Features Let's see your SLEEPERS

No, not that thing behind the cab of your semi!

Let's see some mundane looking beasts that will take unassuming victims for a walk at the stop light.
Stock or crappy exterior, and all the money where it counts. Built back in the day, or freshly done using yesteryears flair. Works in progress also welcome (like me!)

You know what I mean. POST 'EM UP!

 

I'll Start if off.
1956 victoria, 390 FE, ansen bellhousing and hurst shifter on a toploader 4 speed, ford", traction bars, will be running pie crust cheater slicks.
There will be lots of period goodies, and every factory blank plate I can get my hands on. More commonly known as delete plates, although not correct. I will have heater delete, radio delete, reverse light delete.

Some of the parts






And here's the paint that was on it before she was torn apart. I will put something pretty similar back on. Nothing flashy.

 

This 4000 LB brick ran 12 through the mufflers. Never lost at the stoplight drags either.



it was just an everyday truck, Nothing special about it.

 

what were the engine details /trans/ rear gears in that truck, Beaner?

 

355 balanced n blueprinted, one off trick flow heads, single 4 on a Holley Contender (one off bean built 600 flowed about 680 give or take). Steel crank (offset about.008) and pink rods, Crane blueprint L-79 cam ( slightly retarded) Cloyes chain, odd ball block, align bored. (PM for story on block). 11.5:1 (approx.) Mallory unilite.

T-400, truck drum and an Auto-Stick valve body from first gen Firebird 400.

3.08 gears in that truck.

In '97 when I first built the motor it had a stock truck intake that I reworked with a 3/4"open spacer. Same tranny and a 9" with 3.26 gears, steel wheels and large tires. Dynoed 406 @ the wheels @ 5200 and 444 ft pounds @ 4800. never dropped below 440 from 2800-6200.

Just a healthy driver, nothing special its a belly button after all.



Note:I probably left something out Duh'OH

Edit: I left a zero off the crank offset, its not a stroker motor it just changes the rod angle a little bit.

 

Plus you can park close to the head with that wheelchair tag!!

 

LOL I actually tried to get a vanity tag that says GIMP. The state sells vanity handi cap tags. I have been rejected for being profane or offensive several times. I don't get it I'm not offended in the least.

 

Anyone worth their salt won't be fooled into thinking you're driving a granny car. But I suppose most 'civilians' don't watch for these things.

 

LOL my first door slammer was a '55 Victoria.

I have owned lots of sleepers, well they were sleepers if I didn't light em off. I have always been more focused on the drive train than anything else, well maybe it is better said that I have always had more drive train money than anything else. LOL For me at least making one go fast is easy, making one look the part now that is work.

 

there was a gal in the st. louis area who managed to keep her tags for a year or so until someone objected: ARYAN 1

 

392 hemi, turbo400 w/gear vendors OD, narrowed Curie 9".

 

stroked solid lifter dual quad 327 and 4.56 gears

 

406 sbc/700r4/8.8 Ford rear

 

There are few around here that should be considered offensive. But I think that they are just a descriptive warning. LOL

There was a guy with a big block powered five five that actually had a tag that read Slper. The joke was that that heap wouldn't pull an old sick woman off a bed pan.

 

It ran low 14s, which beat most cars on the street in 1979.

 

I think some of forget that a traditional car was not a rocket car. If you were just your average weekender even into the '70s a 12-14 second car was fast. Hell a factory 409 Bisquit was only a 13 second car at best.

 

Great addition to the trim. Perfect and subtle.

 

Yep hotrod custom. The perfect sleeper.

 

When I first built this in the summer of 1965, I took out a sick 283 w/powerglide. Dropped in a 327 with three speed and Hurst linkage. Black wheels, black walls, wider station wagon rear wheels taller rear tires and baby moons. Convertible front springs and station wagon rear springs raised it up a bit. It was pretty invisible that first year. My buddies at the time hated the look, but it was what I wanted. No hassles of being stopped constantly by the police, like my previous hot rods. When I could afford it, I found a T-10 4 speed and a set of 4.11's. ...the 7" recap slicks to swap on at the drag strip. It was low 14's.

I had it through college, army, and grad school, and first year and half of marriage.

 

The only '57 I ever owned and drove was a wagon, not even a *handyman or a Nomad. Just an everyday wagon, with an L79 327 and a 4 speed. No hubcaps and skinny whites on the front with fattish tires on the rear. We had a lot of fun in that car while it lasted, it soon became someone else's.

