The idea of a “sleeper” car has been around forever and a day, but the identity of such a machine has changed drastically over the years. In the sixties, that description would most often be applied to a bare-bones sedan with blackwall tires and dog dish hubcaps concealing a monster motor under the hood. Often, they were so stripped out that they fooled about as many people as an unmarked cop car (meaning nobody). Today, and over the last twenty years or so, “sleepers” are much harder to identify.
Let’s say you’re idling at a light in a Bullitt-style 1968 Charger R/T, the 440 V8 burbling away under the hood. You barely notice the car that pulls up next to you, since it has to be one of the dorkiest-looking rides you’ve ever seen:
Spacer
“An early 2000s Subaru wagon? Pffft,” you think as you return your focus to readiness for the green light, for you’ll soon need all your Real Man-ness to wrangle that fire-breathing 440. The light changes, you punch it, and the intersection rapidly recedes in the rear-view mirror. But what’s that by your rear bumper, very much not eating your dust? Why it’s The Brave Little Toaster That Could, about to pass your muscle car. What the hell?
Yes, the 6.1-second zero-to-sixty the Charger 440 can pull off is impressive, but it can’t match the 5.3-second sprint that Car and Driver got out of a manual-equipped 2003 Subaru Forester 2.5XT. You and your mighty Mopar just got walked by a nature conservancy employee, and now you can read her COEXIST bumper sticker.
Now that is a sleeper. Could your day get any worse?
Passing the high-end Senior Living Center down the block, a big old 2008 Buick Lacrosse pulls into the right lane as you pass in your Charger. At the stop sign, the grey-haired driver rolls down his window and asks, “That thing got a Hemi?” Before you can answer, the octogenarian matts the pedal and the Buick just disappears. You try to give chase but the two-year-only 2008-2009 Lacrosse Super packed a 5.3-liter V8 good for sixty in 5.7 seconds. Grandpa just shut you down. Sleeper!
Geez, maybe you should try to race that twenty-two-year-old Altima over there, right? It says 3.5SE on the trunk lid – that’s a V6, but how fast could it be? Plenty. With a manual transmission, it can rip off a 5.9-second run to sixty. Our own Stephen Gossin found one a while back, and didn’t believe me when I told him his rental-car-looking Nissan was deceptively quick. When Stephen texted “HOLY SH*T” not long thereafter, I did not have to guess what he was excited about.
Sleepers are everywhere! Do you own one, or have you driven one you’d like to share? Or, maybe you study the specs of cars as religiously as some baseball fanatics catalog RBIs and can handily ID all the unlikely cars poised to ruin a Mustang or Camaro owner’s day. Let us know!
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the ’94-’96 GM B-bodies with LT1 engines (and RWD). Slightly detuned from what contemporary Corvettes got, they look identical to earlier models with less powerful TBI truck engines. Much quicker than they look. Available in Caprice, Roadmaster, Vista Cruiser models, in Sedan or Wagon form. The Roadmaster sedan looks more or less like any other Buick sedan, so it might be the best sleeper of the bunch.
Park Avenue Ultras and some Regals got the supercharged 3800. The visual cues are pretty subtle (I think it’s just the presence of “Buick holes” in the front fenders), and don’t indicate what’s hiding underneath.
Turbocharged Subaru and Volvo wagons also blend in to a crowd. More so, in my opinion, than the Forester mentioned above. Yes, the XT’s hood scoop is a visible difference, but Subaru also put fake hood scoops on some models. So they don’t stand out *that* much.
First gen Mazdaspeed3. No crazy hood scoops (all ducting was routed under the hood assy), the wheels were relatively standard looking. The car looked like a well equipped 3 hatch. My goodness, though. Even stock, these things were good for a C&D-tested 5.3 seconds to 60.
Don’t forget it’s rarer big brother, the Mazdaspeed6. AWD, manual, well-appointed and same engine as the speed3.
There are like six left however. Rust got many, ricers got the rest. I test drove one and was all excited to get it, but thhe dealer lied about how many miles it had. Shame.
