View Full Version : Rice Rockets!!!


RiderZ
03-28-2008, 07:16 PM
Picked-up a couple Tomy Turbo's with the Nissan Skyline bodies from ebay.I'm American through & through but if i had to choose just one Japanese car it would definately be the Nissan R34 Skyline.The paint colors of these cars is absolutely gorgeous-especially the maroon one.:thumbsup:

joez870
03-28-2008, 07:38 PM
Nice cars, but RICE Rockets? :freak:

gear buster
03-28-2008, 07:49 PM
Joe,

RICE ROCKET... a small hard to see missle. Mostly white or brown in color and very small. Master minded in wet terrain.....
Wait a minute..
Thats the wrong discription..
Dear, how many times I told you to keep your belongins outta my slotcar box. You can't run that thing with my controller..:p

Rice rocket.. Fast foreign car with loud muffler..
Nice cars..

joez870
03-28-2008, 08:09 PM
Oh! Got it. We just call'm "fart Cans" :lol:

RiderZ
03-28-2008, 08:36 PM
I'm assuming these are AW Fast & Furious edition bodies??? I also noticed these Turbo cars have orange (copper) colored wire on the armature instead of the usual red wire.Odd!:)

gear buster
03-28-2008, 09:10 PM
Riderz.
If ya like the fast and furious.. Watch the garage sale .Never know what will pop up there.. :thumbsup: I have them all and doubles of the bodies.:thumbsup:

RacerDave
03-29-2008, 08:06 PM
I agree with you Z. Those are great looking bodies. Nice detail and nice colors. I have all four color variations of that and love em all. Dave.

grungerockjeepe
03-29-2008, 08:26 PM
Dunno if skylines count as ricers. A high horsepower engine, rwd or awd, and a performance oriented platform makes skylines, z-cars, RX-7/8, supras, etc world class sportscars. By the time you get up to the turbo, awd versions of cars like the eclipse, Ill even accept those. Rider, Im just like you, all american when it comes to cars, thats what Ill always prefer. But Im not going to deny that there are some beautiful cars that'll run like madmen and handle great coming out of japan, europe or wherever.

A ricer is a total pedestrian japanese, korean, or even some american cars that got the autozone treatment and the owner now thinks he's speed racer. An example would be a 16 year old inheriting his mom's 4-door, slushbox civic, cavalier, or hyundai and then slapping stupid graphics, huge wing (you need lots of downforce on the rear of your fwd car!), ugly polished wheels, and fart can all over it. Even a civic SI coupe can be considered a ricer if someone with no taste starts slathering every useless accessory possible onto it and then starts thinking he's going to take on mustang GTs.

AfxToo
03-30-2008, 10:26 AM
I love all of those JL F&F bodies. I wish someone would make many more HO cars in the "rice rocket" and "corn rocket" genre, like WRX, EVO, MazdaSpeed3, Neon SRT4, Caliber SRT4, Scion tc, etc. These are fun little cars that provide price/performance that's attainable by average guys who like cars and just don't have 35K - 100K+ to lay down for a true world class sports car.

By the way, there is a fifth variation of the JL Skyline, the chrome with blue stripes.

Tomy also made a few Nissan Skylines that are an older model but still very nice looking.

SplitPoster
03-30-2008, 10:48 AM
Hmmm, warning signs of riceburnitis... expressed in metrics?

HP of engine and IQ of driver both below 75, while DB of exhaust buzz is > 85, while base speaker in trunk or back window shelf may break 100.

Fart can may be shiniest object on car, decals provide much better finish than paint underneath. Krylon touch up. Wheels subject to reposession if regular payments aren't made. All may be obscured by cloud of blue smoke as wheels were more important to driver than desparately needed valve job. Wing provides added visibility, as non-functioning tail lights and brake lights an oversight. If springs were cut to lower, car rides on bump stops - a handfull to drive in wet weather.

Easy access to trunk or hatch with special "coat hanger" accessible latch port a good sign. Keyless startup system -ignition tumbler on floor - may be present. Prominent decals on rear window, none of which represents a current insurance carrier.

A worn out 4d auto Escort or Corolla is a beater to some, a blank canvas to others.....

Am I close?

Agree with grunge, have seen some drop dead gorgeous, well done Eclsipes. Wife's cousin has a 3rd gen RX7 with a bit of motor work- we were both rotary fans before F&F came out. My favorite all time car was a 240Z - told my wife I would love to have an RX3SP or a 510, she can't figure out why. It's all a matter of the platform and how it's done.

