Sleeper Classic #1
A sleeper, at least as it applied to cars back when I was in high school (early '70s), was an easily-overlooked powerhouse. A friend of mine bought a beat up '67 Mercury Cougar, which came with a 289 cubic inch V8 engine. The '67 Cougar was about the size of a mid-60s Mustang, meaning, small and sporty. It was visually appealing and the engine was enough that it was respectable on the road. This particular Cougar, however, was a typical Minnesota car. It was a rusty, scratched-up beater that a teenager could afford. It didn't look impressive by any standard. My friend was aiming to build a street racer out of it.
In order to get races, my friend wanted the car to look beatable, but not beneath the dignity of potential opponents. He wanted a sleeper. I'm not sure what all these spec's mean, but when he'd done a fair amount of work on the car, it boasted a 428 Cobra Jet engine, Holley 4-barrel carb (a 440 double-pumper(?), whatever that means), high-rise aluminum intake manifold, headers, slapstick transmission and some sort of limited slip custom differential, among other things. The outside of the car still looked like it did when he bought it.
I went with him on the car's maiden voyage in the wee hours of a crisp, Autumn morning (roads would be clear, and police unlikely to be out). He got the car out to a straight road where he could give it some gas. He hit the accellerator and in three blocks, after the rear end quit hopping around, we were up to 90 miles per hour. In five blocks, the speedometer pegged and we had to pull over because of smoke from under the hood. We got the fuel-line fire out, and I think he replaced a bit of the line and we drove it back. That car's appearance didn't attract a lot of attention, but it had really too much power.
A sleeper as it applies to Christian rock music is a song, album or artist which could be easily missed, but when found, displays immense power, both musically and in its message. Christian rock sleepers are unlikely to be discovered by an impulse-buy through a record club, at a music or book store, nor even at big Internet sites like Barnes and Noble or Amazon. This article should make my featured artist a bit easier to stumble across. You'll at least be aware of him.
Latest Articles