I love sleepers. Had an acquaintance with a fellow who was several years older than me, and dated the older sister of the gal I was dating. He had a 4 door Rambler that every panel was painted a different color. He even moved the 'Rambler' letters around, loosing the 'R' and taking the center leg out of the 'm' and turning it upside down so that it said 'mumbler'. It had a warmed up 327 that would step on out and make whom ever he left at the light shaking their head in disbelief after they got done laughing. It was fun times... Larry
I've often found myself wondering if there's any forums out there that pertain to the 60's and early 70's type crowd that's still focused on period/traditional stuff for that era. You guys know of any?
I am a huge fan of sleepers... Maybe that is where the whole R**Rod idea came from. My buddy thought he was hot stuff with this thunderbird. He was picking on an old guy in a Mercedes wagon. Old guy rolls down the window and say "Hey Chuckie wanna run?" My buddy laughs, old guys says "I'll give you a whole block lead". My buddy should have taken it as a hint. He got his **** Whipped before p***ing second block. I have a part for sale, I am selling it to the first person with cash. No it is not for sell and no I won't sale it!!
Simple but effective one my good buddy had awhile back, a '51 Buick two door, ugly gray, with a 401 Nailhead with 2x4,s....low low rear gears...quiet mufflers, surprised a lot of folks,, best were fart-pipe rice-burners
Makes too much noise to be a sleeper but here goes. 1961 Sunbeam Alpine. 427 BBC solid lifter cam, Doug Nash 5 speed with narrowed 8 3/4. This car is so much fun to drive! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've told this story here before. 1968, friend Terry has his Dad's "tow rig" for the night; a 1953 Ford short box pickup truck, with a canopy on the bed, and with a full on 394 Olds/B & M Hydro Stick. I don't know what rearend gears it had, but it was fast. We, three of us, pull up alongside a brand new 1968 Plymouth Road Runner at a red traffic light, and get into a rev-it-up match with the guy in the Road Runner. Light changes to green, both are off, and the truck just buries the Road Runner. Guy in the Plymouth pulls off before the next light; guess he did't want to lose again. Friends Dad was a HUDSON drag racer, and only used the truck to tow the race car. I'd say that truck was a sleeper. The funny thing was, Terry had to keep adding brake fluid to the master cylinder; it was losing fluid somewhere!!! I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Got a couple more back in the day stories. High school buddy had a roached out 57 Ford 4 door, 223 six with a slushbox. His uncle was the local head wrench for the Hi-Way patrol. He came up with a wore out 427 and C6 out of a wrecked cop cat. We took a one day Friday vacation from school, pulled the six and trans, made angle iron motor mounts with his dads buzz box welder, rigged up a crossmember and driveshaft and had it at the local hotshoe hangout Sat. night. Had lots of fun blowing the doors off dang near everything on the street (between breaking stuff and patching it up again) befor the word got around. Another one from 1968. There was a small two pump gas station in this little burg I lived close to. a older guy(remember when 30 seemed old?) had a 65 plain jane 2 door Chevelle he had ordered new. with the highest horse"Corvette" 327 that he tweeked a little more . Small hubcaps, 283 fender emblems, no radio,no carpet , born and bred sleeper! He told every body it was just a good running 283. That thing cleaned more big block cars of all kinds within a 50 mile radious than you could shake a stick at. I visited my old stompin grounds a couple years ago and looked that dude up(he would have been 77 then), still lived in the same house. We visited and caught up and had a few beers. I brought up the Chevelle and asked what ever happened to it. He said he "grew up' and traded it in on a SS454 Monte Carlo when they came out. I said what a shame, that ****er was FAST! He said well , it didn't end there, in 1998 his wife asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he told her just for a joke that he would like to have his 65 Chevelle back. His wife somehow tracked it down (she retired from the local DMV office) and found the owner as it was still registered. got ahold of the owner and talked him into selling it. He opened the garage door and there it was just like the last time i had seen it! He said jump in, you drive, my bad knee don't do well with that stiff clutch. What a rush! He said watch the obits for my name, my kids don't care **** about it, I will tell the old woman to give you first chance at it when I kick off. I don't wish anything bad for him but the old fart can't live forever. The hell of it is I am damn near 66 now and not in that great of health, I called him a couple months ago and his wife said she would have him call me back, he was at the gym working out!
