F-Body Europe

I was just sitting here and doing some thinking, as I am prone to do from time to time. And I was wondering...Why is it that we let ricers get to us?? I have thought about this for a while and I know that there is really no comparison to make between the two (other than maturity). We dont compare our cars to Rolls Royces do we?? Its a different type of car, just as the ricers are. I know that they often want to provoke runs with us to test us, but still we get into ricer bashing...when we know that we can outperform them in virtually every case and in virtually every scenario. We can out accelerate them, outdo them on the top end, and are far more luxurious than almost any of them are.

Using this logic why dont we hear more kill stories on Ferraris, or Lambos, or Porsches?? Yes, they are rarer, but even the Porsche doesnt outmuscle us by much if at all...although its almost 40 years of evolution is a little more than our evolution by about five years right?? It occurs to me that those would be the better kill stories for us...I mean who cares if we kill a Honda, Toyota, or Mazda?? We should be able to do that right out of the box, without any mods...at least in my opinion.

Just curious about anyones opinion as to why it bothers us so much??

Is it their attitude or ours?? or are we really intimidated by something like they drive?? Yeah, a lot of them look really strange with their wings and stickers and such, but what is to prove by racing them and beating them? You will notice that the only real American car in Fast and the Furious was the AMERICAN V8!!!! with over 900hp!!!! There is a reason for that...It was too much car for him and he proved it the one time he drove it. Yet, we tame that power in our every day driving...

Again I ask, what is to compare??

Hope I made you think for a moment or two...and yes every car I have ever owned has been an American V8 (except one V6 my parents gave me in college, but dumped it quickly for my TA).


Patrick

It doesn't bother me One bit. 99% of my races are with an exotic type vehicle anyway.
But Gray be careful. There are a couple ricers and beatles that will skulldrag the majority of us out there. There were a few fbodies that got drugged down the the track of reality.

Oh, I definitely recognize there are some ricers out there who are capable of smoking us. I downloaded video of both a 700hp and a 1000hp Supra...I wouldnt want to tangle with either of those. But my point is that the vast majority of those cars run with half the cylinders and a third the displacement that we do.

Anyone disagree??


Patrick

Hmmm?
What is a defination of a ricer?
I know a Ford Focus that causes me fits on the Auox course , But I don't consider him a Rice. More of a worthy competitor.

For me, ricers are either people of very bad taste, or people who invest more money in making their car look like it can go faster than they do to make it go faster ... many times, both apply

Don't forget about the coffee can muffler that adds 50hp and the decals that add another 50. That rear wing is there not for looks but because they need the added downforce at 250mph. I just hate it when they talk crap about their cars going 160mph down the autobahn passing Camaros with their "stock" jap-crap with the above mentioned "power adders". It's even worse when others believe them and think that all Civics can now outrun us. Of course there is always a reason why they can't prove it to me out on the streets. I even heard one guy (worked at the craft shop in Heidelberg several years ago) mention that the Chrysler 300 is called that becaues it goes 300mph and he was in one when it did that on the autobahn. (I know it's not a "rice" car but I hope you get the picture.)

Frankly, it's all a bit academic. I read the Road and track test of the Mitsubishi Evo VIII and it ran 13.8 at 102 which is exactly what mine runs. Difference is that to get that time, the Evo has to drop the clutch at 6000 rpm whereas I roll off the line and plant it.

You only have to look at the quarter mile times of the so called fast hot hatches like the Golf R32 and Focus RS to see they're still running 14's and 15's over the quarter.

If anyone cares to modify their car and turn it into an LS1 killer then they are quite welcome to do so but the fact is it will cost them deeply in their pockets and in their insurance and in their reliability. I'm happy to scorch my tyres and let a lowly stressed 5.7 do the walking and the talking. In a few years time, I'm hoping to buy a Z06 and the race will be run as far as I can see.

The academic point is that half the time you don't know if the guy next to you is going to race. You can scream off and look like a prat as he eases away or you can play the "wait and see what he does" game and try and respond but either way, whoever "goes" first is likely to be the winner and if it's 4wd, chances are he'll take you to 60' and then ease off and wallow in his "victory". Much beyond that and you're talking about dangerous dicing in traffic anyway.

The reason "ricers" annoy me is that they "think" their cars are fast and even when you've crushed them methodically, they won't give up and it gets a little irksome. They will also drive dangerously to try to get ahead of you by undertaking and driving too close. I don't think this applies to "ricers" alone, it applies to lots of people and a well driven Evo will leave me trailing in it's wake anyway. But who cares?

Very good answer LuS1fer,

I happen to think that you hit the nail on the head with a lot of it. And this is why I posted this...to get other people to think about these things. Yes, an Evo has to dump at 6000rpms to run with us, while if we dumped at 6000 we would break something because of the sheer force involved.

I think your last paragraph is very true, and maybe thats why we do let it bother us. People see our cars and tend to go nuts in the drivers seat. They will (in my experience) rev up and pull close and then gun it or see if you gun it in an effort to prove your "machismo." If we gun it we are seen as childish or as irresponsible, but if they gun it and get any sort of lead on us then they "beat us down" or some other nonsense. Also, I have found that people who play these games tend to not pay attention to the road and become very dangerous. I have also had people pass me cruising at 60mph and then claim they blew me off the road. I had a friend who wanted to race me in his 4cyl Grand Am. I, being responsible, said no I would not race him and pointed out that he would stand no chance, and that I could not take anything like that seriously.

Your final sentence though, is the one that sums it all. It comes down to the driver...a well driven car can outperform a poorly driven much more powerful car, or a well balanced less powerful car can outperform another on a track (see Roys comment about the focus-also figure in power to weight ratio). This is why Michael Schumacher is such a winner...lots of power and well driven. And its probably why I am a musician and not a race driver...but all that power sure is fun.

SSZ28-loved the Chrysler story...thats hilarious for a car that likely wont do half of that 300.

More thoughts on what bothers anyone about ricers??

Patrick

This asshole does describe the differences of ricers http://www.cardomain.com/id/redneckmobiles Keep reading and you'll realize that I'm being nice by only calling him an a-hole.

Well, I agreed with the turd knocker at first, but then he started bashing some nice rides. Oh well, he is entitled to his opinion... Suppose I be a Redneck

I love imports, that's why I drive one.

It's all a question of style as well as performance. You can tune a Jap box so it runs the quarter in 9 seconds but if it's not a Supra, a Skyline or even an RX7, it's still only a shoebox with a tea tray on the back. If that's what they like, great, but they tend to lose the plot sometimes with what they spend on the car. there was a 400bhp Sunny GTiR on a car programme the other day. They ran it against a Viper GTS and the Viper lost by about 3-6 car lengths. Well, naturally, I rushed out to buy a Sunny GTiR............................NOT!!!