They’re ricers because most of them are Japanese cars.
One day last week after work I climbed out of my work truck (Ford Explorer) at the grocery store just as a souped up little Civic came screaming up and wiggled into a parking spot nearby.
I stood and watched, which caught the driver’s attention. He gave me an odd look as he shut it down and got out of his car. Finally he snapped at me - “What?”
I turned and started to walk into the store as I told him “Thanks, you just reminded me I needed to get my chainsaw tuned up.”
Cue cursing.
This makes sense. I have only ever noticed Asian men driving them, but that’s quite possibly because I mostly hung out with Asians until my twenties. So I assumed they were called ricers in a racist fashion against the drivers…nope, it’s just the cars. 
Also, my neighbor ALSO has a Trans-Am or something! I was putting the leaf bags out this morning when he came home. The car sounded terrible, and he revved it three or four times as he was passing me, so it is clear to me he is showing off. Then he pulled into his driveway and revved it. Vroom-vroom, vroom-vroom. Vroom-vroom, vroom-vroom. Vroom-vroom, vroom-vroom. Then he finally turned it off.
Douchebag!
The name comes from Harley owners deriding Japanese motorcycles as “rice-burners”.
I see you’re in my age group. I remember that derision, but it turned more to just sulking as all the hog drivers ever saw was the ass-end of a big ricer walking away from them. 
When I was younger, the guy across the street had an early '70’s Monte Carlo that he would rev and rev all the time. His explanation was that it had a racing cam in it and couldn’t idle at such low rpms or something like that. I kind of thought it was hogwash and he just liked to make noise.
This is an appropriate story posted some time ago in Craigslist. Kinda long, but funny as hell.
I thought most elitist assholes were mostly BMW and Mercedes drivers. Confirmation bias, I’m sure, but still…
just as point of fact, You may be dismissive of civics but 25 years ago Honda bought out a high-revving 1.6 engine that gave you over 100bhp/l. Sure enough it went into the civic and was not to be sniffed at. They were and are fast cars and those engines were fairly bullet proof so not surprising that they are a prime candidate as a starting point for modification.
I’ll see you the guy giving a respectable distance, and raise you the guy who climb into my ass instead. Which do you prefer?
In my world “ricers” are called “tuners” though that perhaps is an outdated term.
Either way, if your going to be a douche, at least buy a Mustang or Camaro and be a respectable douche.
When I think of a “tuner” I imagine a 17 year old kid who is 5’3" and weighs 100 pounds, with a buzz cut, 15 year old bad facial hair, stooped over slightly, wearing a lack tee shirt with cargo shorts and smokes cigarillos and drinks Monster Energy. When it rains, he puts on an oversize Lids baseball cap tilted sideways. In other words, a punk that needs to be smacked around.
Well, its a safety feature for truck drivers because they are driving such large vehicles and carrying heavy loads. That said, I have driven through a handful of municipalities that have signs banning Jake breaking because of the noise.
As for motorcycles, we got one guy in the neighborhood who likes to take his noisy motorcycle and drive around the block with it over and over again, despite the fact that there are roads and even limited access highways just a mile from our neighborhood.
And don’t forget the winter when Mr. Snowmobile Guy has to race around the neighborhood at 11 o’clock at night.
And finally, there’s Mister Chainsaw guy, who all weekend for hours on end, is creepily running his chainsaw for some mysterious, and I suspect, criminal reason. I might want to look into him a little further.
When I’m the first in line at a red light, sometimes I look at each person who’s turning left across me, especially the look on their faces. The harried moms in minivans, the dotty seniors, etc.
The young guys in the Japanese beer cans all have this look on their faces like they’re in some Turkish spy movie or something.
What I hate even more is when they crank their stereo, especially when they’re sitting either behind you or alongside you at a red light. And all you hear is the bass: “thump thump thump thump.”
The other day one of those idiots was behind me at the light. And the “thump thump thump” was actually making my Jeep Wrangler shake, the windows shake, and I swear it was screwing up my heart beat.
I’m surprised these kids aren’t deaf!
I remember reading an article years ago about contests for the loudest and strongest car stereo setups. At these events it was not uncommon for the car windows to explode. And at one event (held at some shopping mall), some of the store windows shattered.
FTR, I know what a jake brake (officially a “compression release engine brake”) does. And yes, they help slow a truck. But they aren’t necessary to stop a truck, nor are they standard equipment required by all US states on large trucks. So, even though they DO help a truck slow its forward momentum, the biggest direct benefit seems to be that a truck driver can slow his truck without engaging the normal brake system at all, saving wear and tear on all of those components…
And of course, they make A LOT of noise. If they were a make-or-break, must-have safety feature, I would imagine banning them would be impossible. But as you point out, municipalities do pass legislation which makes using these brakes illegal.
By the way, these systems can come with mufflers to reduce the noise considerably, yet many truck drivers don’t install the sound dampening equipment. Why? I am guessing they like the loud noise, and even though I don’t understand it, I think it falls under the same “I like loud noise” category that much of this thread covers.
Your post reminded me of Mr. Snow Blower guy as well. The same guy who revs his motorcycle has a snowblower… No crime there, but he runs it literally under the lights… Either after the sun goes down or before the sun comes up. The guy will put his floodlights on, and clear the snow in the dark.
And he doesn’t have a job, so it’s not like he has to get to the hospital to perform a life-saving surgery or something.
Honestly, I think he just has a desperate need for people to notice him. Based on this thread, he isn’t unique. That is sad.
Don’t have this one! Woo hoo!
We do have a number of Mr. Leaf Blower guys, though. Maybe one of them is Mr. Chain Saw guy…:eek:
Fucking gardening services that use leaf blowers during high pollen season should be shot. Allergies are bad enough without you putting all that shit into the air.
+1
Also, the moron who was using the leaf blower on sodden leaves should be shot. Waste of gas, that was.
Do this, just make sure to take your virginal girlfriend along when you break off from the main group to go investigating. :dubious:
And don’t bring a gun with you.
She should be wearing high heels.
My favorite Kathy Bates moment (I’m older and have more insurance. Some years ago, I was waiting at the stoplight in the middle of town, during the middle of a hot, hot summer. A kid in a little Mazda pickup pulled up next to me, blaring his music, which is fine - a hallmark of being young, in my opinion, is that music is always too loud for me. But this music was all "bitches and ho’s and mother-this and son-of-a-that, and I had little kids in my car. Not the other driver’s problem, so I reached for my handy-dandy CD case and found a nice classical music disc - Beethoven’s Ninth will drown out all sorts of stuff, right? But this kid, when I turned up? Decided to try to drown mine out. (I didn’t install the stereo in my car, but it was a good 'un. That little Mazda didn’t have enough ass to haul the kind of bass I had.) Anyway, the light turned green, and Mr. Mazda decided to call me an old bitch while trying to leave me at the light. I guess he knew nothing about cars or stereos - his little Mazda couldn’t carry enough bass to drown out Beethoven, and there was no way he had enough to haul ass away from a Crown Vic police interceptor. I gunned it until I reached the speed limit + 5, and then let him get ahead of me. I waved sweetly when I passed him on the side of the road with the nice officer.
Lawlzzz
“Isn’t God awesome?!?! I dropt my droid and when I called Verizon they just gave me a new one!!!”
Yeah, praise be to Assurion.