*maybe handyman is slang

 

I had a ratty looking light blue & white 57 Ford Custom 300 back in 1965 with a rollover 63 1/2 lightweight Galaxie 427/425 in it, 4 speed and 4.56 gears. Back then there wern't too many fast Ford around. Fast back then, not so fast today. My best friend in 63 had the same body with a crate 406/405 in it with a 3 speed OD out of a highway patrol 58 Ford in it with column shift, 4.88 gears and a 6 volt solenoid on the OD that made it almost like a 6 speed. We had a lot of fun pissing off Chevy owners

 

People still get fooled? I thought the days of the "sleeper" were all but gone.

 

I didn't get the memo.

 

Yea, only gimps can call someone gimp...I learned that when I dated a gal that was paraplegic!!!
She was a tough athlete though, she played on a man's wheelchair basketball team and the woman's Olympic basketball team

 

My '59 can get out of its own way and looks stock from the outside.

 

Not mine but this old OT 5000lb farm truck runs 10s

 

Nice combination. Low gears and a 327. Nobody ever expects it to do what it can do. Also about bullet proof. There may be faster cars in town but they were in the garage being worked on.

 

Kind of hard to call anything with 14+ wide slicks a sleeper.

I guess the car I owned that most folks didn't expect what it would do was a Sunbeam Tiger with a little work to the engine. Not even the sports car folks expected a V-8 under the hood of an Alpine back in the early 70s. I had a V-8 Vega too, but it didn't fool many folks.

 

Kind of a sleeper, no bumper, chrome reverse wheels don't help the sleeper image but L79 balanced, 461 heads, 3 rochesters, muncie m20 and 3.70 gears. It rips

Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

1959
Hello,

Talk about a sleeper ! This is a friend’s 56 Chevy Bel Air coming off the line at Lions in 1959. This was one of the fastest cars from the local Long Beach area during this time. The owner was a friend of my older brother and they all hung out together.

(The speed modifications to a 283 were kept secret. It was rumored that he went all out and had it up to 352 c.i.) From the outside, his motor looked completely stock. He even ran in the lower stock class at Lions, but those rumors…still persisted...
true or not, this car was fast.
But, one time in 1963, he saw me in the back row of the local drive in and drove by with a smile on his face. After a discussion of who’s car is faster, we decided to go to the “Cherry Ave” drags, just down the street. It was nerve wracking as he was older and more experienced in racing. Of course, his motor was sounding solid and loud.

He knew my car as he has been in it many times when my brother drove it from 58-60. But, he did not know it was now supporting a Racer Brown Cam and lifter kit and a C&O Stick Hydro. (plus a 4:56 gear ratio) But my car was not stock as he knew it from back then (58-61). We drove out to the starting line and was sent off with a roar. I was out in front by a car length as the 3 carbs pulled well.

Or so I thought…Then about ½ way something seemed off as the 56 was now a fender ahead. Usually around ½ way, the Impala just took off and left everyone in the dust. But, this time, it was hanging on behind, by ½ fender and creeping forward. We ended in the same ½ fender distance at the finish line.

We drove back to the drive-in lot and I just knew something was not right. When I popped my hood and looked at the motor/carbs, I found a black hose sitting loose on the manifold. No wonder I did not have any power to just blast by the 56. The secondary two carbs from the hydraulic carb linkage did not work because this vacuum hose had popped off. I was running my 348 with only the center two barrel carb. It must have popped off just after the start and I was running on a 2 barrel the whole time.

I immediately taped it back on and asked if we could race again. My brother’s friend said no, when he found out he raced me with only a 2 barrel carb and not all three carbs. He gave a lame excuse that his motor sounded funny with a metal clunk and did not want to damage it more than it was.

Everyone knew it was not making any noises and was not damaged in any way. He just did not want to race again because he knew I would have so much more power when the 3 carbs were working together. Even though, he won by ½ of a fender, he knew he was no match for the full power of my 348 Impala in the next race.

To this day,(old guys chatting) he still emphatically boasts of a very close win over my 58 Impala. But, as we all know about bragging rights, he did get the win, but against a wounded motor. $%^# happens. Wow, 54 year old bragging rights due to a simple black hose.

But,back then to remedy the vacuum hose fiasco, for the next several months, I had installed a progressive manual 3 carb linkage and drove all over using this system. I did not like it because for the best running of the center carb with power, the 2/3 carbs had to come in at the wrong time. With “umpteen” adjustments in the linkage, I finally traded it to a friend that needed one for his new, three carb set up. (I got a set of beauty rings and smooth mini caps in trade) I went back to the clamped on vacuum hose for me.

Jnaki

I have always liked 56 Chevies as they sported the coolest accessory. They had the only secret gas compartment in the taillight on these stock cars from General Motors. That was very trick.