^^^Reminds me of a story from my youth, pre-DL. Kid a little older than me had his license and a '55 Chevy that wasn't much, 283 that made noise & a 3 on the floor. But as far as he was concerned, it was bad***, & we all humored him.. Finally one night, he had his chance. Caught a light and beside him rolls up (what he thought was) a VW Karman Ghia. All hell breaks loose as the '55 storms away on green! Hit second, still no sign of that pesky Ghia. Ready to hit high, & a red streak blows by.....barely make the letters out across the back, P-O-R-S-C-H-E......
One of the coolest sleepers that I had the pleasure of being spanked by was a 54 customline 2 door. I had a 406 Galaxie and was going west on US 2 in the U.P. of Michigan and this plain little ford pulled up beside me and we took off and he ran away and hid. About 40 miles up the road I see him at a gas station so I pull in and ask him what's under the hood. He pops the hood and he has a 427 - 425 FE with a toploader. He told me somebody had wrecked the Ford it came in he bought the whole drivetrain and stuffed it into his little Ford coupe. We had a good laugh and he fired it up and headed down the road.
Back in the late 80' s my buddy had a 69 Thunderbird with a 429, it was faded blue had white walls and hub cabs. We shut down a lot of 80's muscle cars with that one. Other friend had a red 65 GS, no one knew what that was. One day we are sitting at a light when this IROC rolls up next to us revs his engine and said nice car too bad it's your grandmothers. Not skipping a beat my buddy says nice car too bad it's slow. With this we light turns green and with 445 ft lbs of torque on tap we left that guy like he was going backwards. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
Never got into the so called 4 door / **** box sleeper types . Always wanted the sharp looking hardtop/convertible type . But My first car back in 1971 was a low mileage 67 Merc Montclair fastback [think 67 full sixe Ford on chrome trim overload. ] When your 16 you get what your Dad would sign for. A nice car ,dark green , black top and interior. Add frosted mags, big and little tires, dual pipes and gl*** packs with a tach on the dash and a skinny *** 16 year old behind the wheel and you get a nice cruiser. But what you did not see was the camed up 428, B&M shift kitted c6 and 3.90 geared posi 9'. Put a lot of so called muscle cars on the trailer with that one! And most of my cars , aside from a few pro street cars in the early 90's have always been built like that . Sharp looking cruiser on the outside, with a killer drive train. Larry
Your story reminds me of my all-too-short teen years. My father was a loyal Mercury guy, and every two years traded for the current model year. One fine Saturday morning, he told me we were going to the Merc dealer (who was a close friend of his) to trade his 66 loaded Parkland four door hardtop off on a new 68. We walked the line of new Mercs, and he soon found a loaded turquoise four door Parkland hardtop. I popped the hood, and saw the hipo 390 four barrel, and thought, "Oh well." While he and the dealer were my $$$, I walked a bit farther down the line, and there IT was. A Parkland two door hardtop, Grecian gold, vinyl top, all white interior with buckets and console automatic. Under the hood rested a 428, and I was in love. I double-timed it back to where my father was, and told him he HAD to see this car before he did the deal. The three of us walked over to it, and my father asked if I liked it. All I could do was nod my head. The dealer said a guy ordered it, and when it came in, his wife didn't like it. Twenty minutes later, we were driving home in the 428 Parklane, which became my stealth muscle car eater. It was stupid-fast, and about a year latef, my father said he wasn't pleased that it seemed to eat rear tires. Did he know about my secret street dragging habit? Uh huh, but I actually think it pleased him to know I "exercised" it on a regular basis. Someday, I'm going to build an exact clone, and be 18 again. I do have a healthy 428/360 fresh cooker and built C6 in a special corner of my garage. Hmmmmmmm.
still the best is what you don't suspect. like a stock looking '55 volvo 2 door sedan with an all out 413 wedge or early 426 hemi and 4 speed.
A nice car can be a sleeper as well, think mild custom '64 Impala Sport Coupe with a high winding 396 instead of the original 327. What a lot of guys forget or just never knew was that the original customs were not low and slow, today low and slow is the norm. Take an old custom and stuff a balls to the walls mill in it and you got a sleeper that you can be proud to cruise. I personally have not built many more doors for myself, just cars that should not run like they did. For me it has always been about the running gear and not the body, so for the most part undesirable cheap bodies have been my norm.
Back in high school a friend of mines dad put a 283, three speed in their 53 Willys stock bodied Aero Coupe. That was a Sleeper.
LOL those aero coupes became g***er fodder after a while. wish I had one. I'll bet it was a lot of fun with the small block.
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