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Sleeper (car)
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, the performance version of the Mercury Grand Marquis.]]
A sleeper (US English) or Q-car (British English) is a car that has high performance and an unassuming exterior. Sleeper cars are termed such because their exterior looks little or no different from a standard or economy-class car (or in some cases worse due to seeming neglect on the owners part), but internally they are modified to perform at higher performance levels.
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Encyclopedia
, the performance version of the Mercury Grand Marquis.]]
A sleeper (US English) or Q-car (British English) is a car that has high performance and an unassuming exterior. Sleeper cars are termed such because their exterior looks little or no different from a standard or economy-class car (or in some cases worse due to seeming neglect on the owners part), but internally they are modified to perform at higher performance levels. The American term possibly comes from how an aggressive animal can seem gentle or perhaps friendly until awoken, while the British term derives from the Q-ships used by the Royal Navy.
The earliest known reference to the term 'Q-car' is in the February 1963 edition of Motor Sport magazine (published in the UK since 1924). The editor, Billy Boddy, said of the Lotus Cortina ~ "...the modifications carried out by Lotus have turned it in to a 'Q' car par excellence...".
Examples
Some cars are equipped this way at the factory to suit the tastes of those who want performance without attracting attention of the police or car thieves. For instance, many high-performance sedans look hardly any different from the lower-powered models in the range. Cars with obvious external badging, or overt visual elements that give the impression of high performance, are not true sleeper cars.
Some examples of sleepers include:
Beginnings
The Chrysler 300 letter series began in 1955 with the Chrysler C-300. With a 331 in³ (5.4 L) FirePower V8, the engine was the first in a production passenger car to be rated at , and was by a comfortable margin the most powerful in American cars of the time. By 1957, with the 300C, power was up to . These cars were among the first sleepers, marketed as high-end luxury cars from the traditional luxury marque Chrysler, but with a high-end homologation racing engine.
The Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 was a powerful sedan with an intentionally subdued exterior, and a popular choice on the options list was a removal of the '450SEL 6.9' badging from the car's trunklid. Without this badge, the car is visually identical to any other period Mercedes saloon and belies extreme performance. This trend of overtly powerful saloon cars with subtle body modifications is exemplified by the work of Mercedes-AMG and Brabus on unassuming Mercedes saloons. These tuning-shop modifications are also in contrast with actual in-house modification, such as the BMW M saloons.
Owner Modified Cars
Other vehicle owners create sleepers by swapping more powerful engines or other performance modifications like turbochargers, leaving the external appearance exactly the way it came from the factory. Sometimes hints of the car's true nature show if one looks and listens carefully: wider tires, a lower stance, or a different engine tone or exhaust note. Gauges and instrumentation are often kept to a minimum. Some owners go as far as to use weight reduction techniques employed by other performance enthusiasts, such as removing items not fundamental to street racing, such as rear seats, interior trim, spare tire, air conditioner, power steering, or even the heater.
In some countries, customized sleeper vehicles (as with other heavily modified street cars) may be considered illegal for road use because the car's level of performance is higher than intended by the vehicle manufacturer; if the owner has focused only on straight-line performance, the existing braking, steering, tires, and suspension systems may have been rendered inadequate. The emissions control system (such as intake and exhaust restrictions or the EGR system) is often bypassed or removed entirely in customized sleeper vehicles.
Owners sometimes reduce the evidence that their high-performance car is such by removing characteristic badging and trimmings. Sleeper cars often contain stock body work and wheels found on their less-capable brethren to better blend with other traffic and appear unassuming. Some owners simply like having performance without show, but a more predatory use of the sleeper is in street racing, where it is used to fool an opponent into underestimating a car's performance for the purposes of "hustling". Some have even gone so far as to leave their cars' exteriors banged up and rusting and sometimes even causing additional rusting with the use of battery acid.
Sometimes sleepers will be cheaper to insure when compared to an equally fast sports car, but some insurance companies may refuse insurance to owners of heavily modified vehicles. Successfully and intentionally performing this feat may be considered insurance fraud.
Similar Usage
The term "sleeper" is sometimes used in the PC gaming community as well to refer to a powerful computer that has been built into a plain-looking and rather unassuming chassis. Also known as "Sleeper PC".
See also
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