Sorry to ressurect this post after a month, but I've been incommunicado, so I missed out.
First off, there is a big difference between ricer and an import driver. It seems like a lot of the tuner crowd are trying to "make more with less" , and take it as a challenge. The guys that are able to make huge hp out of smaller engines are doing it more for the challenge than because they think that a "musclecar/sportscar" with a i-4 is a better performer than a v-8.
The problem is ricers, these are usually kids that dont know any more about cars than they learned in FF2 or whatever it was called. They buy this dogma that just because an engine is more efficent, it is better at
everything including performance. I have a lot of respect for the things some of the built imports can do, but most of the ricers missed the lesson from "fight club" that "sticking feathers up your *hindquarters* dooes not make you a chicken." Looking like a race car does not make you a race car. This of course has been taken to an extreme, as are most things these days. Hence Fart cans, wings, graphics, carbon fibre everything.....
My favorite quote about rice: "Youre rice if you care more about looking fast then
being fast.
As to the mention of why "kids these days" go rice, I think that sentence sums it up nicely. Rebellion. If you grew up in a house that worshipped american iron, and (counting you were a car person) wanted to rebel against the authority figures, embracing a subculture dedicated to racing and (In theory) beating traditional v-8 tech, this would be perfect.
(as to the reality of it, I think a lot of that is absorbed, i.e. rationalizing. "Man, I just missed third", "But I still make more hp/litre") Real speed costs money.
I would say that the biggest thing that we could learn from the import crowd would be to look at the whole car. I have to say that generally, they do out handle domestic sports cars ($per$). We do tend to give a little too much emphasis toward just the one direction
And as far as drifting, I havent really decided as to it merits as a racing style, per se, but we (the US) have never tried taking the slide out that far and long, and seeing what we could do with it.
Its also interesting to note that the majority of cars that
I've seen used for this sport are RWD/AWD.
Anyway, I choose to respect those who genuinly are trying to build a faster car for itself, and deeply loathe those who buy dogma over facts, and image over substance.
Wow, that kinda came outta nowhere, /rant
J