Dunegoon - You are a sick man. Very, very sick. I mean that in the best way, Maxwell Smart's Tiger wouldn't stand a chance! What does it weigh? Buckeye - Was the Chevelle a 300 series? Pretty sure Malibu's all had carpet. Love to see a photo.
I have had and built several sleepers. I came home from overseas in the army and stuffed my ZLX 427 in a 68 rusty Biscayne with a turbo 400. Cleaned the streets for the month that I was on leave. Made enough to pay cash for a 75 Camaro. Built a 65 Malibu 4 door wagon with a 406 small block complete with baby seats in the back. Built this little Morris Minor with a 400 hp 5.0 Ford. It was my daily for 2 years. New owner has it in the 10's on nitrous.
Oh, I gotta call ******** on the Pontiac wagon wheelstander. A guy in Tn. had a similar car with the aluminum front end . Fully prepped 421 4 speed super stock drag only car with no heater no radio rubber floor mats. Moroso trick springs. It would lift maybe 4 or 5 inches on a prepped track with 9 inch slicks and was the SS/U national record holder when it didn't break the rear end.
Kid I went to highschool with had a nice '58 Amb***ador, he drove it around for a while stock with gl*** packs, while we were busy building a hot 327 4 speed. He didn't drive it for about a week and told everyone he was putting a 4 speed in it. He didn't tell everyone that he was putting an SBC and 4e speed in it. Fooled a bunch of people for a day or two, then he had to start going out of town to street race it.
There were quite a few sleepers where I grew up. One in particular was a light green 50 chevy coupe. Looked like an old lady;s car unless you noticed the Atlas bucrons. Had a 58 Olds with a hydro and tripower-was damn fast and he made alot of money with it. In the early 70's I had a friend who had a trashy looking 55 Chevy 4 dr. It had a built 454 with a turbo 400 and steep gears. Had a narrowed rear but with 55 full caps screwed on to the rims. Very few cars could touch it in the quarter-shamed alot of the muscle cars of the time.
That Sunbeam is insane! I like it! When I was growing up, grandpa's neighbor had one of those old-timey MG lookin' kit car things. Only his had a BBC and a real frame under it. It was fun but scary when I was 10.
Thanks guys. The Sunbeam is heavier than you wound think. It has a full square tube frame all new steel firewall and floors. The 427 has steel heads which adds to the weight. It weighs 2800 pounds without a driver. The crazy thing about this car is that I first saw it at a rod run in Ark City Kansas when I was 19 years old. I'm 52 now. Back then it had a tunnel ram sticking out of the hood. The car was built in the late '70's. In the mid '90's I tracked the car down and got ahold of the owners wife. She made it clear that the car would NEVER be for sale. Fast forward to 2016. While looking through Craigslist adds I saw the car for sale bbc, Doug Nash and true wire wheels just like back in the day. It had been painted but it was the same car. I didn't have the money at the time so I had to p*** on the car that I wanted for over 30 years. As luck would have it,6 months later I get a call and the new owner wanted to sell it! AND I HAD THE CASH!!! Once I finally got to see the car again it wasn't as nice of a car it seemed to be when I was 19 but I had to have it! I have slowly been fixing things and now it is soooo much fun to drive. Never give up on your dreams! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
^^^^^Instead of a Sunbeam Tiger, you've built a Sunbeam Saber Tooth Tiger^^^^^! Pretty cool little car. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Yea it's a 300 series, looks like it should be a 230 six with a three on the tree. but it sure as hell ain't!!
