What is a sleeper? This Anglo-Saxon term designates cars that under a normal, classic, faded or directly dilapidated appearance, hide high-performance mechanics. This cognitive dissonance catches by surprise those who start a “bite” with these cars, or face them in regulated competitions. There is something magical about a sleeper, especially those who, like this Ford Sierra 1.6 of Swedish originThey don’t give a single clue of what they hide. At least, until the engine starts and the ground starts to shake.
This unit is a worn looking hatchback. Although aesthetically it is whole, it could well pass for the first car of a kid who just got his license. It sports spray-painted steel wheels, and its “nice” wheels are nondescript-looking 17-inch wheels. However, it hides a secret under the hood. A gigantic engine of BMW origin, a M50B28 2.8-liter six-cylinder online. This engine is supercharged by a Holset HX40 Super turbocharger, and on a dyno, it’s capable of developing a whopping 600bhp.
It’s a Ford Sierra, but its heart is BMW. The evidence is that the rest of the cars that appear in the video are Bavarian.
Mounted in a car that barely weighs 1,200 kilos, it is an adrenaline pump and high performance. He burns tires with astonishing ease, and his main ability seems to be that: turning his rear tires into a smoke machine. We don’t have many more details, but we know that uses a custom ECU, possibly a gearbox from a BMW, and that its undercarriage has been reinforced to withstand the increase in power. In any case, it looks like a homemade project made with care and affection. The true philosophy of the sleeper, by the way.
