Video: The Art Of The Sleeper

By Samuel Spencer

Samuel Spencer

BIO

Sam is currently a fourth year Journalism major at the University of Cincinnati. He has been a lot technician at a Ford dealership since 2007, where... More

LATEST ARTICLE
The Virtues of Being Small
The other day I was driving with a friend when they pointed at the Lincoln Town Car in front of us... Read More

• N/ALEADERBOARD RANK
• 123ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
• 1COMMENTS POSTED

1 1,499 views Aug 23, 2010

2007 smart fortwo

Enlarge Photo

In one of my Big Fun, Little Cash posts I mentioned how the Taurus SHO has a serious "sleeper" factor. 

In case you didn't know what I meant by that, this post is for you. 

Somehow the idea came about that if a car is fast, it has to look fast. Some cars look that way by design, with their sleek shapes and low profiles. Some are forced to look that way with big wheels, ground effects and a huge spoiler on the back. The problem is they look that way to command attention so that people can see just how fast they are. So, when someone sees a Corvette they aren't too surprised to see that it is indeed flying down the road at a ridiculous speed. 

The idea of a sleeper is to have the car command no attention whatsoever. It has to be built in some unassuming or completely average body shell. That way when the car suddenly lights up the tires and flies away at a green light (on the drag strip, of course) all the witnesses are blown away. Plus, it is an added bonus when a completely ugly average Joe car blows the doors off of the boy racer's Supra. 

To further explain this concept, here are a handful of some of the best sleepers on YouTube:

This is a classic example of how a sleeper is done right. You start with a big, ugly, decrepit family station wagon that already has the big V-8 in it and give it a thorough going through. The only trick is that you have to completely ignore anything cosmetic on the car. The owner if this car who, by the sound of it, is from the deep, deep south did everything to the T. They ended up with this wheelstanding beast that completely destroys the Camaro it was up against. It was so impressive it caused a sweet, innocent girl to cuss. 

When it comes to commanding attention, you can't go much lower than a Volvo. It is a car that was built around the idea of safety, instead of speed. Thankfully they made them with a turbocharged 5-cylinder engine. Some hooligans got a hold of one to create a wicked sounding, but completely normal looking, Volvo 850. Sure it may have rubbish traction, but smoking tires like that is something that no one would ever expect from such a safe car.

Sometimes you just have to humiliate the wealthy. They need to be shown that even their Ferrari can be humbled by the teeny little Smart ForTwo. Sure, it took some serious fabrication and a GSX-R engine to do it, but who doesn't wish they had a nerdy looking car that could humiliate the Italians? 

This is one of the all-time great sleepers. Back in the day Dodge decided that their Caravan needed an engine that was powerful, but also fuel efficient for the amount of power it made. The answer was a turbo four-cylinder that could make as much power as their V-6. Tuners love turbos, so it was only a matter of time before someone tried to boost a turbo minivan so that it made astronomical amounts of power. Thankfully whoever made this particular one used that power responsibly by spanking a Civic. 

Although all the cars above are great sleepers, they cannot hold a match up to this one. The best sleepers are ones that are built on cars that weren't just normal and unassuming, but downright terrible and loathed by the general public. The K car just happens to fall into that category quite neatly, so why wouldn't you want to bolt on a giant turbocharger to one? Imagine how much the Supra driver was cursing to himself as his life savings was beaten by a car his grandmother used to drive. 

Know of any other great sleepers blowing the doors off of a stereotypical fast car? Send them in!