Some "Sleepers" you may not have thought of.....

Everyone loves a sleeper. For those of you that live in a cave-a "Sleeper" is a car that looks like your grandmother drives it, or looks like a beater, yet is unbelievably fast-enough to smoke musclecars and sports cars in a drag race. Sleepers typically have quiet exhaust and stock wheels and look completely unassuming, while being lethally quick. A couple examples- a buddy of mine in high school had a '72 AMC Gremlin. It was a drab brown color, with dog-dish hubcaps. Him and his dad swapped the 304 V8 for a 401 out of a wrecked Matador Police car. He blew the doors off many a supposedly "Bad' Camaro, Mustang, Road Runner, etc.  In my early 20's I had a Black '77 "Smokey and the Bandit" Trans-Am. After I wrecked it, my cousin who owned a used car lot and a junkyard gave me an engineless '71 Pontiac Ventura. ( Pontiac's version of the Nova ) It was a strippy with no power steering, no power brakes, nothing. Being a '71 model, it had the small, light bumpers-not the heavy 5-mph anchors used on 1973 and later models. It weighed about 3,000 lbs-800 lbs lighter than the T/A. We took the 400 V8 and TH350 out of the T/A and swapped it into the Ventura. What a rocket-when it got traction. This car would literally smoke the tires as long as you wanted to stay on the throttle. It looked like grandma's Nova-until you hit the loud pedal.  Anyhow here's a list of cars that make great sleepers for low bucks. # 1. 1975-79 Ford Granada / Mercury Monarch. 302 V8 versions are plentiful, but the real diamonds have 351Ws. Some of these will have 9 inch rear ends with rear disc brakes. In stock trim they have 2bbl carburatin and salt-flats gearing, but with very little investment they can really run. # 2. 1983-88 Ford Thunderbird / Mercury Cougar. Forget the V6 versions, theirs enough 302 versions out there to go around. This is a Fox chassis-so just about anything that fits a '79-93 Mustang will fit these cars. # 3. 1970-83 Datsun 240 / 260 / 280Z / ZX. I know it's an import-but Z motorsports sells the kit- and me and my dad built one-a small-block Chevy turns these cars into an absolute rocket. A 350 Chevy only weighs about 80 lbs more than the Nissan Six, so handling isn't adversely affected, and the independent rear suspension hooks surprisingly well. Dynamite. # 4. 1979-85 Mazda RX-7. These were cool sports cars when they came out. There's a company on the internet selling kits to put a Small-block Ford V8 into these cars. I saw a feature in a magazine the guy had transplanted the engine and T5 tranny out of a wrecked '88 "5.0" Mustang. Since the RX only weighed about 2,600 lbs-about 5-600 lbs less than the Mustang-it was brutally fast. # 5. 1978-81 Pontiac Gran Prix / LeMans / Grand Am. Most of these downsized "G" bodies had the anemic 301 V8 that wheezed out maybe 150 hp. The upside is a 400 or 455 is a bolt-in swap. If your lucky enough to get one with a TH350, you won't need to change trannys. If the car has a TH200 / 250, they won't hold up behind a big-block's torque. Luckily- a TH350 is the same size, and uses the same rear trans mount and driveshaft yoke. Since these cars are 700 lbs lighter than the '77 and earlier models they replaced, even a mild 400 or 455 would make one of these cars really rock. # 6. 1984-88 Pontiac Fiero. Saw one of these in High-Performance Pontiac Magazine. The guy took the Supercharged 250 hp 3.8 V6 and transaxle out his wife's wrecked Bonneville SSEI and put it in the rear of a Fiero. It smoked his buddy's Porsche 911 in a drag race.  The hot 200 hp 3.4 out of later Olds Alero and Pontiac Grand Ams will bolt in place of the 2.8 in the Fiero as well. These cars may not be common, but they can be brutally quick for low bucks. Mastermind