That's just sad. So sad.

 

It's okay, I tell them to hop in and then I surprise the crap out of them. Good times!

 

A traditional sleeper used to be a car that looks almost dull but performs like mad. The original GTO was a sleeper (it simply had the fake hoodscoop identifying it from regular Pontiac Tempest... and even that was eventially available on other Tempests as well).

The Grand National was by no means a sleeper. The Turbo Regal, maybe. Grand National? EVERYONE knew what a Grand National was up till about 10 years ago.

Now-a-days, it seems to be anything without a wing or is bigger than an Accord. My Thunderbird SC evidently was a sleeper (though I didn't think it was at the time) because it seemed that every ricer in the area mistook it as another Thunderbird with aftermarket ground effects, and wanted to show me a thing or 2.

Personally, I define a sleeper as a car that looks identical to the massive number of regular versions while both having shocking performance and little public knowledge of the car.

The current Cobalt SS sedan is the car that pops to mind as a model of a modern day sleeper. However, I'd also include the new SHO as well. It looks identical to the regular run-of-the-mill new Taurus, and unless Ford breaks with tradition and advertizes the hell out of it, it's going to have only modest recognition and fully capable of making potential challengers mistake it as a regular V6 family car.

 

Isn't that the time period we were talking about? If we're discussing whether or not the NEW SHO will be a sleeper, and then comparing to the GN, should we not decide if a NEW GN was or was not a sleeper? Should it matter that someone didn't know what one was a few years ago?

I would suggest that what generation it was should not matter. And a lot of the "older" crowd back then didn't want anything to do with that EFI thing that "couldn't be modified like a car with a carburator!"

 

I bought a new 89 SHO in 1990 (program car). It took a LOT of people by surprise.

Didn't mess with many GN's though.

 

I'm telling you, outside of car enthusiast circles, that's just not true. Your impressions are skewed by your environment. If you were male and ~20 years old in 1987, you probably remember it; anybody else probably doesn't.

Everyone knows about Ferrari and Porsche. They also know Corvette and Mustang. Sadly, fewer people know Camaro, but I think it's still enough to call it "everyone".

Outside of car enthusiast circles, you'll find that most people can't even identify a car that's sitting right in front of them without reading the nameplate. If you think they have any idea what's under the hood, you're wrong. They assume cars are fast or slow based on their shape and stance. The cars I listed before are presumed to be fast, because they look fast.

A Grand National does not look fast. It's the same boxy style as every other car from the 80's, so that's what the average onlooker sees: an 80's POS. In my case, maybe they wonder why I bother to keep the paint looking so nice, and if they're close enough to read the badges, they wonder what "INTERCOOLED" and "3.8L SFI TURBO" mean.

It doesn't need to look identical to the regular version. It just needs to not stand out.

That's a fair point.

I think we've strayed far enough from the point. I feel like the SHO is going to be a sleeper. Can't say for sure until I've seen one sitting next to a regular Taurus, but that's my guess.

 

Old thread, I know, but a comment in the more recent SHO thread made me think of the speculating going on about the SHO. Looks like the 4000 lb number was a little low...

Car and Driver reports 4346 lbs and a 5.2 0-60 (aided by AWD of course), 12.8 0-100, and a 13.7 @ 103 mph 1/4 mile. Braking from 70 mph in 174 feet, 0.84 on the skidpad (still think the Vette is a 0.83 car? ).

It is more like a G8 GT than the GXP in terms of performance.

 

I remember back in '97 or so driving my friends '96 BOSS Mustang, graphics only, A4 on the freeway and attempting to pass what looked like just a regular Taurus in traffic. Well it was an SHO and he was keen to what I was up to and held off the great Mustang. The worst part is his family in the car had no clue we were racing.

I handed the keys back to my friend afterward and just told him to add SHO's to his ever growing leave alone list and happily drove my Z home.

 

Interesting my dad, mild car enthusiast 67 years old, bought a '87 Turbo-T with 5k miles in 1987 and still has it today. Occasionally I still here the story or two of Mustangs and Camaros that seem to know what the car is as they sit next to him at a light clutches depressed and tachs bouncing over 5k.

 

I knew it would be. No one has a magic bullet for weight, and the Taurus is a big car.

 

Me too!

 

I think the ultimate sleeper from the 90s would be a Caprice with the LT1. B-body LT1s had amazing low end torque, I remember blowing the doors off of plenty of Mustangs from the day at stop lights. And with the top-speed limiter off the cars could touch 150 mph.

Taurus SHOs were a hoot to drive with the manual transmission and the Yamaha V6 sounded sweet. I almost pulled the trigger on a '94 model back in 1996 for $12K.

 

They were pretty neat, Fusion Sport would be the closest thing to an early 90's SHO today.



edit: I thought the Sport came with a manual, looks like it doesn't only 2.5L 4cyl cars do

 

^^
That looks much better.

 

and this is what it looks like smashed:
http://jalopnik.com/5300201/first-sm...ho-in-chi+town