Anybody Into Ricer Cars?

I have this 20 year old kid that works for me named Jonathon. He’s a pretty gifted kid with all things mechanical, and over the Summer he built/modified a Honda Civic hatchback with a built motor and plenty of goodies, including a huge turbocharger pushing 20psi boost, custom fuel rail, intake, exhaust, manifold, etc, etc. He also put in a roll cage, racing clutch, sport bucket seats, gauges and a slew of other crap that I don’t know as much about as he does.

The result? A 440 horsepower beast that is unbelievably fast. I got my first ride in it today, and holy crap…I was like :eek: through the first three gears. This things screams! He took it down to the track not long ago and he posted 12.9 second 1/4 mile times with deflated street tires. I can’t imagine what he would get with slicks. This thing is faster than a stock Corvette and cost him about $4000 in modifications.

Check it out!

http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/sgenetti77/civic2.jpg

http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/sgenetti77/civic3.jpg

Probably one of the fastest cars I’ve ever ridden in.

ETA: Its obviously not finished yet. Lots of cosmetic stuff for him to iron out, but man does it run strong.

He could’ve had the same results with $20 worth of stickers. :smiley:

That’s not a ricer car, that’s a true performance machine.

It is, although traction is a HUGE problem for him in the first three gears, despite a slip-limiting something or other (not sure if its a differential like in other older cars), as is torque steer, as its a FWD car.

The interior is still a wreck, with the car’s computer laying on the floor, the headliner still missing, lots of other things to keep him busy.

I just thought it was cool. He doesn’t drink or do drugs, but he has a relatively healthy hobby (speeding tickets aside) that I would love my sons to develop when they get older. I could hand them wrenches and such for the flux capacitors.

One thing that’s interesting: since its a built motor (meaning everything is oversized, over-bored, stronger, etc than a stock motor with a bunch of performance add-ons), it can achieve 10,000 rpms. He has the limiter set at 9,000, which is just screaming. Amazing hearing that thing from the inside of the car.

He needs to put an exhaust on that thing though…right now its just got a 2" downpipe coming right off the exhaust manifold…so its kinda loud.
:smiley:

So I’m sitting here looking at this fine machine and my 7 year old daughter climbed into my chair, took a one second look and asked “where’s the battery?” I checked both pictures and by golly I couldn’t find the battery. So on her behalf I ask…where’s the battery?

Its been relocated to the trunk for a lack of space. That’s funny that your daughter noticed that!

:smiley:

ETA: and another good question would be “where’s the hood?”, as it doesn’t have one of those presently…

Please keep in mind that, within the Import Tuner community, Ricer is just as much a perjorative as it is in the Muscle Car bunch. Any idiot with their Mom’s credit card can get some Altezza style lights, a fart can exhaust and a Generic Intake and call their car a tuner. He’s wrong, but he can say it, and all the V8 guys will point at it as an example of the hobby. But that kid is the equivalent of a guy with Holly Racing sticker and a 4 point harness on his bone stock Mustang V6. He’s a poser too.

That guy is gonna have a hell of a time tuning that ride, but once he gets it all dialed in, a turbo with 20 lb’s he should be looking at low 11’s on racing slicks. That’s a good looking build too, looks like he’s doing it right. Of course, my numbers may be off, because I’ve been out of the scene for a while now.

Man, makes me nostalgic though.

ETA: Is that a NO2 line running into the turbo? :smiley: That’s a shame, NO2 is really really hard on the engine…

Uhoh. Next thing you know, she’ll be modifying the family car. :smiley:

I thought the OP was refering to ricercars and am now imagining a conversation featuring Achilles, the Tortoise, and the Hermit Crab on the Tortoise’s new and imaginatively modified automobile.

I can appreciate them. They’re just not my thing. The example above looks well designed, and the money invested sure can’t be beat, but it’s going to be high-strung and traction limited…Which I’ve had before…and you get tired of it after awhile.

The other problem is, for this kind of car to make that kind of boost, the motor will spend it’s whole life either falling flat on it’s face or WHOLLYFREAKINGOMGI’MGONNADIEW00T under pressure.

I will never EVER slam a car guy, regardless of what vehicle he loves. He’s into the same thing I am, he’s just had a slightly different upbringing.

And it’s faster than my Vetts. :smiley:

Yeah, I suppose the term “ricer” has its negative connotations…so he’s a “Honda car guy” instead!
:slight_smile:

And no, no nitrous. I do believe that line is the oil line for the turbocharger.

Well, even if it was a normally aspirated motor, with it being a built motor, the VTEC system and the other mods aside from the turbo, it would still be a 14 second car, which is pretty damn fast. I don’t think that motor is going to ever fall on its face. He’s got revs and boost to give (he could get that motor up to 10,000 rpms and dial in a few more pounds of boost if he wanted to) and he’s within the safe range of not having anything overly adverse happen to the engine itself.

Ditto.

Young people soup up what they have, in this case the Hondas are good platforms to start modding. Same thing with Mustangs and Mopar cars in the 60’s.

It’s surprising how fast a 4-cylinder turbo can be. My Mazdaspeed3 could be considered a ricer I suppose, but it’s stock and not that flashy looking.

The Mazdaspeed 3 is an awesome car. I wish I could afford one, although I do like the older body style better than the current one.