My husband and I really do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to some things, and dealing with other car people is one of them. Specifically dealing with the ricers who want to talk to us….
For him, they’re just to be ignored because they don’t know what they’re talking about. For me, I see opportunity… The chance to educate them about what they want to know, so they learn. Hopefully, they’ll learn and drop their awful ricer ways.
Which begs the question, can ricers be truly educated? Can they be reformed?
Encouragement
“Nine tenths of education is encouragement,” – Anatole France. There are two forms of encouragement in a ricer’s life: their ricer buddies, and the people they look up to who aren’t ricers. Few ricers actually have car friends who aren’t ricers, because they’re basically at the bottom of the totem pole in “car society.”
The encouragement from their ricer friends keeps them ricers. It goads on the cheap altezza tail lights. The horrible, cheap rims. The loud no-name exhausts, or even getting mufflers instead. Ebay’d halo headlights. It keeps them in the lower circles, in the “wanna-be” crowd. It keeps them from moving on to actual performance modifications.
However, some can be reformed with proper encouragement. Many car guys (girls too, however few exist) start off as ricers. It’s really easy when you don’t have a lot of money but want to work on your car. Ricer stuff is cheap and plentiful, and a bunch of it can be bought for the price of just one really good modification. But ricers can be taught that the one mod is better than all the ricer stuff, if you take the time to encourage proper attention to performance.
Mean or Nice?
Most of the time, you’ll get a lovely attitude to go with the ricer. If you get some “holier-than-thou” attitude from a ricer, they probably aren’t worth your time no matter what. Believe me, I’m not advocating that we all go out and try to be buddy-buddy with every ricer out there. It’s not gonna happen, that’s for sure. When it comes to the majority, they make good entertainment for the rest of us… And not a whole lot else.
What I am advocating is taking the time to be nice, perhaps just cordial, to the ricers who are just ricers due to ignorance. They do stuff to their cars that’s ricey because they have no clue what to actually do, but they want to do something. So they really don’t see themselves as ricers all of the time… Meaning they might talk to you like they’re on your level, even though they really aren’t. If you run across one of these, it might pay off to bite your tongue and not be wholly mean.
What’s the pay-off?
The pay off is a chance to educate an ignorant car wanna-be. The chance to say something that actually sticks, festers and perhaps leads to an “Aha!” moment in which the true ignorance of their former ways becomes clear and they make the change to grow out of their ricer ways.
Maybe I’m too idealistic, which is what my husband tells me. It’s what I figure when he sighs and rolls his eyes, wondering why I even bother to talk to these people and wondering why I have to be so nice.
We all have our roots.
As I said before, many car guys got their starts as uneducated ricers, who managed to wizen up somehow and rise above the ignorance. While I had a ricey car, I really wasn’t a ricer… I bought my first car that way, with plans all along to rehabilitate her back to normal life, away from the nasty cheap rims and the horrible altezzas. (She was a 1995 Honda Del Sol.) My only issue was not knowing how to acquire cheap, better replacement parts. Nobody introduced me to the good side of eBay.
And while some people will get sick of being picked on and educate themselves to get it stopped, many aren’t like that. Most have no clue why they’re not liked…. They can’t see that their way of modifying cars isn’t performance oriented like they want to believe. I’d like to think that, in some cases, being shown a good car and told about it will make a difference, whether right away or in something that grows and causes the initial moment of clarity.
My Del Sol, before some work. (Yes, she had cheap "chrome" wheels & altezzas.)
As she was before I sold her – new wheels (Konig's) and stock tail lights, with new head lights and amber corners.
Case-dependent.
Of course, this is all case-dependent. I don’t go out of my way to associate with ricers, somehow I just get targeted by some of them. I think part of it has to do with me being a girl, and them not realizing just how much I know… Only to quickly find out that I know way more than they do.
I won’t be nice to the ones who seem to have egos about it all. But I don’t see the point in being a jerk unnecessarily when someone’s talking to me just to talk cars. When they don’t know what they’re talking about, I can correct it. And, when you’re not being mean about it, corrections tend to stick…
They’re still entertaining, though.
We can never reform all ricers. There will always be ricers out there… Some by choice. (Though I can hardly fathom why.) That’s why they can still be entertaining at least!
I mean, what other kind of “car person” can you run into who wants to act all cool because they know what an S15 is, but then look at you really funny when you mention that you just spent $500 ordering type-x tail lights for your 240SX?? Obviously not a Silvia fan… (Yes, real kid did that to me.)
So how do you deal with ricers? Do you think they can be reformed? Is it worth it?
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Honestly no. Different folks for different strokes. Its a matter of educating self. I mean there was a point in time when the import scene did blow up and what is rice now was considered balling status mid to late 90s and early 2000s. People never take into consideration that times have change and that is historically part of the Import Culture.
Some of these “ricers” began going the whole jdm route. Theres a couple of shops or stores in NYC I wont name specifically that claim “JDM” parts when half of the stuff is from Taiwan, China or the Phillippines. All the local kids who wanna look like all there other friends go shop in this one store and try to act hard in front of it. Must I hear their $85 “stainless steel can” at 15mph?!?!!?!!?!?!!?!
