- Welcome to WQOW 18 news forecast. And there are times in your life where you don't wanna be the spotlight, contrary to popular belief. Sometimes we would rather
be a supporting role, versus, you know, the
one that's getting judged for literally every moment of your life. Because when you're in the front seat and you're driving the car,
everybody's judging the speed. So, you sit in the backseat, you grab your headphones,
you watch Attack on Titan for the fourth time to see
if you missed something, while the driver deals
with the angry passengers and drivers that Houston
beltways have to offer. Which by the way, perks of living in a tiny town in Wisconsin. I don't have to deal with that. Just people that don't know
how to use their turn signals. Sometimes, you want a
car that's like that. I'm Alex, @alex.fi on Instagram and today we're gonna be
talking about that lifestyle. The lifestyle of being the unsuspecting, until someone tests you the wrong way. A type of car that makes you kind of feel like a gifted child, okay? The type of car that usually
impresses absolutely no one, until you inevitably pop up
the hood at the gas station and realize there's not
one, but two Scrolly boys. A car that makes you think to yourself, on a Sunday afternoon,
while you're bored like, "Hey, we should, we
should try that sometime." Ladies and gentlemen, today
we're gonna be talking about you wanting to own a sleeper car. (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Alex. Don't forget to subscribe
and if you're looking for any sort of wheels,
tires, or suspension for your newly acquired sleeper car, otherwise be sure to hit us up over at fitmentindustries.com. I feel like I should just
get it tattooed right here and, and, that would, I'd just do this. You know what I'm saying? But anyway, we also do have 0% financing. So you pick up all your stuff now and pay it off later
with your tax returns. If you are looking to actually
get your project build finished up before springtime. Because lo and behold,
February is coming, folks. You want to know what's after that? March. You wanna know what's after that? You guessed it, April. And just so you know, we do have a giveaway
that were just launched. Artista Artformed Wheels,
Continental Tires, and Fortune Auto Coilovers, it's a full build giveaway. And if you haven't actually
checked out Artista, it's our brand that we launched this year. They're super light,
they're deco directional, monoblock wheels and we're
really, really proud of them. So if you'd like to check it
out, you can go check them out over a fitmanindustries.com. You can pick up a t-shirt. This is the Artista Titan. I'm very happy with this one in particular but that's because I
designed it so don't judge. The history of sleeper
cars goes all the way back to the days in the mid-50's. It was pretty much coined after
the term of sleeper agents. Okay? Which is practically like 007 but the American version. Except the British sleeper
cars were also previously known as Q cars, which took
after the Royal Navy. There's all different variants of this but essentially it's just
little nicknames, okay? Both of which have fancy agent-style names but both of them look like
the standard Joe Anderson you'd find at the local mall. Really there is nothing special about them from an aesthetic point of view, but the history of when we, the people, decided to start loving owning things that didn't look fast
takes us actually back to the days of the 50's and 60's where automotive manufacturers
were finding themselves with the opportunity to
stuff race spec engines into production cars for the purposes of a homologation,
homologation, homologate- That one. The one brand that iconically decided to really jump into this
was not the Lamborghini, it wasn't the Acura, it wasn't the Honda, it wasn't Ford or Chevy. Ladies and gentlemen, this
came from (fart) America. Okay? The one company that
decided to essentially say "I'm gonna do whatever you want me to do except when it's what we want to do and not what the EPA wants us to do because we have more money than pretty much everyone
else in the world." And ladies and gentlemen, the name of that brand was Chrysler. Because it's, it's, you know, it's from America and I want to sing it but I feel like we're
gonna get demonetized. ♪ America ♪ Many coin the '55 Chrysler 300 as one of the starts of a sleeper car where it was the first passenger
car with 300 horsepower and eventually 375 later
in the trim ranges. Many people do see this
vehicle as one of the starts in the domestic American
market as a sleeper car. And most of the people would look at this as a high end luxury car, but
doesn't really look that fast. I don't know, sleeper car sort of thing. Big horsepower, boring body sleeper. And because of the 300, she
was one of the most powerful and unsuspecting platforms at the time. This really founded the
community for sleeper cars. People that actually had a little bit of extra money decided to get something that was a little bit faster. But domestic cars weren't the
only ones starting to jump on the train because as
we jumped into the 60's, very exciting time, Mercedes-Benz
would soon to follow through their 300 SEL
AMG and the AMG lineup. And as the dawn of racing
really started to take off, both domestically and internationally, car manufacturers began
to swerve large motors into boring chassis to meet
racing regulations specs. Lancia would see a Ferrari V8 motor. (computer clicks) - [Computer] Lancia, Lancia. - AMG would stuff all sorts of big motors into small cars and so on and so forth. And that was it. As time progressed, this
only happened more and more until eventually people realized that there's actually a good
amount of money in terms of up trimming large ass
motors into tiny cars that didn't really need any
sort of body modifications. Now in the 70's, everything
had a small block V8, it felt like, but it
didn't inherently meant that it was a sleeper. Most sleepers were brought into this world because some of the small racing teams on some massive automobile companies had a race engine laying
around and a small budget to pretty much squeeze it
into a special edition. And back in the day, it was
actually really easy to get some of these special trim
special offerings out into the market because
dealerships had a lot more power with their manufacturers. And damn was it nice. You'd see things like the
Mart Mercury Marauder, the Seventh Gen Impala
SS, the Buick Regal GX the Saab 9-2X, and the Taurus Sho. Nowadays, sleepers are hiding everywhere. Still because most automotive
manufacturers are trying to streamline their options. Trying to make it like
