"Rice rocket" is a phrase used to describe cars, usually Japanese ones (and most often Hondas), that are fairly cheap, don't perform very well, and yet are covered with racing stickers or decals, have loud obnoxious exhaust tips, lowered suspension, and garish wheels in an attempt to make people think that the car can go fast. Honda Civics are the most common rice rockets, along with Preludes and the occasional Accord or Volkswagen GTi.

Rice rocket also can refer to a (usually) japanese sport motorcycle.

See also: crotch rocket, rice burner.

Living in a city that has an Asian majority, I see a lot of rice rockets parked in my high school parking lot. Several things I've seen that are typical amongst these cars:
  • Loud exhaust -- Most rice boys can't seem to do without these. They're the most audible part, and the most annoying part of the whole setup. How this makes your car seem to be a racing type leaves me mystified. The lamest attempts at this are when people put these on family sedans...

  • Flashy Paint Job -- I can understand a nice slick new paint job, but a lot of these people create paint jobs that cry out, "Catch me!" to the police. If you want to avoid police as much as possible, which you think these people would, get a less flashy paint job, or better yet, get your self a low profile car, like a Cadillac.

  • Engine -- I had two classmates who I heard endlessly discussed about get car kits to their nonexistent cars. I never once heard them discuss turbo charging the engine or any preformance adjustments, in fact, I've never heard anyone discuss the engine. First off, if you want a racing car, the engine is a good place to start adjusting, it's about the speed, right? But...if you just want to look cool, it doesn't matter. Although the majority of these people do race.

  • Advertisment -- What good is a rice rocket without a load of advertisers? It seems to be a requirement on all of these cars, most likely the owner gets a discount for putting it on or they want to have sponsors like true racing cars do.

  • The Driver -- This is the essence of the car, the rice boy. Most of them often wear flashy clothing and always have sunglasses. After school they seem to enjoy leaving their parking space at full throttle. Before school they seem to enjoy cutting off innocent drivers, and forgetting to move out of a red zone before talking on the cell phone, lest they want their spot taken (Yes, it happened to me)

Note: Written by an Asian.

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