Oak Leaf-
I live in so cal and I really don't think rice burner is a racist term (I work with college students). We're talking about cheap cars (not just Japanese but Euro and American) that 16 year old kids add a loud stereo, a fart-producing muffler, bolt-on spoiler, and a bunch of stickers to make it look fast, which it is not.
Not to be confused with a tuner car, which is generally Japanese and fast enough to curl your hair as it flies down the 405.
But this is a cycling forum...