Sleepers

Sleepers are a concept that are pretty well known to street racers. The idea of a sleeper is a car that doesn't fast, but suprises everyone when it pulls off the line. Sleepers can be something bought or built, it doesnt matter. A common bought sleeper would be a Volvo or a VW. These companys make a lot of their consumer cars twin or single turbo which usually gives them around 250-350 horsepower. Thats not enough to go out and start challenging hardcore street racers or anything, but enough to suprise the average driver. Another example of a sleeper would be one that you build. For projects like this, a lot of drivers pick cars like Honda Civics. Civics are built on extremly light frames and if you drop in a si motor (the motor from the civic-si) and turbo it, you have a seriuos race car on your hands. I've seen civics that can produce 450 horsepower which is a monster amount for such a tiny car. Serious builders can easily tune these machines to run the quarter mile in the 11 second area, and it's not all the expensive to do. Compared to the cars it could beat, turboing a Civic is extremely cheap. The idea of a sleeper is one that has fascinated street racers for a long time and it shows that being loud and flashy isn't always everything. The next time you pull up on a car that looks like its about ready to fall apart, be prepared for it to shock you with some serious speed.