Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question should take a gander at Super Street's mail. Granted, the majority of the inquiries we get are legitimate honest-to-goodness questions that our loyal readers want answers to, and we continue to welcome those. But then there's that secret cluster of kooks who spend too much time sniffing magic markers before they decide to write in to us. I'm talking about people who ask stuff like: "Why don't you guys just change your name to Honda Street?" Or how 'bout this doozie: "When are you going to stop putting all these crappy ricer cars in the magazine?" Now, those are really stupid questions indeed. But, yet again, I'm here to set the record straight.
Honestly, when was the last time you read past the first three pages of Super Street before you started whining? It must have been way before your brain learned to recognize words with three syllables or more because there hasn't been an all-Honda issue in a long-ass time. Every month, Super Street serves up a healthy dose of dope cars regardless of what manufacturer they came from. Changing our name to Honda Street wouldn't have made much sense when that Nissan Skyline or Subaru WRX special issue hit the stands, would it? Referring to Top Secret Supras, the HKS Silvia, and RE Amemiya RX-7s as crappy ricers, well, I'm not sure what world you live in. Maybe there's some parallel universe where crappy means dope and ricer means kick-ass supercar. Last time I checked, though, we weren't living in a parallel universe.
So tell me, what exactly goes into these crappy ricers you speak of? You wouldn't be talking about the 500-plus horsepower, widebody, track-attack Yashio Factory Super S15 Silvia (it's on the cover in case you missed it), would you? Perhaps you meant the Blitz R34 D1GP drift machine, the HKS EVO VII track racer, or the World Racing Celica?
I didn't think so. When you call a car like the Team ARTA JGTC MR-S a crappy ricer, what are you comparing it to? Your stock Eclipse or Civic with a spray-painted valve cover, claiming to have an authentic Blitz body kit? That's cute. News flash for those who think they know all: Blitz doesn't make body kits for either of those cars and spray-painting your valve cover red doesn't make your car a Type R. There's a little something for your brain to ponder while you're rolling around on your Krylon-coated black wheels trying to imitate JDM three years ago. Spending less quality time with your cousin in the cornfields might just grant you enough time to get with the real deal.
We're taking polls at the office on how much hate mail and/or idiotic guest-book entries I get on my Rikdaddy.com site. You rankers shouldn't get pissed at me just because I just tell it how it is. Hey, you'd have a clue if you bothered to get the facts first. Try it some time, it's really quite invigorating.
-Ricky Chu
sstreet@primedia.com