Favorite Q-ships?

I was up in Warwick today and I saw my most favorite sleeper car ever, the Mercury Marauder (I know, not the fastest, I still think it's darn cool). It was stopped at a light so I pulled up next to it and gave the driver a double thumbs up:twothumbs, tongue out, rock on:rock:, all that,:bow:, etc. There was a little old lady driving it, she looked at me like I was crazy.:sick2:. I'm still wondering if she wasn't aware why the car is special or if she was trying extra hard to keep up the act. Maybe it was actually an old hot rodder dressed up like a little old lady just to sell the act.

Anyways, lets hear about your favorite street sleepers.

What on earth are you talking about ?

Please explain in more detail - what you are asking for.


or maybe I'm just too old

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Sorry, a q-ship or sleeper is a car/truck/etc. that most people would not expect to have above average performance. The term actually dates back to WWI and has a very interesting history involving U-boats believe it or not. Today it is used in it's original spirit, but admittedly a bit out of context in some cases (this case).
The Mercury Marauder (newer) it is a car (essentially a Crown Victoria with a little extra oomph) and brand that most people associate with the elderly, but it uses a power plant most often seen in performance packaged mustangs (the quad cam Mach1).
Think Transformers: "more than meets the eye"

LT1-powered Buick Roadmaster

And I can't help but chuckle every time I see the current Cobalt SS sedan specs.

gswitter said:

LT1-powered Buick Roadmaster

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LOL, wood panels and positraction for the win! The Roadmaster is a gem.

I've heard the Cobalt SS transmission is designed to be flat shifted. Don't take my word for it though, that information came from a very disreputable source, my brother, a lowly Chevy mechanic.:nana:

The king of the sleepers, the BMW M3 sedan:



Comfortably seats five, spacious trunk, lots of luxury and safety features, and doesn't really draw that much attention..

..and the same performance numbers as a Ferrari F430 oo:

Oh ..... thank you for explaining ..............


At first I thought you were talking about railroad sleeper cars .............

but didn't understand the *Q-ships*.
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StarHalo said:

The king of the sleepers, the BMW M3 sedan

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Does the M3 still count? I mean, doesn't everybody on the road see a Bimmer and think its driver bought it to floor it? On the other hand, it does have 2+ seats and there isn't a huge world of difference between that and the lowest of the 3-series, so I guess I could see where you're coming from.

I should probably recuse myself though. My favorite Q-ship is my own 2004 Volvo V70 R AWD wagon. 300 hp, huge Brembo's with 4-pots to grab them. Good thing it's still not too good though. If I had bought the Audi RS 6 I was looking at I'd be writing this from a jail cell. That thing was too good.

Probably my fathers 66 Impala.

It looked plain as day, except for that 427 Rat engine under the hood :devil:

Sleepers?

Earlier generations of Subaru WRX wagons.
Cobalt SS (if you remove the badges).
Mazda rotary engine RX-2/3/4's and pickup trucks from the 70's.
VW R32.
Neon ACR 4-door.
Mazda 323GTX from the 80's.
BMW 1600-2 (you could shoe horn in a 2002 motor).
Dodge Omni GLH.
Dodge Dart GT with a 273.
1970 Dodge GTX with an air grabber hood (426 or 440 6 pack).
a rally prepped Volvo 244 Turbo.

ive always liked the infiniti Q45

1990-91 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais Quad 442
1992-93 Oldsmobile Achieva SCX W41
Almost any GM car with the Quad 4 engine. Makes for a quick little car no one suspects can outrun many V8's from the same era.

chmsam said:

Cobalt SS (if you remove the badges).

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Nobody's gonna confuse the Cobalt with another car, even without the badges.

Just because it's so new I know a lot of people staring at every Cobalt to check it out. If figure that's not limited to gear heads since other people know how to read too, but they are already pretty darned subtle. Ditto for the Infinity or something like an AMG.

Nothing is more low key than that Dart or the rotary Mazdas (especially the truck). Well, maybe an old V8 Mercury Comet but those were pretty rare in when they were new.

The GTX is a brute and not real noticeable until the scoop creeps up (if you can find one that still has a switch or mechanism that still works).

chmsam said:

Just because it's so new I know a lot of people staring at every Cobalt to check it out. If figure that's not limited to gear heads since other people know how to read too, but they are already pretty darned subtle. Ditto for the Infinity or something like an AMG.

Nothing is more low key than that Dart or the rotary Mazdas (especially the truck). Well, maybe an old V8 Mercury Comet but those were pretty rare in when they were new.

The GTX is a brute and not real noticeable until the scoop creeps up (if you can find one that still has a switch or mechanism that still works).

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I believe most cars around that time used vacuum to open headlight covers and things of that nature. Assuming (I couldn't tell you for sure, maybe see if the library has a Chiltion's guide lying around for domestic models from this year) this is true for the GTX then even if you found one with a bad mechanism the most likely culprit would be a rotted rubber hose.

Those rotary trucks are something I'll have to check out, that sounds cool.

The Plymouth didn't have headlight covers like that but the air grabber hood scoop did use a vacuum system. The switch, seals for the hood, and the tubing are all areas that need attention but then again the things are about 40 years old. Very neat to see the hood scoop rise up and the darned things actually had good airflow so they weren't just a gimmick. The sharks teeth stickers on the side of the scoop were just low key enough so they weren't stupid looking. When the scoop was down the hood on that model was almost flat so it was a real sleeper if you had the right paint and wheels on it. Elephant motors didn't have to sound noisy all the time either.

Now if they only had modern brakes, steering, and suspensions in them...

Shoot, when the first Plymouth muscle cars came out carpeting (I don't mean floor mats) was an option at additional cost but they were very inexpensive cars. Of course not too many years before that you could buy an XKE for between $6,000-7,000 or a Cobra (and not just the Mustang) for not much more than that (average prices of everything were a wee bit less back then).

Should probably add the early turbo Plymouth Voyager to the list.

I remember seeing a pretty hilarious write-up (and videos) by a guy who drags one and talks about showing up at the track, having all the kids pile out of the van and run up into the stands and cheer on Dad while he embarrasses the other cars with his sleeper.

Fiat Uno Turbo. Weighs nothing, looks like nothing. Goes like a demon on sp**d.

Love the Buick Grand National, or any Regal with the turbo motor. Looks like a grocery getter until you hit boost.

I love my .:32

Mayo