OMG you were a ricer!! haha I kid. I had a 2g Eclipse with two tone rims. I use to get raced at always by beat down intergras and what not.. Honestly my taste started to evolve when I discovered car bloggers that was about the beginning of 2008. I’m honestly glad my eclipse took a oil seige
Its a must for those taillights you have on your 240sx. I spent $200 on taillights but they came with the toms rear eyelids. I felt I saved
I tend to now be indifferent to ricers. If they talk to me I will talk to them back as an enthusiast and if they come off holier than thou I just might not talk to them next I see them. I don’t ignore or snub anyone at first I try to approach everyone I don’t know at equal face value.
Most ricers I think can be turned but the problem is if a ricer goes to a car show and wins their class (which does happen) it compounds the problem but then that has to do with car shows being judged often on quantity of mods over quality.
Very true… I can’t imagine how it was back then, haha. How did old school kicks get to be so cool?! (Watanabe’s come to mind there.)
However, regardless of it being in style then, it’s not now. Times have changed and it’s time to get with the new program.
I kinda was, but I continue to swear I bought the car with intentions to save her! Always feels like nobody believes me, haha. I feel slightly shamed when I think of how I must have come off back then… (Especially with the weird style of clothes I wore, lol.) Now I just get snide remarks from girls for dressing nice and driving a convertible. And being interesting to guys because I talk car.
That’s how I try to be, but no matter how “different” I want to think I am, I catch myself constantly passing judgements. Guess half the battle is just being aware that I do it, but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt because I’ve been there before too. When you’re young, money’s in short supply, and that’s a huge part of modding.
Yup, seen that happen before. Actually, last car show we were in a Prelude beat our S2000. Something about it not having a stock stereo and what not gave it something of an edge… Hubby was not happy, but what can you do? I was more upset that the Prelude beat out this gorgeous Civic hatch, that had lost to them both.
My big issue with that is when they think car show awards mean their car is just plain awesome in every category….. Kinda like having some bombshell blonde girlfriend who you can tell is stupid the second she opens her mouth. Nice to look at, but only nice to look at.
I think everyone was a little rice at some point. I know I was a ricer back in the day (luckily it was before I could drive). But I’m glad I was, because one day in around 2005 I was searching the webs for some 1mp0rt tun3r str33t race c1v1cs and accidentally stumbled upon a drifting video. It changed my life forever.
But I really can’t stand the youtube ricers. I doubt they will ever change. Every time someone posts up a video of what looks to be a pretty fun mountain run and puts touge in the description, there will always be ricers crying about how its not touge unless your in gunma in an AE86 drifting every turn. Or someone will post a video of an s13, and someone will say nice s13. Then people will start posting about how its actually an s15 or a skyline and then they’ll start arguing about engines and drivetrains.
Lol @ the comment about the s15, that gets annoying too. Kids at my school always say stuff like that. Someone will say something about how an eclipse with nos is the fastest car in the world. Then everyone ooh’s and ah’s at their genius. Then another genius will come up and say that they don’t know anything, and its SO obvious that a civic with neons and a color matched interior is the fastest car in the world. Then everyone will “talk it out” and eventually agree that a civic with an eclipse front end, nos, and dragon vinyls is the fastest car in the world. Obviously I’m exaggerating, but not that much.
LOL at the last part there, so true!! I really, really have a thing for the Civic, but ricers kinda take away from it… It’s hard to explain the sort of Civics that I like (clean, slammed, nice wheels, wire tucks, etc.) without having a bunch of pictures handy.
Youtube makes some dumb people feel like geniuses, no matter how many good videos are up there there will always be the ones that detract from whatever they try to add to. I should post the links to the “Twin Turbo Integra” youtube videos… Now those are a good laugh.
And yeah, I had a ricer phase a bit (body kits, anyone? like the garish kind, but I never bought any) and so did my husband, but we got over it. I’d like to think I got over it without getting laughed at, but I don’t know. Being a ricer in South Dakota was like all there was of import car culture, the rest was old American muscle. I was always told my car was hot, but I think it was more me being a girl than anything, and I always attracted the Civic boys… (My husband being one of them.
But he wasn’t a ricer at that point anymore.)
Don’t get me wrong about civics, I love the little cars when they’re done right, they’re just one of the first cars that pop into your head when you think of rice. Its sad really, they have so much potential.
I’d love to have something like this as a daily,
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8348/img4996.jpg
And lol those integra videos are great.
That picture is exactly the kind of Civic I was talking about.
They make me smile and are just plain awesome… Nothing flashy, just simple and clean, and some are fairly mean. (When you get the nicely done engine swaps or turbo kits.)
Cars like the Eclipse are ones I have a hard time bringing a good image to mind with. I’m sure there’s one or two out there that are well done, but most of them are ricey, especially since it’s starring role in the Slow & the Silly. Or the Fast & the Furious, however you look at it.
i was called a ricer once or twice by rednecks err.. “caucasians” who owned muscle cars just because I drove an asian model car. so the term “ricer” is completely different in my definition. to me, it’s racism.
That happens here a lot… The, er, uneducated masses think that any Japanese car is a ricer… Especially Hondas. I’ve seen guys get confused when you call a mustang a ricer car, heh. Pretty sad in my book.
Then again, around here we also get a lot of jerks who get all up in arms because of our S2000. Seems that having a nicer car is a crime, even when she’s eight years old… One guy we’ve talked to with a 911 SC had her keyed by some idiot just because she’s a Porsche, never mind he paid something like $12k for her. (Completely unaffordable to everyone who drives a brand new F150, I’m sure, which are all over in this area.)