Back in 1971 or so I had a 64 Corvette coupe, 327 275 Hp powerglide. It was horribly slow off the line but had some scoot at a 25-30mph rolling start. I pulled on a 4 lane highway when a Ford Maverick pulled along side of me. I knew by the sound it was no 6 banger. I nailed my vette and pulled about 4 car lengths ahead of him, all of a sudden I hear an explosion, he blew by me like I was standing still. I related this to some friends who said "don't feel bad, that sleeper Maverick has a corvette 327 360 HP, headers cam, etc. probably pushing over 400Hp.

 

Sleepers are fun. We put a Mustang V8 in a bugeye Sprite back in the mid 70s. It didn't handle worth beans but boy it had a good power toe weight ratio.

 

I love stories like this. My main background in building rods comes from doin' up V8 Vega's with a 350 and 4 speed. We used to love it when guys couldn't really tell what it was packin' under the hood, and thus became race fodder pretty quickly.