AfxToo
03-30-2008, 11:03 AM
The classic hot rodders used to poke fun at the 60s musclecar gear heads with their air shocks, cherry bomb mufflers, slapper bars, cheap headers, Holley 850s, and so forth that we'd slap on the hand me down family hauler back in the day. The rice burners are today's entry point for car enthusiasts who have the initiative to break themselves free from video games long enough to scrape a few knuckles mounting up one of those bazooka trombones on the underside of their Civic. I'm totally cool with that. Impresses the heck out of me much more than some fat cat whose toolbox contains nothing more than a highly polished Platinum Card.

RiderZ
03-30-2008, 01:30 PM
Just been running these cars this morning.What a blast-i like how these cars hang it out.I think the added weight of the rear wing allows a little more tail slide.I'm really starting to like these Turbos & SRT's more & more!:)

BlueDevilDonnie
03-30-2008, 06:38 PM
The new GT-R that is coming to America for the first time is an absolute monster. It simply blows away the 911 Turbo, 911 GT3, and Corvette Z06. The first instrumented tests on the car from Car and Driver magazine show: 0-60 in 3.3 seconds and 11.6 in the quarter, with a top speed of 193 mph. In a straight line it is just as quick as the others, but is much, much faster thru any corner you can throw at it. In fact, in the second video they said it was over FIVE SECONDS PER LAP QUICKER than the Z06 or the 911 Turbo around the race track they tested at. Here are some of the videos I found on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNBt4UVtevk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBBhLIDlCr8&feature=related

Once I win the lottery, I will take one in black!

grungerockjeepe
03-31-2008, 01:54 AM
The classic hot rodders used to poke fun at the 60s musclecar gear heads with their air shocks, cherry bomb mufflers, slapper bars, cheap headers, Holley 850s, and so forth that we'd slap on the hand me down family hauler back in the day. The rice burners are today's entry point for car enthusiasts who have the initiative to break themselves free from video games long enough to scrape a few knuckles mounting up one of those bazooka trombones on the underside of their Civic. I'm totally cool with that. Impresses the heck out of me much more than some fat cat whose toolbox contains nothing more than a highly polished Platinum Card.

Well said. Even my dad--who's even more die hard 'buy american' than I am--had to admit that when done properly, tuners are the epitomy of pure hot rodding. You take something simple, and solid but with low performance and you tweak it up and you wring out what performance you can from the platform.

dlw
03-31-2008, 11:19 AM
All the rice rockets from the F&F releases look cool, but the Nissan is the worst-handling of them all.

mking
03-31-2008, 11:30 AM
Sat was my daughters 13th BD party. Im a weekend/summer dad, so the party guests were family friends, rather than her classmates, who are a couple states away. The guests included family friends she has known for years, including some younger kids. Lots of food and goodtimes, we even had a snowball fight (very weird weather for seattle at the end of march)

i went down to the rec room and warmed up the track, and put 4 tuner bodies on SRT chassis, and lowered the voltage to about 14 volts. my lane colors are Green-Blue-Yellow-Red, so I have a Green F&F Eclipse, a Blue Skyline, a Yellow F&F Eclipse, and a Red Skyline.

I had expected the racers would be the dads, but most of them never made it downstairs. instead, i had a group of kids racing.

Matthew: 4 years old in Green
Junie (girl) 4 years old in Blue
Ariel 5 years old in Yellow
Erin (daughter) 13 years old in Red

after some warm up, we ran about 15 2 minute races (changing lanes was more hassle than it was worth, particularly b/c each of the younger kids were sitting on chairs).

with the lower voltage, the younger kids did really well. occasionally one of the dads or another older Mathew (13 yo) took over for Ariel, who got bored faster than the others. Even with a dad or a 13 yo racing, often the younger Mathew or Junie won (slow but steady).

We were racing on a 16 foot 4 lane maxtrax. We all had alot of fun.

Slott V
03-31-2008, 12:27 PM
:lol:

http://www.planetofspeed.net/PhotoPost/data/3004/2World_sLargestWing.jpg

RiderZ
03-31-2008, 07:03 PM
I just bid on a red RX7 mounted on a Turbo chassis to add to my collection.This guy also has a purple Nissan i may bid on too!!!:)

2.8powerranger
03-31-2008, 07:17 PM
Not really fond of ricers but i would like to see the 2 cars that started the tuner thing,fortunatley one was american,the 4dr dodge omni glhs and the V.W Rabbit GTI .The glhs could still handle most of todays ricers.and with some mods can handle almost all of them.theyd make good ho bodies i.m.o

Pomfish
03-31-2008, 07:31 PM
Not really fond of ricers but i would like to see the 2 cars that started the tuner thing,fortunatley one was american,the 4dr dodge omni glhs and the V.W Rabbit GTI .The glhs could still handle most of todays ricers.and with some mods can handle almost all of them.theyd make good ho bodies i.m.o

Didn't that Omni have a Mitsubishi Engine?
Also, don't forget the 16 Valve Nova that Chevy had during that same time frame. Fast little cars.

