Sleepers! Anybody into sleepers here?

I remember that article vividly.

It was in "Car & Driver" and they tested it on Mrs. Orcutt's driveway which was a strip of asphalt in the Mojave desert.

"A Cadillac Seville, hiding a tube-frame stock-car chassis and a twin-turbo Chevy 454 V-8, lost a chrome bumper at over 100."

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/05q2/mrs._orcutt_s_driveway-feature

 

must run really good without the coil wire! oops

 

One kind of model A

http://www.mat.fi/n_index.php?nav=gallery_view&gallery=project1929fordmodel-a.xml&g=13

and a video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFSGSL3Nrmc

 

Mind if I bump this thread?

 

Over the years the definition of Sleeper has changed and a lot of that had to do with the crowd said sleeper hung out with. There was a good article in Hot Rod back in 83 on some of the Street Racer crowd's "sleepers", which might look a little too race for some of you. But the Whittier Gang was at the top of this game and none did it better than Boyd Gaebel's Nova. You have to remember that The hood scoop and Centerlines were common on every street strokes pile in those days, so it seemed like just another poseur - except it ran honest low 10's on street tires with no juice! I seem to remember it having steel wheels and no hood scoop originally with painted up valve covers and still running 11's.

 

Years ago my buddy had a 67 opel kadett with stock interior,stock hood, everything and the only thing other than the Ford 9in w/4.11s that hinted something was wrong was the SW gauges and tach in the stock locations of course.It had a warmed over 327,dbl humps,ramhorns,dz intake,big ass cam and carb.Anyways one night he and and another guy had been talking shit to each other ALL night so finally about 4 am we went racing!!!! Man you shoulda seen the look on the other guys face when his built 55' got beat by that lil' wolf in sheep's clothing.

Great thread,maybe later I'll dig up some pics and show just how ugly and perfect that little thing was.

 

Among its features was an aircraft landing light, pointed out the back of the car to discourage pursuit.

 

How about 2 1969 copo chevy wagons with the L-72 427/425 motor??? I got a picture of one around here somewhere...

 

That Opel sounds cool! Dig out them pics!

 

he ran a 3 stage set up .completely hidden from the naked eye. 100-250-350

 

Boyd's car was really fast, he would roll into OCIR late in the afternoon and wait till the brackets were over, then just haul ass w/mufflers on. He still doing the same thing today except with a four cylinder turbo OMNI !

 

Near the top of my many car "Bucket List"
would be a plain-jane '64-65 Buick Special
2-dr sedan....with a built, 455-Stage-1,
hooked to either a 4-speed stick or a
switch-pitch 400 turbo-hydro.

Mart3406
========================

 

I'm gonna build me another one just like this one of these years..

 

heres mine
11.7 at 118

 

Long ago and far far away..........my parents got me a '48 Dodge for graduation from high school. Unknown to Dad it had a cracked block. It was a straight 6 with "Fluid Drive" ( for any old timers that remember that ). I looked for a short block but it was going to cost $250. I was in the "Continental Customs" at the time and was talked into putting a V8 into it. Long story short...I drove it out of the garage a few months later with a '56 Dodge 318 with a 3 spd tranny I got at a junk yard for $250 complete with all linkages. I had to replace the rear and drive shaft w/a '56 Dodge because the '48 couldn't handle the torque. Especially after I added the 2 4bbls and Mallory ignition and aluminum flywheel.....heh heh
Had MANY good time in that car. Added a Hurst floorshift and Tractionmasters and WIDE tires in the rear as time went on. See pix....

 

Wow, 80vette, very cool. Too bad it's not still around.

-Dave

 

The one on the left is really fast!

 

saw this impala at 411 dragway i think???? was suprising fast

 

Yeah...sold it to some kid before I went into the Navy. Have no idea where it is anymore.....just memories remain.....but GOOD memories. Like the time I beat a '57 Ford from a light. Shoulda seen the look on his face....

 

Very cool, 80vette! I can relate to the flathead six with fluid drive, too.

My previous car was an OT sleeper:





It shook many a modern car at the traffic lights. Even though it had a dual exhaust with flowmasters, giving it away a bit, most people thought it was more bark than bite. They were pretty wrong... 8)

 

Somewhat OT car, 65 Tempest. Original paint in grandma beige. Hot rodded Pontiac 400, M20 Muncie and 3:55 12 bolt posi. Still has the 326 badges.

