiggins you're right...i was 18 when i first started on that car and now that i'm much older it just seems silly to me that i spent that much money and time on something of that nature...have you ever seen a FWD with slicks on the front? it is hilarious...i'll try and dig up some more pics from when it was actually at the track doing runs...these are 10-12 year old pics so it's hard to find them in the chaos that is our attic...but this car..being as it was...put my shop on the map when I opened it...and then i purchased the 300...now that really did my shop wonders until I almost was killed when a DOT truck sent a shovel through the gas tank...

mikeb

xero
I think your integra looks good
I like the aero gear hood
is that stock paint?

Eswift2002

Lol! You pretty much hit it right on the button w/ this statement haha no offense to anyone who attended, but an example that would match your "feel" would be the certain groups of people who showed up to our meets in the past. ive never seen so many people come to an rx8 meet to show off their barely modded 8's while admiring other plain jane rx8's. Thats all fine and good, but what trips me out is after getting a high from stock fenders and mazdaspeed parts, these people would then gather up to hate on fixed up 8's that attend, like one with HKS parts or GREDDY parts, wtf? Just one of the reasons I no longer attend lol alas i take it these people are the majority of this forum which is also why i dont get involved myself with these discussions I dont know why but that quote just reminded me of a couple people I saw at the meet and it made me laugh.

MikeB, are the meets still running, and how are they now? Dull? Exciting?

shigginsrx8

hmmm, I don't know man. I am sure some people on this site are like that, but I don't think the majority would 'hate on' a car because it doesn't have mazdaspeed parts.

For myself, I wouldn't show too much interest in a car that is all stickered up with a giant wing at 22's, but anything else will probably catch my attention. I think the problem is that there really aren't too many aftermarket parts out there for the 8's yet, at least as far as performance goes. It is hard to be different when there aren't a lot of different parts available, and the quality of some of the available aftermarket stuff is suspect at best. That is why I believe so many have a hard on for MS parts.

I will say this, some of the appearance mods out there are, to put it nicely, function follows form. That just isn't appealing to a lot of people, especially someone like me who has a doctorate in fluids and doesnt really did the 2f2f mentality.

webba_az

shiggins, I understand the "functions follows form".. but if all we wanted to do was go fast, why are we driving cars? We should have street bikes, no? The way the 8 is styled stock is a great deal of style over substance.. but that's part of the package.. I just want my package to be different, bigger and better than everyone elses..

Hrm.. that sounded awful penile.. *shrug*

Speed-ER doc

Yeah, I guess now we are evolving to the V10 muscle car. But my V8 supercharged muscle car will still have to do for a while.

BaronVonBigmeat

That's just it....modifying a car strictly for appearance is just as old as performance mods, and there's nothing wrong with it. However "rice" actually reduces both performance and appearance, in order to make your car look fast (in the same way that a hot wheels car "looks" fast).

Granted, there is a certain amount of a gray area between "racey" looking and "ricey" that not everyone will agree on. And then there are some things which are just flagrant rice-a-roni. Like a giant aluminum wing on a four-door FWD automatic economy sedan (corolla, cavalier, civic). Or the front end kits with ridiculous amounts of fins, scoops, and creases for no apparent reason. No, no, no.