So at what point does a car no longer count as a sleeper?
Aftermarket wheels?
Lowering?
Loud Exhaust?
Bright paint colors?
Reworked bumpers/valence panels/lips?
Loud exhaust aside, all of the above are potentially on the table for Uncle Ben.
I don't like the look of the stock bumpers, and plan to tuck/mod or delete them. Nothing radical or "race inspired" but decidedly not factory. (Not like anyone really knows what a factory 68 Rambler wagon looks like.)
Yesterday I realized the look I'm after isn't outside of my fabrication capabilities and might actually be easier to start from scratch. Especially for the rear bumper.
I'm not specifically looking to build a sleeper, but it would be a perk if I could pull it off.
Wheels make or break it. You can tone it up or down with them. Everything stock looking then go with factory alloys that are bigger. More mods on the outside then factory steelies. Rusty steelies will tone it down a lot and hide the fact that the tires are way bigger than stock.
I think loud exhaust & loud paint are the real killers followed by shiny wheels. Sleepers are supposed to be subtle.
The wrong aftermarket wheels can still have sleeper qualities. Think nasty 15" shreddeder Boyd style wheels from the mid 90s. Any tri-spoke (think Prime smoothies) on any import/FWD will have a no performance Pep Boys/ Walmart vibe.
Loud with an intentional tick just screams exhaust leak, not power.
Everything has to make it look like E36 M3 on the outside. So wheels are fine, but they have to be that crap ppl buy for winter wheels. Lowered is ok, but it can’t look good, so slam it like a ricer. The more money you can spend at Autozone, the better. Vents, stickers, flat black paint, bad sounding exhaust.
All I know is the internet went crazy over sleepers and now I don't care anymore.
Vigo
UltimaDork
2/1/18 10:03 p.m.
All the sleeper-ness of my sleepers has been based almost totally on make and model and most people having an inherently low opinion of said make/model.
Rodan
Reader
2/1/18 10:14 p.m.
Vigo said:
All the sleeper-ness of my sleepers has been based almost totally on make and model and most people having an inherently low opinion of said make/model.
This.
A sleeper doesn't need to look like a POS. It can be clean and factory looking. It's all about surprising performance and making people say, "what???".
SkinnyG
SuperDork
2/1/18 10:22 p.m.
I like this sleeper. Looks stock-ish....
...but with five times more engine.
I think a lot of if depends on the car itself. For example, if it's some kind of woody type wagon, keeping it stock like a little old lady put 20k miles on it over 30 years driving it back and forth to church? That should be totally stock looking, very clean and well taken care of, stock steelies with hubcaps (but tubbed wider in the back for more rubber), vinyl bench seat, etc.
Something like a Civic? Goofy bodyworks, some type of poorly done pearl paint job, basically like it's had a Pep Boys dumped on it would be a good sleeper look.
Some '70's era sedan with an turboed LS6 under the hood could have mismatched fenders, couple of dents, some rust, ratty sounding exhaust, etc.
-Rob
It’s one of those things that everyone has their own interpretation. The less performance oriented a model is from the factory, the more potential to be a sleeper.
For me a sleeper can look factory fresh, or well worn depending on the model. In its simplest terms, if the performance changes (engine, Trans, handling) are subtle enough with the hood closed to not be easily picked out without an unmodified one to compare it to, then its a sleeper
Basically, If I walked by it in a parking lot, or passed it on the street would I give it a second look?
Or, If it’s driving down my street would I stop what I’m doing to turn to look for the source of the exhaust note before it passes the house, or would it blend in enough to not draw attention?
It depends on the car. My take is that it's a sleeper if you can credibly sell your opponent on the belief that it's slower than it really is. And there are a couple of different ways to do that.
- Convince people it's stock.
- Convince people you don't have the money to spend on any real mods.
- Convince people that while the car is modified, your priorities were somewhere other than speed.
- Convince people you're an idiot who thinks the car is much faster than it really is.
For example, a G-body with obnoxious green paint is something you would have a hard time convincing people it's stock. But if it's on 22" wheels, you wouldn't expect this:
My all time favorite example of selling a sleeper - and not just because I happen to own a stock example of the same car - is this guy. He's built a 2000 Buick where he can actually tell people, “Yeah its a turbo and it should make over 600 at the wheels. It should also run 10s on low boost,” and they don't believe him. You can't get more sleeper than that.
An older muscle car can be tough to sell that it's stock. On the other hand, minor body modifications are not likely to be any tip off of what may be under the hood, either; some are built purely for looks.
Mndsm
MegaDork
2/2/18 10:29 a.m.
Any bygone era style vehicle that's still brutally fast would make a good sleeper.
For instance if this-
Wore these clothes-
It would make fora spectacular sleeper. No one expects outdated cars to be fast.
My perfect sleeper: 1990 Ford Festiva. Turbo BP swap out of an XR2 Capri, Mazda 121 coil overs, terminal rust, a baby seat in the back and a "Jesus Saves" bumper sticker.
To be nicknamed The Spanish Inquisition because no one suspects.
Back in the late 60's, when I was a kid, was when I first heard the term "sleeper". A guy in the neighborhood had a 1956 Ford Victoria 4 door, that had a 427 engine. Goodness, that car didn't look like much, but it could fly.
Giveaways for a sleeper IMHO are super-racy looking rims/tires and obvious paint and body mods.
The subtle body mods would still be sleeper status, but radical mods would be, even if you painted the whole thing tan. No body mods + screaming orange paint = not sleeper, even if it is actually still slow.
Wheels and tires are a giveaway based on how they look, not their dimensions (think Farmtruck and the rear steelies). You still might not fool the diehard car fanatics, but surprising the average car guy is fun.
Loud exhaust may or may not be a giveaway, but I'm not sure on this one, as I've seen loud cars that are slow.
There was a guy locally that was a machinist. He drove a 2dr burgundy Nova that still had all the pretty chrome trim on the outside, and a nice set of color matched rallye wheels with caps and beauty rings. If you looked closely, the little chrome badge on the front fender had the number 427 on it, and the rear wheels seemed deeper than they should be. I asked him one day at the gas station if it really had a 427 in it. His answer was "not a stock one." I laughed and asked if he did much drag racing with it. He smiled, low key, and said "not on a track."
8valve
New Reader
2/2/18 11:20 a.m.
MadScientistMatt said:
- Convince people it's stock.
- Convince people you don't have the money to spend on any real mods.
- Convince people that while the car is modified, your priorities were somewhere other than speed.
- Convince people you're an idiot who thinks the car is much faster than it really is.
#3 is your best bet with a GRM or educated type of audience.. F&F pepboyzz or donk stuff gets the roll eyes and the brain tune out.
#1 is easy with non-car folks, but not the kind of folks on this forum. Widened steelies with big drag radials, cam lope, whistle or whine, that is gonna git noticed quick.
This one is pretty good though.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iyhB3FjMHo
