Please read the following from Bryan's Anti Rice web site, keep it real and don't turn your Prelude into a Rice Rocket:
Bryan's Rice-Boy Page
Who/What Exactly Is a Rice-Boy?
Rice-Boy is a stereotype. The typical Rice-Boy can be identified by his car, or rather what he does to it. Generally, Rice-Boy will start out with a car that was not meant to go fast (typically a Honda Civic), and attempt to "fix it up," usually consisting of aftermarket rims, lowering springs and an aftermarket exhaust system with a large exhaust tip.
Most Rice-Boy cars (or "Rice Rockets") have the usual complement of stickers proudly displaying features that the car might or might not have, most notably, the Honda VTEC sticker from the later model Preludes, and the plaques from the later model Integras.
Rice-Boys do not exclusively drive Japanese cars. There are quite a few fake Mustang '5.0's and Camaro Z28's out there, as well as quite a few strange looking Neons.
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Under the Hood of Rice-Boy's Car
Of course, most of the modifications done by Rice-Boy do not actually increase the performance of his car by any significant amount, but rather, try to give the appearance of high-performance. What most Rice-Boys seem to not know is that many of the things they do to their cars to make them faster actually hurt the performance.
The Generic Rice-Boy Civic
For example -- I have seen many a Civic with aftermarket rims with the wrong wheel offset, or just plain lowered incorrectly. Sure, the car looks nice, except for the tendency for the wheels to slant inward, preventing the tire's full contact patch from touching the ground
, which results in poorer traction, leading to slower acceleration and poor cornering. This of course defeats the purpose of lowering one's car (to achieve better cornering).
Now, a slight amount of negative camber can aid in cornering, however, the slant I am describing can be 4 degrees or even more, which is an excessive amount, far more than could ever be useful on the street, especially on stock-sized wheels.
Another interesting point about lowering cars: it really needs to be done properly. I ran into a Rice-Boy who drives a White Civic EX Coupe (like how many of these are out there??), who, after replacing his aftermarket "performance" lowering-springs with his stock springs again (he was taking his car into the dealer and didn't want them to know he messed with the car), exclaimed, "Hey you know, my car handles BETTER with the stock springs!
". I'm not surprised. I'm sure some Honda engineer spent days working on those springs... why mess with them?
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Appearance vs. Performance
What sets apart Rice-Boys from normal performance enthusiasts is that they are more concerned with the image of speed
than they are about actual performance. Few Rice Rockets add the one option that can make a Civic begin to go fast -- a turbocharger.
Take for example, the above pictured Civic. It looks pretty mean and fast with its rims and super-spoiler (another staple of Rice-Boy technology), but closer inspection will reveal that this is a Civic DX. The mirrors and license plate frames are FLAT BLACK, whereas LX and EX models are painted and would be shiny. A noble attempt at fooling people (as black plastic would stand out more on a red or white car as opposed to a black car), but the outside appearance doesn't change what is under the hood -- a Civic DX economy car engine.
It's not so much that Rice-Boy is trying to make his car look good. There are lots of people out there who just want to make their car look good, and don't care about speed at all. Rice-Boy, however, says that he is making his modifications to enhance his car's performance, when really, all he cares about is fitting some sort of image. For example, he may lower his car, saying that it is for a lower center of gravity, and thus, better handling, but if he doesn't do a good job of it (i.e., his car is bouncing around from his shocks being able to handle the higher spring rates... or he cuts his springs making his car uneven) then we know that really, he cares more about looking low
then he does about better cornering.
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Interview With A Rice-Boy who owns a 4th gen Prelude economy version:
Here is the promised interview with a rice-boy, the owner of the fake VTEC Prelude!
Why try to look like a VTEC when your car is not a VTEC? What's the point?
Because before, civics would come zooming by me, but now... I don't know if it's just a mental thing, but they slow down for me! Besides, thirst is nothing... image is everything!
How long after getting your Prelude did you decide that you needed to make it look like a VTEC?
The first night I got it when I slept in my car.
You slept in your car!?
Yeah, and I'm proud of it!
So how much horsepower does the VTEC sticker add?
15 "mental horsepower"!
In what order did you make the modifications to your car?
Rear deck spoiler
Chin spoiler
Rims
Sticker
I got the sticker the morning after I put the rims on. I went to Diamond Bar Honda to get a genuine Honda VTEC sticker (I didn't want a fake VTEC sticker) and the guy asked me why I needed it and I said "Because someone ripped mine off." So he sold it to me for $16.95 but I got $1 off with my coupon.
Do you think you get more chicks now?
No, but it gets a lot of attention from guys...
Don't other Prelude drivers know that it's not really a VTEC?
Yeah, they know, but when the civic drivers go buy they say "Oh ****, that's a VTEC!".
What are the future plans for your car?
I have a choice between getting a VTEC engine, for about $3000, or I could spend $3000 on some really nice rims.
With $3000 for the engine and more money for rims, why not just start out with a VTEC?
Because I was 15 and a half years old and my parents got it for me. When we went to the dealer, we were going for a black Civic EX (it was my dream car at the time), but they didn't have any, and the next shipment was in 3 days and my dad wanted to get it that day. So the salesman told my dad that for $2000 more you could jump up two classes (accord, then prelude) and my dad didn't like the interior of the Civic so we just got the prelude.
So in retrospect, would you have done it all over again?
No, I would not. It was a peer pressure thing. I went to a rice-boy high school, so what do you expect?
So what is your next car going to be?
(jokingly) BMW 318is, but make it look like an M3, starting with the emblem first!
Linear Mode