Thanks,
Keith

EBasil
04-01-2008, 02:32 PM
SlottV's Honda is rad.

grungerockjeepe
04-01-2008, 07:43 PM
Didn't that Omni have a Mitsubishi Engine?
Also, don't forget the 16 Valve Nova that Chevy had during that same time frame. Fast little cars.

Thanks,
Keith

Nope, it was a Chrysler 2.2L with an intercooled turbo which was also used on the Daytonas and Lasers (chrysler, not plymouth--the Ply laser was a rebodied mitsu eclipse)

When I restart resin casting, I wont be doing any Omnis, but the GTI is a possibility and I already have an '84-'86 Daytona/Laser stripped of paint and waiting to cast!

gear buster
04-01-2008, 08:33 PM
Rider Z,

Here is some more. Just to give ya an idea of different color variants.
Cool lookin cars with some good graphics.

AfxToo
04-01-2008, 08:49 PM
I'd argue that there were tuners long before the Omni and GTi, neither of which I'd consider landmarks in the history of tuner style cars. Much earlier influences such as the 74 Celica ST and the late 60s-early 70s Datsun 510. The ST and 510 were probably the earliest Japanese cars that really caught my eye, but I'm sure they were preceded by others.

In the 60s the small Euro cars were still affordable, the Age Of Yuppies had not yet set in, and driving a BMW was No Big Deal. I recall more than a few Ford Cortinas, early Volvo 242s, Volvo P1800s, MGB GTs, Fiat 124s, even a few Peugeots roaming around with alittle extra growl coming from under the hood.

Then there was this little thing called a Datsun 240z.

The ultimate tuner of all time is undoubtedly the VW Beetle. It's been sliced, diced, covered, smothered, and slathered with every form of mechanical endowment to try and tweak a few more ponies from its anemic little air cooled boxer. It's the King of all Tunas.

2.8powerranger
04-01-2008, 08:52 PM
grungerockjeepe is correct,all chrysler. i thought i read somewhere that shelby had built an experimental version that used the motor later used in the spirit r/t the 2.2 with a turbo and a lotus head.the article said the car was so violent that it stressed the engine cradle,supposedly it had serious torqe pull to the left.i wish i could recall the 1/4 time and 0-60 time.i know it was insanley fast.either way the glhs was a bad mtor scooter.

RiderZ
04-02-2008, 06:50 PM
Thanks for the pic Gearbuster.I'm bidding on a red RX7 & a yellow Supra.:)

Pomfish
04-02-2008, 08:01 PM
I'd argue that there were tuners long before the Omni and GTi, neither of which I'd consider landmarks in the history of tuner style cars. Much earlier influences such as the 74 Celica ST and the late 60s-early 70s Datsun 510. The ST and 510 were probably the earliest Japanese cars that really caught my eye, but I'm sure they were preceded by others.

In the 60s the small Euro cars were still affordable, the Age Of Yuppies had not yet set in, and driving a BMW was No Big Deal. I recall more than a few Ford Cortinas, early Volvo 242s, Volvo P1800s, MGB GTs, Fiat 124s, even a few Peugeots roaming around with alittle extra growl coming from under the hood.

Then there was this little thing called a Datsun 240z.

The ultimate tuner of all time is undoubtedly the VW Beetle. It's been sliced, diced, covered, smothered, and slathered with every form of mechanical endowment to try and tweak a few more ponies from its anemic little air cooled boxer. It's the King of all Tunas.

Growing up my neighbor lady had an Opel of some sort, looked kinda like a Datsun 510, anyway it was a Stick Shift and she had some Aluminum Dish Mags on it, looked cool and ran pretty good as well.

Thanks,
Keith

Pomfish
04-02-2008, 08:14 PM
After looking at Google, it appears she had the Opel Kadett B Rallye edition, 1900 w 5spd.