a smooth baby's bottom when it comes to the engine lineups across multiple different things. Unless it's a baby force sander, you gotta pump those numbers up. The V8 you used to find in GM would also be hiding in a Cadillac. The WRX and STI shared all of their parts with certain Outbacks and the Volvo V70R's were just too boring for your grandmother to not buy and then store in a shed somewhere for you to pick up as a ripe,
young, 21 year old enthusiast that didn't understand
how much it was going to cost to build it back up. And that's just it. Once car enthusiasts found out what auto manufacturers were doing, people started snatching them up. People that had to get a
station wagon for the kids but wanted something quick and fancy and could brag to
their friends bought a V70R. Needed a sedan? Well, you better get the SS. If you wanted it, hey, you can blame that it had heated seats,
it had a big trunk. RS4? Dude, all right. Honey, listen. All right? It's just really RS stands for
really sharp looking, okay? And it's got cool seats. Just whatever you do, don't look at the monthly car
payment or the depreciation. But we're not here to talk
about the history, okay, of sleeping beauty cars. Oh no, most of them aren't
the prettiest anyways. Okay? I have, I love ugly cars and
that's why I love sleepers. No, we're here to talk about you wanting to own one of these bad boys. So you want a sleeper car? Well set down your
nine-year-old baseball cap and grab your favorite oil cream because we're about to sit down and talk about what it's
like to actually own and if it's really worth it, maybe, to get and pick up a sleeper car. Owning a sleeper car is like
having the sickest collection of Pokemon cards, okay? Before the whole Jake Paul
hype or whatever his name is. You almost have to talk about it and teach people why a
first gen card is so bad ass before they appreciate the amount of money or care you likely put
into that very small piece of firm paper or cardboard or whatever fancy terminology
they use these days, okay? Sleeper cars, they're
pretty much like that. Many of which hold a special
place in most people's hearts but just not a large volume of hearts. To most, the sleeper SUV
that rips like a train because it has the same setup as the WRX won't really be noticed until you convince your family to get in so you can rip her around,
maybe in a roundabout, maybe take her over into a snowfield and have a little bit of fun. Only after will they question your sanity. The same goes for the
cars like the Volvo V70R. which really the only thing that stuck out on the car was a little bit
more aggressive body lines and the letter R, all right? The Volvo V70R that you've
spent more time than patients on keeping rust away like
an overactive fence player, to most is just another
wagon with a Buick logo. It's not a Buick logo, but it
does look like a Buick logo. This is what you want, okay? You want to be unsuspecting. You want to be the one to beat the guy that's showing off his
base model Corvette. Why? Let me tell you. Come in close, a little bit closer. It's because it's fun. It's the same reason it's
fun to play Social Slayer in Halo 2 when you're 50's
and Lone Wolf in ranks. It's just how it goes. You like beating the living, you know, you like winning and with a sleeper car,
it's way more worth it. You (fart) at 'em and they
didn't even see it coming. The satisfying feeling
is why sleepers exist. They exist to serve a
purpose above all else. And that is unsuspecting fun,
especially with other people. But only one can be a little funky, mostly because you have to stay
within the aesthetic parameters of what makes a sleeper
car, a sleeper car. And if you're gonna pick one up, you have to decide if you're
going new gen or old gen. Old generations being
things like the Volvo V70R, where their strength is
their greatest weakness, rarity and platform support. The cars are sick when they work. And a lot of times these
older generations are a little bit like that. They run trains when they work and they're fun as hell
when they work, you know? And if they stay well behaved for you then you slap a big turbo
on it, exhaust intake, and maybe some semi slicks
on our OEM plus wheels, and you're pretty much set to go. As long as it works. Want a new generation sleeper though? You can do that there, too, bud. You can grab yourself a
Chevy SS and laugh your way to the next stop light as
you make most people cry as to why a four door
bus just beat any V8M3 that exists out there. Even though it doesn't
look like anything special. I don't get it. Domestic sleepers that are the new, new, new generation do fantastic with practically the same
thing of an older car. Just a lot of times with no turbo and more cam and tune work. Same thing though. You get some lightweight Velgen
wheels, some Nitto tires, and probably some H&R lowering springs, because a lot of times
these new generations sleeper cars are running on
electromagnetic suspension, so keeping the lowering springs on it actually lowers the car,
but keeps that customization, and you're pretty much set. There are a few cons to
owning a sleeper car, like the fact that you have to keep your unsuspecting
car looking unsuspecting. No big wing gang. No canards, they got
to stay on your canard. I don't know where that came from, okay? But you pretty much got to keep that sort of aero stuff on your air RC airplane. You have to keep the aggressive
stuff away from the car. The diffuser should
probably just stay plastic. Hoods should just stay
the normal painted colors. You got to K.I.S.S. it,
keep it simple stupid. Don't come at me with
all that other stuff. Not only that, but generally working on sleepers is a bit more
tedious as the platforms are. As they go and almost
always have a smaller motor, more space, less
gadgetry, more simplicity. This is why generally
speaking with sleepers, they require more maintenance because they stuck more
work, bigger engines more complexity into the same
body lines and body panels and actual space as some
of their base model cars. And it's gonna take a lot more work to get them kind of fixed up and repaired and things like that. And that's usually why
people brag about the fact that they own a 20 year old Volvo. Because keeping it
alive is sometimes worth telling your friends
over and over and over until they get bored of it. Because guess what? When you have 450 horsepowers
and you have a car that looks like a hearse, you get to do
that every once in a while. But what do you think about sleepers? Let us know below and if you're looking for aftermarket wheels, tires, suspension, be sure to hit us up over
at fitmentindustries.com. Not figment, so many people saying fig. (clears throat) Whether you
have a sleeper car or not, too, just so you know, we have a gallery. It would be cool if you added
it, fitmentindustries.com/add. I'm Alex from Fitment Industries and we will see you later. Peace. (upbeat music)
