Unlikely...The art of a good sleeper.

Do you remember the Happy Days episode (first or second season) when Rich's Mom wrecked his car, the one he was supposed to street race that night. So the Fonz and friends took Howard's Desoto and built a killer drag car. What do you think, REAL LIFE, best photos or sleeper stories...

 

I think two door sedans from the 60's with dog dish hubcaps doesn't fool anyone anymore. Dog dishes bring more money than rally wheels in some cases, and everyone knows the stripped down Biscaynes are often the ones packing the most power.

If you really want to build a sleeper, it needs to have 4 doors, full wheel covers, and quiet exhaust.

 

About 20 years ago, I built a '70 buick Skylark 2 door with a wicked ass 550 cid [stroked] cadillac V8 that made somewhere between 750-800 hp. The car was tubbed, skinnies up front, fiberglass buckets.... NOT a sleeper.

Drove it daily [ ] for a few years, then kids and adulthood came along, so I parked it in my Grandparents barn. I'd go start it up and drive it a few miles about twice a year.

One fine spring morning, I fired it up and went for a little spin [not too far with expired plates and no insurance]. Down to the car wash to blast the dust off it, and a new[er] [for the time] Ford Mustang comes along looking for a little action. At this point, the car had been sitting for the better part of 4 years, and the carb was acting like there was a dead cat inside it.

Mr. Mustang was not about to take "no" for an answer, but I was feeling a little friskey, so I agreed to run him down the local deserted 2 lane for $20 "heads up".

It was about a 4 mile drive, and as I recall, it was a quiet sunday morning, so no traffic. Were driving along, and I got beside him and goosed it. It made a lot of noise, then sputtered out. Mr. Mustang got on it as well. When my Buick sputtered, he instantly got about 6 car-lengths on me. I kept my foot in it, and suddenly all 800 ponies came to life. It hooked, and it booked! I SCREAMED past Mr. Mustang, and about 2 lengths in front of him, pushed it into second It broke traction, and laid a pair of 13 inch wide black marks over 100 feet long. I stayed in it to well over 100 mph, and just watched him get smaller and smaller in my rear-view, tho I could see the mustang's front end bouncing up and down as he was shifting gears trying to catch me...

I hit the brakes, and backed it down to about 45 mph [speed limit], and waited for him to catch me. At the next light, I leaned out the window and said "I dont know man, the carb's just not right... I'll probably only be able to run in the low 9's like this"............ The look on his face was PRICELESS!

The light turns green, I pull ahead, and look behind to see him turning on to a side street, running away with his tail between his legs.

For the record, I was talking pure smack... The best that car ever ran was 10.27 @ 128 mph.

No, not a sleeper story, but definately my personal favorite expirence in that car... Wish I still had it.

 

i love sleepers

 

any pics of sleeper cars ?!?!?

 

A rusty POS works as a good sleeper...
my first '55 Ford was in primer, no interior except for seats, the door glass was cracked, different color hood, you get the picture.
However I had concentrated on the drivetrain first and it was jam up.

I built a '56 Merc 312 for it and had no intentions of making anything earth shattering, but the guy helping me build the motor raced them back in the 50s and insisted "to make it a full house mill"....

Aside from the normal fart can crowd, I'd get a Camaro or Mustang that would want to nut up and run me. I never really looked for a race as I only had the original 3 speed tranny and knew it wouldn't hold up to pounding the cogs alot.

That car surprised alot of people including me the first time I got on it hard.

I'd get them off the line thanks to the torque of the Y-block and as long as I kept my foot in it I'd stay there.

The funny thing is the SBC boys only wanted to run stop light to stop light. The Mustang & Honda crowd would always wanna go for a mile or so.
That was alright I had Overdrive.

 

please check this out first before scrolling down



Holly sh...

what the...

How on earth?

Somebody get me another beer

I think i dropped mine

Hope that was it and not... F@CK!

 

I LOVE sleepers...I took down an '84 Camaro with my '71 Chevy C-20 farm truck in high school, it was hilarious seeing the look on the kid's face as I did my burnout before we raced...everyone made fun of my "grampa truck" until then...good times...

 

Now thats what i call a sleeper !

 

Am I dumb or how is the pressurized air getting back up to and into the intake on the engine? I can make out the exhaust, but no the pressurized feed going back up to the engine. Sleeper for sure, and very ingenious, but seems like could have (and should have) just put the turbos up near the engine. Definitely a cool car though.

 

My 455-powered '64 Pontiac Tempest.

Column-shifted, bench seat, no tach, plenty of suspension and brake mods so it corners and stops very well. Wheels are 17X8" all around.

She'll go 140 MPH with the TH400 trans and 2.56 gears, and still run in the high-13s with the near-stock regular-gas 455.

