After turning the Taurus into a full-size sedan, Ford introduced a new SHO built around a turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 and all-wheel drive. No way. In the market for a quick new car that won't attract a ton of attention? Does that look like a car with 707 horsepower? It’s seriously quick, too, but it doesn’t look the part. Road & Track participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. But unlike an Audi TT or a Chevrolet Camaro, which also post stellar performance numbers, the Golf R can take you and four friends out for a night on the town, or carry a full load of furniture from Ikea. The result? It doesn’t come with a spoiler, rally lights, or scissor doors.

We debated this one long and hard, and came to the conclusion that if you keep the paint color subdued, don't tick the box for the Black Optic package or sports exhaust, but do tick the option for the Dynamic Plus package then you have a car just shy of 400 horsepower and with a suspension and brake upgrade that should slip under the radar of anyone but the keenest of enthusiasts.

Future cars: The best upcoming cars worth waiting for, 2020 Chevrolet Camaro vs. 2020 Ford Mustang, 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 electric car prototype drive: A crowd-pleaser, Mercedes-Benz rolls into micromobility market with foldable e-scooter. A sleeper packs the ingredients of a hardcore performance car under the hood while wearing the automotive equivalent of sensible shoes and a button-down shirt. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, Hummer Electric Pickup: Everything We Know, A RWD Audi R8 Is Now a Normal Part of U.S. This is another one we had to question, but it's made the list because although its brother is instantly recognizable, the Charger is pretty low-key. An added bonus to a sleeper is having the performance but not finding every pimply teenager with an eBay accessorized Honda Civic wants to race you from the lights. You can even order a built-in champagne cooler if you think you’ll have something to celebrate along the way. The 21 Best … Our product picks are editor-tested, expert-approved. It looks fast — it certainly doesn’t look like an off-roader — but it doesn’t look 707-hp fast. With 415 horsepower and 494 lb-ft of torque from a twin-charged engine paired with a rear-mounted electric motor, it's secretly one of the most exciting cars on sale today. Join Road & Track and Car and Driver for Our Tests . This one has low miles, and you can own it today. You might think the M2 would be a good fit for this list, but you'd be wrong. It’s the car you rent on vacation. As an RS model, it does look sharp and sporty but so does a Toyota Camry SE. If you're looking for the most smiles out of the G70, we recommend getting the four-cylinder version with a manual transmission. To the uninitiated, a Mustang without a V8 engine is nothing special.

15 Best Sleeper Cars (and 10 Cars That Aren’t as Fast as They Look) Some Cars Look Stock But are Lightning-Quick, While Others are the Exact Opposite. A sleeper is a car that looks relatively unassuming while being surprisingly quick and unexpectedly fast. The 2.0T version is a deceptively quick car, though. Like the M240i, people lust after the pure M version, but if you want to play it cool then there's a version for you. Sweden’s most enduring car company is known for safety and reliability; it’s an entire brand built around reasonableness. Aside from model-specific 19-inch wheels, subtle hood stripes and badging, the High Performance Package looks like something that just drove off the Hertz lot at an airport. Disguised as sensible sedans and wagons, sleepers keep a lower profile. We may earn a commission through links on our site. The best sleeper cars are automotive equivalent of Q-Ships. The Grand National started out as little more than an option package for the Regal, but it gradually morphed into a true sports sedan with black paint and a turbocharged 3.8-liter V6. Here's a white one with 14 miles on the clock you can own today. A turbocharged inline-five produced 300 hp and 295 lb-ft, and was connected to a performance-tuned Haldex all-wheel drive system. It’s a pretty rare and vintage car these days, so you won’t find the term thrown at it still, but enthusiasts remember. In traffic, a new Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, or Mazda 6 looks faster but the Taurus SHO has a 365 horsepower version of the 3.5-liter direct-injected twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 that also makes 350 lb-ft of torque. The remaining CTS-V sedan also faces a downgrade from V8 to turbocharged V6 power, although Cadillac has hinted that a more potent version is in the works. A BMW 7 Series looks better suited to shuttling executives in comfort than carving corners, but the tuning wizards at Alpina think differently. The current Alpina B7 uses a 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 making 608 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque, with standard all-wheel drive to ensure all of that power gets to the pavement. The R uses a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that delivers 305 hp and 295 lb-ft. Fast forward to 2017. The M550i xDrive looks like any other new BMW 5-series, but thanks to a 523-horsepower twin-turbo V-8 and all-wheel drive, it's a bit of a rocket ship.

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Sure, it looks like a sporty Charger but there's little giving it away as a full-on 707 horsepower monster unless you start adding stripes and loud paint colors. That punch comes from 605 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque delivering a 0-60 mph time clocking in under 4 seconds. Except for quad exhaust pipes, the long-wheelbase SV Autobiography looks like every other Range Rover. You Can Stream All of Goodwood's Incredible Races, Charging Aside, The H-D LiveWire is a Great Bike, Hear the T.50 Test Mule Fire Up For the First Time, Join Road & Track and Car and Driver for Our Tests, The 2021 Lexus IS Makes the Best of Old Parts, The Best-Sounding New Cars You Can Buy Under $100K, This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. Like the M550i xDrive, BMW's M340i is a stealthier alternative to the M3 that provides much of the same performance.

It’s called the Trackhawk, and it can embarrass many purpose-designed sports cars with a six-digit price tag. Option the 707-horsepower Hellcat-engine Trackhawk with the right wheel and color combo, and people will have a hard time telling it apart from a regular Grand Cherokee—especially if you debadge it. Power went up to 235 hp, then 245 hp, and finally 276 hp for the limited-edition GNX introduced in 1987. The E63 S is nothing short of blistering with 603 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque leading to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds. This one's for sale in Texas on eBay right now. And while the Audi and BMW models on this list are almost accidental sleepers, AMG's take on the E-Class is quite deliberate. The EcoBoost engine produced a stout 365 hp and 350 lb-ft, although, unlike the original SHO, a six-speed automatic was the only available transmission.

It can also haul plywood, a month’s groceries, or your entire family for a weekend at the lake. Dodge’s high-output models aren’t great options if you’re looking for a low-key performance car, because people will stop you every five minutes to ask if it’s a Hellcat.

Yes, everyone knows about Ludicrous Mode, but Tesla cars come from the factory ready de-badged and this is a crossover. It used an evolution of the last-generation Corvette ZR1‘s supercharged 6.2-liter V8 tuned to pump out 556 hp and 551 lb-ft. The best part?

Even loaded up with seven people, Tesla's crossover with the right option will smoke just about everything you'll see day to day. The Model 3 Performance looks like any other Model 3, but packs 450 horsepower and some trick software that allows for some seriously fun slides, as we found out during our track test. Make sure to check the Dynamic Plus package, though; that gets you a higher top speed, a sportier suspension, and front carbon ceramic brakes. In our recent review, we found it perfectly capable of handling laps on a circuit, and right at home in a road trip environment.

These are our favorite sleepers you can drive off the lot this year without anyone noticing, but then drive home the long way like a true enthusiast. We’re eager to see if VW can maintain that balance of performance and practicality with a new R based on the new eight-generation Golf.