Friend and former C/D contributor Jason Cammisa returns to Window Shop this week to help us look for sleepers that cost less than $20,000. Not to be confused with the 1973 Woody Allen movie, in the car world, a sleeper (a.k.a. a Q-ship or Q-car) is a vehicle that doesn’t look fast but is. Think, wolf in sheep’s clothing.
First up is Santa Barbara’s favorite son and Road & Track‘s newest staffer, John Pearley Huffman. Now that Huffman no longer has to worry about his freelance career, he has even more time to devote to Toyota Tundras. So it should surprise no one that his pick is a 2007 Tundra with the 381-hp 5.7-liter V-8. While some might not suspect a pickup can produce a sub-six-second time to 60, Cammisa points out that many modern trucks with the right engines can be very quick.
No one denies deputy testing director K.C. Colwell’s Q-ship. Following in the footsteps of Jason Statham in Transporter 2, Colwell selects a 2005 Audi A8L W-12. We bring up the potential headaches of the 450-hp engine and wonder why and how and why the seller got verified on a car-listing site. Cammisa tells us the real problem isn’t the 6.0-liter W-12 under the hood, it’s the car’s air suspension. We take his word for it.
Contributor Jonathon Ramsey finds a very similar car to Colwell’s: an Audi S8. Known for its 5.2-liter version of the Lamborghini V-10, this car brings back memories of several accidents and expensive fixes we had with an S8 long-termer. By the end of Ramsey’s presentation, we wonder if it’s in fact the very same car. (It’s not.)
Cammisa shows off three interesting sleepers but asks us to judge his 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8. A mean-looking SUV, we debate how a monochromatic Jeep with 20-inch wheels can be a sleeper. As usual, we don’t settle anything and just bicker a lot.
Last to go is deputy editor Tony Quiroga, who created the challenge after watching Cammisa’s video on the Mercedes 500E/E500. Quiroga blows the budget by nearly $5000 but finds what might be the ultimate Q-ship. Tune in to see if his choice can pull off the win despite breaking the rules.
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