Later,
Keith

2.8powerranger
04-03-2008, 10:20 AM
I had a 76 gt celica and a 74 datsun 510.your right afxtoo ,the celica i did some carb work on also the datsun,the 20r was a beast,,and almost indestructable[one trait the omni and v dub werent knwn for]the datsun 510,good car ,tough motor , wouldnt run with the 20r though .iv'e had 4 bugs and built 2.fun car but the more you do to the motor outside of stock the more contrary they are but stil a hoot.the z-cars were sweet!till they screwed em up in the early 80s,i like the first 240-260-280s.good tuners.my sister had a 68 cortina 4dr,,pinto power !! she blew the motor and dad bought one from a buddy that had a built 2000 that he ran in a dirt car ..it was a sleeper .realativley fast .opels, never realy cared for em. all cool cars though and cheap to build and all 200,000 mile cars .omis and most rabbits werent.

AfxToo
04-04-2008, 07:31 AM
Yeah, the first gen z-cars were totally awesome, Simple and fast, with small block Chevy swap-in kits being a readily available option for some major red, white, and blue muscle. After the 280z I never thought Datsun was able to capture that same level of magic. They went upscale and although technically superior they were missing something. Few cars can evolve through different generations and still inspire. The Mustang and Cougar are good examples of cars that lost touch with their roots and lost their appeal. Fortunately, Mustang made a pretty dramatic comeback. Cougar.. we won't talk about that one. The one shining example of a car that has evolved over decades to go from "it's a stretch to even call it a sports cars" to being a genuine super car, while totally maintaining its appeal, is the Chevrolet Corvette. I'm not a big Chevy fan, but the 'Vette is a remarkable piece if engineering and automotive prowess.

Bill Hall
04-04-2008, 03:05 PM
The 240 was a sweatheart. GREAT lines, versatility and very nimble. The stock inline six had good grunt and enough top end to get in trouble. The six was very tunable with scads of goodies available, even today.

A couple of my favs were a light cam upgrade using the stock hitachi sidedrafters in modified form and the tri-Y header with Standard diameter exhaust to maintain backpressure. Resulting in a very streetable version That cruized nicely under the powerband and would pull hard to 8K when ya stabbed it. The econo version.

The second version was similar but ran a three pack of Weber DCOE's, or later the Mikuni version. More tunable in that the high dollar side loaders had a myriad of jetting combinations available right off the rack which was far superior to the tuning limitations of the hitachi's. Coupled with more cam and a little port work this was a great setup, but was creeping up on getting spendy. The beauty of that six was it's OHC design and sturdy bottom end. Ya barely got dirty swapping the nutcracker. Later five speed trannys were a simple swap but ya do have to get dirty...LOL!

The Anglo version was really something. As Too stated, the small block chevy was nearly made to order for the Z. I fergit what the weight differential was, but I do remember that it was really close. Room for headers, room to work, and the conversion kit was basic erector set stuff. I liked the fact that the bulk of the frontal weight was moved back towards the firewall and spread it side to side. Helped neutralize some of the handling qwirks related to the long, heavy stock six.

A joy to drive! Gobs of tourque coupled with detroit reliability. Unfortunately a stock smallblock or a mildly tuned version was capable of turning the rear end into mince meat. A quick glance at vette or jag IRS reveals that the Z setup was a little wimpy. Ya gotta take some coin and time to beef up the rear as well...or do it later... after you've swept up the pieces. Notably in manual trans setups.

I liked the automatic version. "A", because you didnt have to mess around with the clutch slave adaptation, and "B", the turbo 350 was more forgiving on the rear portion of the drive train. It was tractable lugging around town, a viscious road car, and awesome freeway flyer. Cobra like performance in a stylish 3 door hardtop with just enough room to cram yer golf clubs.

With the enhanced performance, tire upgrades were mandatory. You could hang some wider meat on the Z but it got doofy pretty fast thus requiring the flare kit, especially if the car was lowered. The easily recognized "Scarab Z" is still a sight to behold and combined with bumper delete/fills is argueably one of prettiest stylings ever IMHO.

Although relased a decade before they told us of "the shape of things to come" the Z cut the mustard and then some. Personally my number Two of the 'lil "super cars".

2.8powerranger
04-08-2008, 02:51 PM
weirdest combo i drove was a triumph stag with a 327 chevy in it,,talk about nose heavy ,handled like a snow plow but was fun in a straight line.the owner totaled it 6months after putting it together,no injuries though.:thumbsup:

RiderZ
04-11-2008, 06:55 PM
Picked up some more Rice Rockets off ebay.They are mounted on Turbo chassis.Got them for $9.99 each.Thats a steal!!!:thumbsup:

AfxToo
04-11-2008, 08:40 PM
Not bad at all, the chassis alone are worth ten bucks and those bods sure look cool.