Sleepers have a limited shelf life because it usually doesn't take long for the g****vine to 'spread the word' about one.... I knew a guy in the late '60s who knew this. He had 5-6 built motors (Ford and Chrysler) that he would swap around into different bodies when one became too well known.
When I was a kid my dad ran a small service station, his push truck was an early 50's Jeep Pickup with a 324cid Olds V8 & Hydromatic in it. He was a paraplegic and our family cars had hand controls in them but not the Jeep, he just used a walking cane to mash the brakes or gas as needed. It still had the stock jeep 5:38 rear end in it. Not a lot of top end but for about a city block it was tough to beat.
Not exactly street rod or drag vehicle, but I had a 90 Bronco 4x4 which had a sweet stone slow 302 fueled under the hood. I was running a pump has dirt modified, and we noticed up to run a 406 Ford in the ethanol cl***. We had two fresh pump gas 358s, so my racing partner suggested we stuff one with a C6 into my Bronco to give it some "snort". It was a bit of work, but after we dialed it in, it would smoke the tires anytime, pull 28 foot enclosed car hauler, and blow the doors off just about anything unfortunate enough to be sitting at the same stoplight. Oh, did I mention it would push a mouthful of snow with the Western plow on it? Damn, that truck was a handful, but FUN.
Rebuilding my '71 International Harvester 1210 pickup. The 460 Ford from the late '80's got tired and the C-6 needed some revealing. This winter's project. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I was running a 396 in my 55 Cameo, first with an M21, an overdrive, 4.57 gears, 8 inch tires, and eventually with a TH400. When the ****ers in their shiny Mustangs or Camaros would pull up beside me and give me some at***ude. I would just shift it into direct, load the converter, and launch.
When I was a kid there was a 62 or 63 Pontiac station wagon around here complete with a reworked 421 S.D. dual 4`s and a 4 speed. Had a bunch of unseen lightening done to it, no p.s., no sound deadener, jute backing on the carpet etc. 4:11 position, a bunch of blue printing on the engine. I never got to see it run but the old guys used to say when he dumped the clutch at the stop lights the nose went straight up and the rear bumper almost drug the ground. Said the weight transfer was unbelievable and that it launched like a rocket out of the hole. Said it took a lot of muscle cars back in its day. No one ever remembered what happened to it, it and the owner just disappeared.
My good buddy had a town doctor for a father and when they went to get a new car in 1964 the father picked a 1964 4 door fully sized Plymouth. Then he let my buddy pick the engine (don't know how he managed that he was only 17). Well talk about a sleeper it was a 426 superstock engine in this 4 door. The only way you could tell was the hood ornament had 426 in RED. That was soon changed to the 383 one. That thing would spin the tires anytime you punched it. He still has the record for the longest peel out on our local drag strip road probably could have spun the whole 1/4 mile. We used to go to the "bigger" town as it was well known in our small town and he made enough money street racing ****ers to pay for his college.
This is kinda lame, but my 1st ride, a rusty '63 3/4 ton Chevy longbed. Six, 3 on the tree, 4.56 gears in the big 'ol truck axle. Figured out that with a coupe bags of sand by the tailgate, it would launch! Careful hitting second almost instantly to avoid binding the linkage. 50 feet later it was all over. But leaving a stoplight it could really piss off the street hero crowd. Picture a Trans AM driver's GF laughing because the redneck truck jumped him! Next light, the element of suprise was gone but when they heard the mighty 6 revving up, no one was gonna let me do THAT again! So if they sat & spun, guess who won! Small town kids with no money. Good times.
Back in the 80's riding in the backseat of my friend's dads's Buick GS...."Kids, put your seatbelts on". Guy in a new Camaro talking smack to his girlfriend about how Buicks don't run for ****. Wheels up, bumper down. The Camaro never had a chance.