 

Didn't realize he was still around. We grew up together (same High School) and in the late 60's my dad owned the slot car store in our town, Duarte (it was called Go-Go Raceways, how 60's is that!) and he used to have fast cheater slot cars as well.

 

Check out post 9550...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=201085&page=478

I recall, late-'69 or early-'70, an ad in the "Hot Rod Mart" in the back of a Hot Rod Magazine, for a '69 Kingswood Estate ("woodie") Wagon, L72-4spd full load (minus A/C of course). Wonder whatever happed to that car?

 

There's nothing like a sleeper, and this video rules ! From the early S/S cars to COPO Camaro's , to GT37 Pontiacs, there's just as much fun with a sleeper as a brightly fashioned Judge or Daytona

 

I love it !

 

<----if my 4 dr 283 biscayne was fast, it would be an awesome sleeper. As it stands, though...nope.

 

The best sleeper I ever saw was in about 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Every Saturday night the guys from Pittsburgh and the guys from the Mon Valley area would meet at a gas station on Rt 51 (Pete's) and race until the State cops would finally get there to break it up.

At the time the 396/425 HP Vettes were the car to beat and one Saturday night a plain white 65 Impala showed up. It had whitewalls, Impala flipper hubcaps, fender skirts, dummy spotlights, but 396 flags on the front fenders. We had never seen it before. The owner arranged to run one of the Vettes and the Vette guys walked away laughing, looked like an easy $ 100 win.

As soon as the arrangements were made the guys with the Impala owner got to work. Off came the skirts, and out of the trunk came a set of M&H 11 inch dragster slicks. Another guy laid under the car and uncorked the headers, but the hood never was opened. When they went to line up on the 4 lane the attitude of the Impala had changed A LOT ! It was a 4 speed with what we later found out were 5.13 gears, and it was dry hopping like an altered.

The Vette and Impala lined up and the Impala blew him off bad. Now the guy in the Vette wants to fight, but the Impala guy told him he would give him a second chance, so they lined up again. This time the Impala blew his doors off even worse ! They pulled the Impala back into the gas station, removed the slicks, capped the headers, put the skirts back on, and before they left they opened the hood. On the valve covers were two little decals that read "Built by Bill Thomas Race Cars."

The Impala drove off, $ 200 richer, and we never saw it again, but I will never forget that night.

Don

 

I know this is the wrong place to post a bike,but in the seventies I ran a panhead dresser which looked stock,it was stroked head work done by branch and all the tricks.,guys used to laugh when I would run against sporters and choppers,They would look over the bike and see if I would run them.I had no problem,make a date change rear gearing use different carb under stock air cleaner and lose th mufflers.Many sportsers fell by the wayside when I ran rat dressor.Always had smile when I cam back.I lost sometimes but made a lot of people scratch their heads,

 

I know this post is old, but what the hell i'll add to it anyway.
I LOVE sleepers!

Probably the only sleeper i've built was my old 63 Impala SS.
I know, not exactly a 4 door..But.
It looked absolutely stock, with white walls, SS caps and mostly original faded paint. And aside from the black headers, was bone stock looking under the hood too.
But, i built a small journal 327, bored .030 with flat top forged slugs, 461 heads with the typical goodies. A Comp solid cam, with Comp full roller rockers. An Edelbrock intake and holley mechanical secondary 650 that was also worked over.
ALL painted up to look like it was nothing more than a stock original. I even opened up the base of the factory air cleaner to pull more air, and had even painted the coil black to hide the maker.
Backed by a Hays street/strip clutch to a 4 speed, and at first 4:11 gears.
2.5" full exhaust with the quieter Flowmasters.
It was actually pretty quiet, but did have the dead give away of a good size cam when it idled.
The car was actually pretty quick the few times i drove it. I ended up selling it to a friend before i actually had a chance to really enjoy it.
Not nearly as quick as many posted, but a lot quicker than when it rolled out of GM, and certainly didn't look it.

Tony

 

This sleeper is a little O/T by a few years, but it sure is fun to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5oftRgd9VY&feature=related

Don