These Would Be Your Ideal Drag Strip Sleepers

It's not a rare fantasy to dream about rolling up to our local drag strip in a mundane-looking sedan and going sub-12 seconds down the quarter-mile. The problem is that most of us don't have the time or money to build the perfect street-legal drag monster. What about the expertise to actually design something functional? That's never stopped anyone with a half-built project car in their garage and a negative checking account balance.

We asked our readers last week what their ideal drag strip sleeper would be. The responses in the comments were a mixed bag, ranging from daydreamers wanting to embark on a shock-and-awe campaign with a panel van to experienced wrenchers turning subdued classics into rockets. If you can fit a high-performance motor into the engine bay, it was mentioned in the comment section. Without further ado, here are all the dream drag strip sleepers that caught my eye:

We all know the answer is a Miata.

People don't expect them to be quick. They definitely don't expect them to be fast.

The Miata whisperer I take mine to has a few engine-swapped NCs... one with an LS he uses for track days that's quite a handful. There are V8 and V6 choices that are only marginally heavier than the stock 2.0. I have this weird desire to get a second NC, and build it up. Getting the NC beyond 350 hp without too much sacrifice to weight distribution is fairly easy... I'd probably go the V6 route with FI. Wouldn't be cheap, and I'd have to be more careful to not die, but the number of cars that can keep up with a well-built Miata are small.

Every traffic light would be a repeat of "awww...what a cute ca...sweet Jesus what's under the hood of that thing?!"

Submitted by: dolsh

A Nash Metropolitan swapped with a Tesla drivetrain. Ideally dual-motor, but potentially just RWD with the batteries up front.

Submitted by: ZachVerm

Plymouth Reliant K station wagon complete with fake wood paneling, drooping headliner, a 4G63T swap or EDT swap from a Neon SRT4. Big boost, the fancy aluminum wheels with an inconspicuous set of drag radials.

Submitted by: ColoradoOnTheFly

A C3 Corvette with a big bulge in the hood and side pipes and flames and all kinds of garbage from a JC Whitney catalog. I'd want it to look fake fast but actually be real fast.

Submitted by: GUestarino

Another Mustang II.

My last one was running 12.9s.

The original 302 was bored .040" over with flat tops.

The original D5AE heads were milled and ported, with screw-in studs and Harland Sharp roller rockers.

It had a healthy cam from Comp, an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, a 670cfm Holley, a fully built C4 with a TCI converter and a Hurst ratchet shifter.

The 8" had 4.10 gears and a Detroit locker, and a set of Stumpy's Fabworks subframe connectors minimized flex and his traction bars kept it planted off the line.

I gutted everything I could and still run a "street" class.

End result was breaking into the 12s with a car nobody took seriously when it showed up. If I had ever gotten it 100% dialed in and added nitrous like I planned to, 11s were almost certain.

Submitted by: MustangIIMatt

An AWD LT7 (the engine in the C8 ZR1, in case you're not a GM shill like me) swapped Express 1500. Only, the engine is mid-mounted in the cargo area, so prying eyes don't know what's going on "under the hood".

Or if you want to get really spicy, keep the 5.3 in the front to drive the front wheels and the LT7 drives the rears. A van ZR1X!

Submitted by: NEB376

I do remember the Motor Trend 1991 Sentra SE-R. Very few exterior modifications (mainly a regrettable paint job and larger wheels/tires) hide around double the horsepower from the stock SE-R. If I'm going up against some sports compacts, I'll give this one a try.

Submitted by: Xavier96

70s-era Fiat Spider with a built 2.0 EcoBoost swap.

Prob not near the fastest, but would be fun.

Submitted by: Christopher Hiatt

This'll probably sound lame, but I think it would be kind of neat (perhaps not mechanically possible) to take the guts from a Golf R and put them in a Jetta. That would make a nice sleeper...

Submitted by: Michael Smith

The easy answer is a Hellcat-swapped Pacifica, but I want to get weirder.

Viper swap a 1998 Plymouth Voyager

Submitted by: Greasetank

Hear me out here. 1989 Colt Vista wagon. They came with AWD and a manual transmission, BUT have a ton of common parts with the early Mitsubishi Evolution of that generation. Swap in the turbo engine with a big turbo and that's it. Seats 7, but still small, light, compact.

Submitted by: James Rachner

I think we've hit the point of everything that shows up to the drag strip is probably fast. However, the best all-time is that classic 5-speed turbo caravan-walking the catfish Camaro. A clean version of one of those with a K-swap and AWD conversion would be legit great

Submitted by: JaredOfLondon