I have a little four banger Saturn SC2. The thing looks good, looks like it oughta go fast. I have found some mods I can do to it for not a lot of $ down. I found a good blower for it for around $2000, specially designed for this engine. But I would rather keep the car stock and invest my money in my street rod. I have noticed something interesting, though. While there are many American equivilants to the rice rockets (neon, SC2, SC1, etc.), the parts available are much fewer than those for ricers. Just look for car mods on ebay. I have noticed there are MANY mods available for the Hondas and Mitsus, even quite a few for Toyotas. Still quite a few for rice inspired domestics, but not nearly as many. I used to know some of the ricers. The domestic cars just didn't hold any allure. I don't totally understand why they buy jap, but think it may have something to do with rebelling. Maybe it is not so much an inability to afford American as it is a lack of desire. I'm sure that from the money spent on some of the ricers, a fast, powerful American car could be afforded. The $30,000 quoted earlier could buy a Camero and several mods to it. The show and no go is very true, as well. Bolt on noisy chrome things is what most of the affordable mods are to the crowd. I took a look at some of the noisest ones. Most had just the exhaust changed and a buzz muffler installed. A few had cold air intakes and headers, and I think I only found one with any thing more complicated installed. That is not counting the body kits which serve no useful purpose as I can tell. Many had those. I asked several why they went to the trouble of doing the mods to gain a lack of aesthetics or maybe 50 HP, maybe a few more or less. Most said cuz they wanted to be different. How are they going to be different if they all look they same. Sure, maybe one has a stripe down the side that the other 20 don't, but if you want to stand out, spend your money better. As for that annoying BUZZZ sound that most emit, I have a personal theory as to the allure of it. That noise must vibrate the car. That vibrating must jiggle their cojones and make them feel pretty good. Why else would you intentionally have your car vibrate or sound like that? It's all craziness if you ask me. I can see why people would want a jap car from the reliability standpoint, but as for tuning a ricer, that is putting whipped cream on sh*t, if you ask me. Just my $.02.