ELLSSUU

B/C there almost as many riced out BMW's as there are Hondas!

If you are having so much trouble get some of the European 951 wipers with the built in spoilers.

eniac

I wish I could adapt a MBZ wiper for a reasonable price. The one on my 190E was really sweet. The length on the wiper arm would adjust so it was shorter when straight up, and longer when sweeping to the side. This made it so the one wiper could cover almost the entire windscreen.

hosrom_951

Maybe it is a spec thing? i never seen a BMW here (old or new) with a single wiper system. The Mercedes models did start in the early 90's, our old MB E320 1993 model did have one.

testarossa_td

Look at the wiper arm on the rear of a 928.

Mike1982

I have seen a few BMW's around here with them as well as other NICE cars, not riced out. It does look good on some cars, that is why I wonder what it would look like on the 944.

BoostGuy951

I would.

FSAEracer03

Ricer [risse-urr] N.
[Ricer: from the latin word Ricarius meaning to suck at everything you attempt]

A person who makes unecessary modifications to their economy sedan (mostly import cars from japan hence the term "rice") to make it (mostly make it look) faster. The most common modifications are

# Huge exhaust that serves no purpose but to make the car louder
# Large spoiler on the back that looks like something Boeing made for the 747
# Lots of after-market company stickers they saw on cars in the Fast & Furious
# Cold Air Intake- a tube that feeds cold air to their high performance hamsters.

Most of these riced cars (a.k.a. rice rockets or rice burners) are imports; Honda Civics, Accords, Integras, Mitsubishi Eclipses, Toyota Camrys, Corollas, however there are some domestics such as Chevrolet Caviliers, Dodge Neons, Ford Focus; small, slow, economy cars designed specifically to go slow. Please note that there are many high performance import cars as well that are designed to go fast that are often mislabeled as "rice". Such cars as supras, skylines, wrx', NSX, Evo IV, etc.. fall into this category. Unfortunately, in today's world cars like this still must be handled on a case-by-case basis.
The ricer attempts to make their car "performance" by adding the modifications listed above. These ricers are not confined to any one ethnic group or color, however different ethnic groups are known for certain styles. (example: mexican=mini trucks; african americans=escalades; etc..) These crackers are also known to talk a lot of **** about their cars too. The best place to see a ricer is in his native habitat, any mall parking lot.

Mike1982

WOW!! That as good and funny, so do you think one wiper is tring to be a ricer??

FSAEracer03

In a car that didn't have it OE, yeah... there's no performance benefit to the modification and it's really done to only "get looks." Improving the looks of a car can sometimes be just fine, but when the stock wipers looks just fine and work great, it seems futile to modify your windshield wipers!

What's next, an aluminum coolant res....oh wait

EDIT: one such viable look modification: recessing the front bumper on an NA... that's not rice because it's fixing the horrid looks of the "rat nose" that Porsche was forced to create to meet US bumper regulations.

Mike1982

Ok, how about a Euro bumper then? I have one on my car to get rid of the rear rubber bumpers since the turbo's don't have any in the front either. I think the euro rear bumper looks SO much better then the stock rear end.

gcb951

Single wiper thing,
Well, it's definately not needed. And if you have to hack anything up to put install, I would say it's not worth it. But, ricer or not I think it would be kind of neat. So, maybe if you have too much time on your hands and more money then you know what to do with, this could be a project for you. I will stick to doing turbo upgrades and other performance mods.

pcarphanatik

This is common mod among the VW crowd. I don't think its rice persay; just a styling change. If you want it then who cares what anyone else thinks. I think it would look great on a 951, but meh....each to their own.

Getting clear/smoked sidemarkers isn't exactly a performance mod either, but alot of people seem to want them.

Peckster

Funny, my wipers don't move up at speed on the track that I've noticed, and I'd much rather have it stored down at the bottom than in the middle. Funny how guys try to justify their rice-isms.

But hey, it's your car, just do it if you want to but spare us the far-fetched justification.

eniac

My wipers start to move up around 150mph(indicated). I assume you don't hit that on a track. I usually don't. I like a clear view down the hood, right now the driver side wiper blocks part of my view and it just plain annoys me.

Ok , so there are a lot of ricers who do this to thier Acuras, Hondas, DSMs, whatever. These are the people who add turbos timers, fake blow off valves, stickers, etc. and they THINK it makes thier cars faster.
I don't consider what I am doing "rice". I do little to my car to make it look "cool" or look fast. Almost everything I have added has been for real performance. The single wiper gives me the advantages I listed previously. Many GTC race cars had a single wiper in the late '80s and early 90's. I have owned 2 german cars(BMW and MBZ) with a single wiper and I prefer it.

If the passenger wiper sits in the stock location no one even sees the single wiper unless it's raining. Now tell me how that is rice? Anyway, as you said it's my car but if I find a way to do this I will make something available to those who may want to do this too.

Btw, I am doing one thing just for looks, well it started that way. I removed the rear bumpettes today and fiberglassed over the holes. Tomorrow I will sand it smooth and paint it. Turns out the bumpettes wieghed a few lbs. so I am saving some weight at the same time. I want a full fiberglass rear bumper but until then I had to remove those, they are an eye sore on US spec cars.

NZ951

I would be keen to be updated when you have a solution...