 

my old 49 chevy 4 door wasn't what you'd call a sleeper.. but it looked like grampas car with visor, spotlight, bumper guards, whitewalls and full hubcaps.

had a 350 with headers and big pipes. maybe a high 14 second ride if the track went downhill.

so this nice 56 chevy pulls up along side at a light. he takes off in a big hurry with a little chirp of the tires and it is obviously a V8 with glasspacks. hes speed shifting through the gears with a 3 speed column shift.

sitting at the next light he is all proud of himself. light turns green and I hit the go pedal and light the tire pretty good for an old bomb that people would bet the rent had a 216 or 235. the turbo 350 had a shift kit and it always got a good second gear scratch and this time was no exception. he missed the next light so I never got to see his reaction. I bet I suprised the heck out of him.

thats no 9 second tempest story, but I thought it was pretty funny.

 

Jeff,I know that black Ford.It must be the same one built at West Coast Restorations in WA. My buddy Dale did the wetsand and buff on it.
He had a killer baby blue 66 Fairlane.BBF.4 spd too.

I'll look for more pic's.
And that 64 Tempest? Oh yeah !

 

I've been waiting for the snow to leave to drag this out for the first time.... It's a tad ugly but should make up for it with some speed. 400hp/3100lbs should get mid to low 12's... It looks like a sleeper as long as it's shut off, but after it's running game's over.

A friend of mine has an O/T 69 Pontiac Beaumont (Chevelle) that looks stock with the exception of the wheels, but constantly runs mid 11's being driven daily... I love sleepers... !

 

See that black hose running from the firewall to underneath the air cleaner? That's where the air comes in at. There was an article on it in PHR or Car Craft a few months ago.

 

that's the beauty of it! even if he pops the hood, 60+% of all that performance is kept unseen...



see how high it is here \/ compared to how deep there /\



my guess is the feed comes in from above the drive shaft, on the inside but it's covered, goes up under the console and voila

 

Hard to make a traditionally styled sleeper, because hot rods alway look fast.

 

I got SEVERELY dusted by a li'l ol' 81 Ford Fairmont 2dr post grocery getter! FINALLY,caught up to the guy and asked wtf he had under the hood. He explains how he got hit by a drunk in his same year mustang GT and swapped all the guts into his GRAMMA's old fairmont. One fox bodied platform to another! Engine, trans,suspension,swaybars, all of it.Then he opens the trunk and shows me the blue bottle to boot! Still wearing the factory brown paint. It was a cool little ride.

 

This "Sleeper Ford Pick-up" used to blow people minds,twin turbo 390,complete with "farm plates". Then his wife's old Valiant convertible.Threw in a later shop pic of some later race efforts.

 

This one belongs to a friend of mine. Real genuine factory sleeper if you ask me. Factory 409 4 speed wagon.



I wouldn't mind something along these lines :

 

this wagon was running 12 's at the nostalgia drags .

 

and this was running 12 's too.

 

I drove my '60 Pontiac as a daily for years. 2bbl 389, dual-coupling Hydramatic, 3.08 rear. One night this prick in a little Eagle Talon (or one of the clones of it) whips out to pass me right after a light, on a double yellow line. I said WTF, I'm going to make this asshole work for that, and hit the go pedal.

I finally let him go because my turnoff was coming, but I got it up to 90 on this curvy, hilly 2-lane road, no handling issues at all, and the guy couldn't pass me in his little sports car. I still had room to press the issue if I'd wanted to. Sometimes I think I should have, just to be a dick, and turned around and come back to go on home.

But I always surprised people in that car, the usual trick around here when you have two lanes to turn at a corner, is to switch lanes in the middle of the intersection and cut off the other guy. Damn near got hit a few times, but never got cut off.

 

you missed this one labrat

oh and I dno if you would consider the 34 p/u a sleeper, but its rusty and has no paint and has a hemi poking through the hole. Anyone who knows nothing about engines would just assume its slow.

 

That Lemans is a serious car, I have seen it run several times at the flashlight drags... I recently saw it on eBay for something like $38,000!

My best idea of a sleeper is Jay Leno's Buick Roadmaster with all C5 vette underpinnings...

 

I went to high school with a dude who had a 74 Nova 4-door, stock rims, plastic on the plaid seats: one ugly ass "Grandma" car.
You had to look real close to notice the roll bar and ladder bars etc. It had a very mellow exhaust hooked up to his 383.
I watched that kid blow the doors off a LOT of ricers over the years. He was building a 69 Chevelle toput that motor in, but I never got to see the finished product. I always thought he wouldn't have nearly as much fun rolling in that shiny red muscle car as he did in that ugly ass sleeper.