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Comment by ourmandave | Hacker News Reader

Options include simulated straight-6, American V-8, and V-12 engines, plus some turbine-like sounds.

This is like changing ringtones on your phone. Can I download a twin turbo?

There have been aftermarket speaker setups to emit the "choosh" sound of the wastegate opening marketed to the ricer crowd for years.

Surely you are not using the term "ricer crowd" to refer to Asians?

Slow down there P.C. police. Ricer is a term for people who tackily modify japanese imports.

I'm not policing anything. But the term "rice rocket", shortened to "ricer", is indeed derogatory towards Asians. Language matters.

I think it refers to enthusiasts of Asian-made cars. Not much better, though.

Not quite. It's people who take these imports, and then add awful, flashy mods to them

> Surely you are not using the term "ricer crowd" to refer to Asians?

No, he's using it to refer to Asian vehicles (and colloquially, people immersed in the culture surrounding them). It's a bit racist, but more of a subcultural epithet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_burner

Really? I always thought that "ricer" was a word play on "racer", a funny term used to describe idiots in their pimped out cars who think they are racers.

(This is more my personal opinion, and less sourced)

I think the "rice" word (aside from the racial connotations) came from the stereotypical first modification being an absurdly large exhaust to try and lower the frequency of the typically smaller, higher-rev'ing / turbo'd Asian engines.

A noticeably large cylinder shoehorned on to the back of your car? Rice cooker.

I was under the impression 'rice' in this context stood for Racing Inspired Consmetic Enhancement.

To me, the term "rice burner" has always evoked a comparison to rice-cookers, which are typically cheap, small appliances. Its the kind of term that was more apt when Asian automakers mainly imported compact cars to the US, and is becoming less so as they branch out to other models. (e.g. Toyota Tundra) In the pantheon of racist terminology, its about the least-bad.

The subculture to whom I'm referring wear the badge proudly, like I do "geek".

Dunno about twin turbo, but:

http://www.soundracer.se/?p=98

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