The 6 wagons drove so very nicely and disappeared so soon.
I always dreamed of finding a rusted out Speed6 and a 6 wagon with a bad drivetrain but good body and stuffing the engine/trans into the wagon. Make my own MazdaSpeed6 wagon.
Sadly, there are so few of either, I can’t imagine actually finding enough rust-free parts to get it done, much less make it move under it’s own power.
I used to have a 2002 WRX, which my wife and I nicknamed “the Q”, as in Q-ship.
The WRX nameplate has been a known entity for a looong time. Hard for me to remember a time when people didn’t know about them…but, oh, 20+ years may be about right.
I ordered a bugeye WRX wagon just as they were hitting US shores for the first time. Mine was a 2002 model, built in the fall of ’01.
For six months or a year after mine was delivered, I often got comments and looky-loos when I was out and about in it. People seemed to think it was some kind of plutonium-powered rocket car, not a mildly performance-oriented turbo hatchback.
I autocrossed mine for a couple of seasons, but thanks to the high COG and lots of body roll, I couldn’t really get enough camber up front to make it work with R-compound tires within the SCCA stock class rules. Plus, AWD isn’t as helpful for autocross. I could get the back to move around, but only with toe adjustments in the rear that made it too lively (or terrifying) for winter driving. It was definitely more in its element on snow/wet/gravel than pavement.
Fun car, though. I put 184k miles on mine with the original clutch, then sold it to my nephew. He loved it too, and was heartbroken when it was unfortunately destroyed when somebody rear-ended it in traffic.
The turbocharged Cobalt SS was a fascinating sleeper, and I have no love for GM. Unlike a lot of sleepers, it actually handled well and wasn’t just a power bump. Cobalts were so ubiquitous, and the SS didn’t have a crazy body kit, so they really did blend into any environment.
Mercedes-Benz W212 2011-2016 E550 sedan (or W207 E550 coupe).
Looked like Mom’s E-Class because you didn’t get the boy-racer AMG – but the 400+hp twin-turbo V8 made it sound and drive like your uncle’s old Gran Torino (with better handling)
Studebaker introduced the Lark as a low priced economy car, but then turned into a drag racing king when they dropped their supercharged R2 V-8 engine in it.
Related: the Studillac, a Starliner with a Cadillac V8 that appears in a couple James Bond novels.
It’s a coin toss for me between the Plymouth Neon ACR, a literal race car disguised as a penalty box, or the 1991-94 Sentra SE-R, both known for being quick and sublime handling.
Funny how you don’t see old Neons on the road anymore.
Or Plymouths in general. They all turned into either dust or washing machines during C4C.
TIL there was a Lacrosse with a V8.
Along with the Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, Impala, possibly others. GM had some fun in that era and stuffed the 5.3 into everything they could.
Toyota XA50 RAV4 Prime. Looks like a regular mass-market CUV. But it has 302HP and does 0-60 in 5.4 seconds (offi.
Sure there are tons of BEVs that are faster. But as far as hybrids, CUVs and ICE vehicles go, it’s quite fast.
Tellin y’all, the Devil’s Altima is coming
Volvo S60/V60 T8 – nothing to differentiate it from the non-PHEVs except badges and a charging door, could surprise a Mustang GT while getting you to the Thursday deliverables update call on time.
1993 Ford Escort LX-E. It was a 4 door sedan with the engine from the Escort GT. Pretty fast for the era. It was actually faster than some muscle cars of the time.
I’ve seen a few Forester XTs in rally blue and gold wheels, lowered a touch – I’d definitely have one of those.
What I’d really love is a Volvo 850 T5-R with a manual swap in yellow, though the color would get attention.
I think my favorite was the 87 Regal with the Grand National engine along with full chrome trim and a vinyl Landau top. Only the power bulge on the hood gave it away. I only saw one in real life, and didn’t believe what I was seeing. I looked it up years later, and no, it was not a Milwaukee’s Best Light/Imo’s Pizza/hangover-fueled fever dream. It was real, man.
