Jealously Dowding? LOL! I hope your not refering to me.
I own a classic 1969 Corvette convertible with a 427ci/400hp engine, that not only looks fast, it IS fast . Rice burners don't even rate recognition from me, except as an object of comedic value.
And sure if you have the cash to start out with a fast japanese car, and then you have the loads of cash to make it faster, sure. Go for it. I'm all for it. There are some really nice RX-7's out there, and some of the Evo's and such are nice. But they're pretty rare. And I personally like the look of the new Mazada RX-8, even though I wouldn't buy one.
But my point is that if these guys would take the money they put into Accords and Civics, and add on the $8k+ they spend putting crap onto it. They could have actually gotten a much faster car in the first place, and would probably look better. But they're idiots and prefer plastic ground effects and body decals to a real car.
Hell, even in Too Fast Too Furious 2, they admitted that the ultra fast ricer image is hype when they came up against cars with real power.