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You have to love a "Sleeper".


Zathrus~SPARTA~
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While I am not condoning high speed on public roads... I have always admired most the cars that we referred to as "Sleepers".

 

A Sleeper looks like a car that Mom, Dad, Grandmother, etc. would probably drive somewhere... they look like anything but a super car...yet within their heart beats the pulse of a racing engine, and the suspension is set up to handle it.

 

I have to say... this Porsche 911 owner got the surprise of his life..... ha ha!!

 

 

I owned one "sleeper" in my lifetime so far. It was a 1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale 4 dr. sedan. This looked like a "Grandmother or Grandfather's car". But this Delta 88 had been ordered from the factory with a "special towing package" they offered that year.

 

This included an Oldsmobilte "Rocket 455 cu. in. engine" which meant it was fitted with an oversized 4 barrel carb. This was an engine used in both the Olds 442, Olds Toranado, Buick Riveria coup and the Buick GS.

It had a the same HD turbo 400 transmission and a limited slip Dana rear end that GM used in most of their muscle cars.

It had a heavy duty high performance suspension that made this giant led sled handle fairly well for a big car.

 

This was essentially the engine/trans/gear package used by both Oldsmobile and Buick in an auto shift muscle car.

 

The result was I had a lot of fun driving this thing around... and having some guy in a Pontiac Trans am or Chevelle, Camaro, etc. pull up next to me at a stop light and start reving their engine... I enjoyed letting them eat tire smoke as that massive vehicle rocketed down the road....much faster than any of them.

 

If you left my Olds 88 floored... it would stay in 2nd gear to 107mph and it got there very quickly for cars of the day... then hit third hard snapping you back in the seat.

I have no idea what the car topped out at... the speedometer only went to 130mph... and it was usually still accelerating well when it hit that 130mph... I never took it much beyond that.

I know a 1970 SS Monte Carlo with the same trans. and rear hooked up to a 454 cu. in. HO engine topped out at around 175mph... which is insane.

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
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true... that is possible.

But I have seen and done that in real life.

 

Also, when he winds that 911 out through the gears initially... the car does not fade behind him... it does stay right on his ass.

So even if it is staged... it is a true sleeper to do that.

 

Sleeper's are just.... fine automobiles.

They are usually filled with the comforts you would expect for old folks in a car... yet, contain the heart of a high performance vehicle.

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
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S and RS Audi's are not sleeper cars, they tend to have silver or grey mirrors and later models (later than this anyway) have quad exhaust for S and twin oval exhaust for RS. Not to mention the wheels and noise, those look like 20" with very low profile tyres. Audi used to have an RS 6 with a v10 twin turbo (and it was a station wagon), it was faster in a straight line than an R8. Speaking of noise the camera guy heard it popping he new it wasnt a 2 litre diesel (one of the most popular engine choices in Germany and France although newer 1600s are overtaking them).

 

Also this is not where Porsches shine and not all are that powerful. Unless this is a turbo it would struggle to keep up with an RS4 except on a track. There Audi's propensity to understeer will have Porsches flying past them.

 

Finally when the Audi overtook on the inside and in the breakdown lane I think the Porsche driver decided it wasnt worth pushing it and settled for keeping up.

 

Your car on the other hand certainly sounds like a sleeper to me

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Sounds like the Audi's were normally sold with a very powerful engine.... so yeah they technically would not qualify as sleepers.

 

A true sleeper is normally sold as a fairly mundane daily driver... but has either been modified, or the manufacturer had a "special package" for the model that was unusual and not normally purchased.

In the case of of my 1972 Delta 88 Royale... this was a very mundane daily driver... I called them "lead sleds" at the time. Big, comfortable and slow.....

But it had been ordered with the drive train they put in their muscle cars... so yeah it was a car that would surprise people.

 

fd8d632f4b3d138be2b81067a10ded52.jpg

the above is a 1971 but they looked identical in 1972. Nobody expected this ^^^^^

 

To spank them if they pulled up next to it in one of these (it spanked all of these cars below)

39029374001_original.jpg?v=1 120215_15b.jpg

1867921-1979-pontiac-firebird-trans-am-t

But that Oldsmobile would not just beat these cars... it would spank them very hard.... they had emissions systems on their engines the 1972 did not... and it was a pure muscle car drive train.

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Here's a decent one from Autotrader, good mileage for the age.

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201606104795457?atmobcid=soc3

 

 

 

Then there's a 'tweaked' one, over 500hp.

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201710080082429?atmobcid=soc3

Edited by Watchman~SPARTA~
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An yes Zeno, that is exactly what my 1972 looked like, same paint color, same top color. (except mine didn't have mismatched paint repairs and I waxed it periodically)

IF you knew these cars well you could tell when they had the special towing package mine had. The ones armed with the 455 Rocket, and the rest of their muscle car drive train curb height was about 1/2 inch higher with that package.

The suspension was set up to sustain stability under high towing loads or high speed... so it was a little stiffer

But it was hard to spot that difference so... yeah a lot of Comaro's, Trans Ams, Corvette's, etc. pulled up next to me... laughed at the led sled... then ate tire smoke. :) it was fun.....

 

In most cases, although I was a bigger heavier car, I had more cubic inches with no smog controls on it... they typically had something like 350's, 400's and some with 454's but all had lots of early archaic smog controls that tended to rob the engine of a significant percentage of it's max. hp capabilities...

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
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