I recall seeing a beige example (might not have been an 87 though) that the owner had hopped up quite a bit. Much more amusing than the GN.
Maybe not the absolute fastest but the Avalons with 3.5L. Grandpa could lay down 0 to 60 runs briskly and comfortably.
Third Gen cars were 3.5L 2GR-FE exclusive, 2005-2012. Fourth and Fifth Gen cars had a bunch of engine options. The Third Gen is a sweet spot for completely ignorable looks, plenty of comfort for murdering highway miles, and boring reliability, combined with being near fully depreciated at this point.
My favorite sleeper is my Saab 900 SPG. I’m six feet tall and two of me on a full-size mattress can sleep in it with the hatch closed. And a Toyota RAV4 towers over it, so no one* has any idea how big it is inside until I open the hatch and fold the back seat down.
*except Saab people
Gotta be a wagon the original sleeper from the factory
Or the Aztek, with the available tent.
Favorite? Probably the early 90s Dodge Spirit R/T. They were so cool.
But more recently, I’ll say the final gen Lincoln MKZ. A Lincoln-unique 3.0 twin turbo V6, AWD, and the torque vectoring system from the Focus RS made for a surprisingly potent Lincoln sedan.
I really want to say my current car, the 2023 300C “Scat Pack in a Suit”. Even I have a hard time spotting one versus any base model V6 with the sport package. The nuances are small, and the car is quite a bit different from the Charger where even the V6 is assumed to be fast.
That said, I think the now ~10 year old Chevy SS is even better. Most people assume it’s a Chevy Malibu because Chevy put no effort into styling the car. It’s still one of my bigger regrets that we didn’t buy one of those when we bought my wifes Challenger R/T. They simply weren’t even trying to sell them though, nobody was willing to work on the price, whereas the Challenger could be had for a song.
I’ve been a fan of the original Hyundai Genesis as sleepers after I witnessed what they are capable of when they were new. Very hard to catch. Surprising performance for something so unassuming. Hybrids in general but specifically the early V6 Toyota suv hybrids they might be the first performance hybrids they just look like any other cuv on the road but are quick and just keep going.
Chevy Spark EV. A tiny front wheel drive hatch built off their cheapest car with over 300ft/lbs of instant torque.
I feel like straight line acceleration is utterly pointless these days. Any halfway decent EV can do 5-60 faster than pretty much all M or AMG cars.
Electromagnetism works at the speed of light. Combustion engines don’t.
The Chevy Bolt, that is the pure definition of sleeper. People think is a tiny Aveo and trucks tend to drive like ass behind me. Floor it and goodbye lifted truck, see ya at 92mph speed limit.
Ford Flex with the Ecoboost. Didn’t that have over 350hp??
Motorhome. Wait, you might be talking about a different kind of sleeper…
https://www.theautopian.com/this-700-hp-camper-is-the-worlds-fastest-class-a-motorhome-and-you-can-buy-it/
not necessarily
Are you allowed to gift yourself COTD? I feel like this has earned COTD.
Everybody’s gangster until Ms Streeter rolls up in a 4-6-2 Pacific class with a quintet of Pullmans in tow.
Came here for a comment like this. I saw the title and thought of my Dodge T&C R/T (for the towing pkg.). I could put a folding chaise lounge in the back when the 2nd and 3rd rows were folded flat. Heavy-duty, of course, to accommodate my shamefully-high weight. That left room for an ice chest that doubled as a nightstand, and a little aisle alongside for access. An extension cord could fit through a slightly-open window to charge the devices. And body heat was enough to be comfy most nights in central California.
I’ve replaced that van with a Kia Telluride for better towing, with most of the cargo space. But it’s not quite long enough to fit a lounge I can stretch out on. Too bad. [sad trombone]
I had an ’06 GTO that I removed the emblems and wing from. Everybody thought it was a Lumina