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Old 09-23-2001, 02:27 PM   #10
Mr 5 0
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You're in good form today with that rant, and I agree that 'NOS'/'noss' has now become part of the performance-car jargon, like it or not, along with all the other contractions and nicknames for the various parts you mentioned in your post.

I always refer to it as simply 'nitrous' and to the mechanically uneducated I use the full name; nitrous oxide but then I have to explain what that is and how it works so I usually just ignore the whole thing and say "it makes you go faster" which is all most non-performance people need to hear, anyway.

A lot of the so-called 'ricer' stuff is really just a cross-over from American performance cars anyway. Spoilers were around for many decades (as you noted), and bigger tires, special wheels, scoops, etc are all part of the American muscle car scene and have been for ages. Even old 'Hot Rod' magaizines I've seen of '50's street cars ('50 Fords, mostly) show things like lowering, aftermarket wheels, fake hood scoops and big (chromed) duel tailpipes among other items, so this is rather old news.

As you said, a lot of things you see on cars now are simply a matter of bad taste or ignorance but a lot of uglyness is out there too as a result of all that ignorance and poor taste.
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