The concept of a "Sleeper" is Kool,(Like Them) but most are not fast as they claim, just melt the little tires off, everytime I read about one and the picture has a normal stock size small tire, and they tell stories on fast it was/is, IMO it's All TALK as big HP/Torque = tire smoke, as Joe Friday said "Just the facts sir"
355 same motor as the one in the Raven's roadster. That truck was the third body, originally it was in an 11 second OT mini truck, then in my '53 Effie, then the Pusher. The Pusher was only a 12 second car, but I guess that isn't too bad for a 4000 pound brick of a parts hauler. Its actually on an engine stand in my garage right now. We figure that it has somewhere in the neighborhood of 150K on it and its time for a freshening before it finally finds a new home ( hopefully my A). I don't think that the A will count as a sleeper, more of a sheep in wolf's clothing. OK we are off the rails here. So I'll try and bring it back, the other day I was at a cruise and saw a pretty unimposing '63 Catalina. Post car, just stock color, dog dish hub caps. I walked over and looked inside and noticed that it was a radio delete 4 speed car and that was when I noticed the 421 fender badges. Yes some sleepers were factory sleepers. ] A lot depends on what you do underneath to make it hook. My 11 second mini ran on street tires through the mufflers. But you couldn't see that this was under it. Now I personally don't consider 11 seconds to be very fast by todays standards. But it is pretty quick when you consider that it was driven 23 miles one way to work every day. The little truck was not HAMB friendly, but you could hide a 4 link under almost anything if you are willing to do the work. I come from a slightly different school of thought, if you can't build a 10 second motor you build a 10 second ch***is. I am definitely not interested in being a crowd pleaser it is all about getting to the big end as quickly as possible to do that it has to stand up and cut a straight line. Actually most of the factory super cars back in the early '60s (out era) were 13 second cars until they got tweaked.
Agreed, anything running 11`s on the street back in the 80`s, early 90`s was considered fast for the time. My fastest street vehicle was probably my 67 chevy p.U. with a 72 cab. 327, forged crank, rods, pistons, double hump heads, I don't remember either the 350h.p cam or 375 h.p. cam. Turbo 400 shift kitted, and a 4:88 posi. It was a blast stop lights to stop light. Gas mileage ****ed, handling ****ed but at 18 who cared ?
In 1972 I built a 1971 Vega, small tires, lt1,Isky roller,notchbabck, 456 rear, 11.38 on street tires, spinning all the way through, drove it to work almost everyday. Fooled a lot of them till the word got around.
Sound has always been a problem. We used to use Cadillac Reverse flow mufflers, I doubt that you can get them any more. Some guys had good luck with Stock Corvair mufflers too. We had a Plane Jane '68 Mustang that someone had stuffed a Boss 302 into when the wife was pregnant. It had a low rumble and if you knew what you were listening too it gave off the too hot to trot vibe. I used to tell everyone that I thought it needed new plug wires. Again not HAMB friendly. Sorry.
No apology necessary, not to me anyway. You could always lie and tell everyone that its a '64 most of them wouldn't know. LOL Sometimes it take a while to be cool enough for the HAMB. Some of us never will p*** muster, but we don't care.
I should get back to my Chevelle.......but have just been having to much fun playing with these 409s as of late. My hope the 4 door would be a contender for the Yahoo cup and a drag week car.
No 396 it's a 502 with a .010 overbore. Not sure how quick it will make the Chevelle go but it ran a best of a 5.18 @120 in the 1/8th in my rear engine dragster.
Well it out to get you into the 15s anyway. Be hard to not get into trouble on the way down. Maybe I better come after ya.
Sleeper? I'll show ya a sleeper. This 57 Poncho ran a 10.80 at the HAMB drags last year. Who woulda guessed?
BTW, Benno's truck was the original farm truck: My brother in law called me one day to tell me there was an old farm truck sitting on a property that his church bought...was in the way of building a new building. Did I want it? When I found it, the shifter handle was lying on the front seat, spiders had taken it over and it hadn't run in years. He didn't want too much for it. Yeah I wanted it! Had a tired 327/2 bbl/ granny 4 speed. Benno said he wanted it and came and bought it from me. Some days I wish I'd kept it.
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