VS Hello, When I saw this pinkish color 40 Ford Sedan Delivery cruise by our favorite, drive in restaurant back row, I knew I had to have it. It was a mild looking sedan delivery, no mags, no loud exhaust, just black wheels on blackwall tires, and center hubcaps. It was just a couple of guys cruising around trying to be cool. But, when they left the driveway and accelerated down the street, that got me jumping. Whaaaat? Since it was a new build, no one knew what was in that sedan delivery. Just two guys cruising around in a stock looking vehicle. Later on, I met the owner. We knew each other from Junior HS and lived on the Westside of Long Beach. Having known each other, the usual banter went on for a while. He knew of my 58 Impala 348/280 HP car, as he had seen it cruising, racing on the Cherry Ave. drags, late Friday nights. My 58 Impala looked stock and was a sleeper. From the outside, this 40 sedan delivery looked stock, and with that huge 348 motor, was a true sleeper. So, he was the first to park, after getting a prime “back row” parking spot, jump out, and raise the hood. Who knew what was making that noise. It was just a ways down from my 58 Impala in the same back row. Of course, everyone went over to look at this cool 40 sedan delivery. In the night time lights, it had a Racer Orange paint job, black rims, powerful sounding motor and had a cool cruiser look to it. No, we never raced each other, 348 vs 348… We realized that we were both intimidating to each other. Jnaki Of course, I fell in love with the car. Then a few weeks later I heard of some grumblings about the 40 sedan delivery being for sale. What? It was just built… So, I approached the owner and asked. He wanted to build a pure drag race car and needed the money to get started. The cost of the 348 sedan delivery was too high for my pocket book. (In reality, the prime rumor was that the owner had painted the 40 sedan delivery himself, in his driveway. To us, it looked really good. To him, it looked awful. Somehow, he got a color mix up and added a little too much of the one color tint in the mix. Racer Orange turned out Salmon Pink in the daylight. He got tired of everyone asking if the sedan delivery was pink. So, it was for sale.) A month later, I offered to buy the 40 Sedan Delivery, he said he would sell it to me, but the price was the same. One final offer came my way: Buy the Sedan Delivery without the big 348 motor in it for less money. He would install a stock Flathead motor and get it running right. I bought my first real hot rod with my own money… Not only was it a sleeper, it was one vehicle that "fell asleep" on the street going up various steep grades of hills and roads. The power was lacking, but like a Timex..."It takes a licking, but, it just kept ticking..." 1000s of miles of fun driving to various places all over So Cal was the mode of the day. When I heard this song back in those days, it always reminded me of this 40 Sedan Delivery... "Let's go surfing now Everybody's learning how Come on and safari with me Come on and safari with me..." For racing: sleepers: the stock looking 58 Impala 348/280+HP For cruising: the stock 40 Ford Sedan Delivery...just because...
OK, one legitimate "sleeper" story. My high school best friend had an older brother who drove back from San Diego after his navy hitch. This guy had been a biker prior to service, and immediately resumed his civilian talents. His car was a ****-ugly 59 Pontiac Catalina two door sedan - plain jane, poverty hubcaps, radio/heater/power steering, brakes delete, and lovely plain rubber floor mats highlighting an ugly cheap vinyl interior. Oh yeah, three speed on the column, and factory finished in puke green in and out, with a maroon left front fender. One day I said, "Hey Denny, why don't you sell it to me." He told me he won the car, the former owner's wife, and their house in a drunken poker game - had no real use for the car, the girl was ugly, and the house was a dump, so sure, he'd sell it. $400 later I owned it. I took it to the gas station I worked at to show it off, and when asked, boasted it had a 389 four barrel. I really had no idea, hadn't even opened the hood. (I was 17, need I say more?) One of the twelve guys looking at it popped the hood and said, "Kid, you're in for a big surprise." A 421 three deuce motor, complete with the soup can individual air cleaners. My boss got in, lined it up on the street, and made the *** end disappear in tire smoke for a block. So I was the proud owner of the ugliest-but-fastest 59 Pontiac in ten zip codes. My new nickname became "The Reverend" because everyone said only a minister would drive something so plain. I asked Denny if he new any of the history of the car, and he said, "Yeah, it's got a V8 in it." Really???? We ran the numbers and learned it came as-is, but originally had a 389 two barrel. I innocently lured every car I could into stoplight racing, and dusted almost every opponent until one night while racing a brand new 67 GTO, I wound it so tight in second gear the valves floated, and the engine quit, but refired when the RPMs dropped. It never ran the same after that, so I sold it to a friend who couldn't resist ugly, either. By the way, I never heard what happened to the guy's wife .....
