Page "Sleeper (car)" Paragraph 11

Owners sometimes reduce the evidence that their high-performance car is such by removing characteristic badging and trimmings.

Sleeper cars often contain stock body work and wheels found on their less-capable brethren to better blend with other traffic and appear unassuming.

Some owners simply like having performance without show, but a more predatory use of the sleeper is in street racing, where it is used to fool an opponent into underestimating a car's performance for the purposes of " hustling ".

Some have even gone so far as to leave their cars ' exteriors banged up and rusting and sometimes even causing additional rusting with the use of battery acid.

Often older cars from the 1930s to 1970's could look like restored stockers but with uprated drivetrains, including suspension and brakes as well as engine swaps.

These are closely related to resto rods and rat rods.