I have a couple with the sleeper look but stock motors but wanted to build a 64 or 65 Skylark or F85 with built but quiet 455.
That Tempest is one of my favorite builds if not my favorite, a 63 Is definitely the car I want more than any other. It is super sneaky! It has twin turbos tucked up in front of the rear axle, feeding the big block through firewall into a modified 326 air filter ***embly, is lap top tuned, runs ridiculous quarter times for quite a few years ago, and ran over 200mph(218 I think) land speed racing. I'm not current with its specs so it could be faster now. I wanted to basically copy this car and was going to go by a survivor of the same color body and factory half 389 drive train intact on the east coast. My wife said no to the trips expenses at the time and it got away. Shortly after I spent the bulk of the money on my 32 PU project and went the way of traditional hot rods, the rest is history. I still vow to get one and do it up fairly sleeper or period super stock'ish. I love the white roof red body's contrast. I couldn't stop thinking about it again recently after the Meltdown Drags. This is the one I dream of most having parked in the garage as I get older and slow down. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
There was "once upon a time", and we all have them........ Mine was in the early 80's...... Ya know, cruising the main drag, hopefully had enough to cover things, and those from out of town. it was a lil relaxed then, and speeds/et's weren't as crazy as today. Forward- sitting at a light on a Saturday night...... Low and behold, in the lane next to me= Sunbeam. Of course my co-pilot says "kill em' ". Well, being a lot younger, and at least kinda knowing somethings, I just knodded at the exhaust roar, even though the driver gave me the look. I still had the 125 plate to help, but I bowed down....... The pics above just prove that you never know..... Something told me not to mess with that hornet's nest..... Kinda glad I didn't........ I'll have to take some pics of pics to contribute to the thread..... I always got blood from a rock, and always did very well considering what I had, and the giants I slayed................
My SECOND time going to the drags, was at the Wednesday night Grudge Drags, at what was then called Seattle International Raceways (originally was Kent-Pacific Raceways, then SIR, and now Pacific Raceways again). Anyway, LOTS of different cars there, including an ugly, beat up, black primered, late 30's/early 40's Chevrolet pickup truck. Black steel wheels, huge slicks, a shovel in one front bed-holes, and a broom in the other. White shoe polish writing on both doors, "The Janitor". Had a 427, TH400, Olds/Pont rear end, and it was dangerously fast. A few years ago, at Pacific Raceways, were two guys with a plain Jane, 53 Chevrolet, 4 door sedan. They did't keep the hood up for very long when they DID open it, but it had an Olds 455/TH400, and late model 8.5" 10 bolt rear end. Another sleeper car, that looks pretty benign, until it walks away from you. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
In high school my old boss had a 65 ford sedan, old state police car, had a 390 with a 3 speed standard column shift. looked like a nothing car but shocked a lot of muscle cars, especially when his wife was driving it.
Learned the hard way about sleepers back in '74. I was driving my buddies '69 Olds 4-4-2 and we went into town looking for a race. After a couple of successful races a guy came along side us in a rusty, crusty '63 Dodge Dart station wagon. Looked like Shakey Jake had cut out the rear wheelwells so the rusty Cragar wheels and tires would fit, the car was primer red, dirt all over it. He motioned for us to run, we laughed and went for it and I got my *** HANDED to me. Found out later the car was purpose built for running against the sailors and their muscle cars, it had a hot 340, four speed and 8-3/4 rear end. I have had a great appreciation for them since, even set up one my old O/T cars that surprised quite a few people. Its funny what happens when you yank a 2 bbl 302 and C4 and drop in a 400 horse 429 and C6 and don't tell anyone.
Now this thing is way OT,but maybe not too bad considering the sweet little TIGER.65 Bug with a 911 Porsche Turbo,and EMPI Rallye Pac suspension kit.Yep a pretty nice sleeper.And loads of fun. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
The Jalopy Journal
