Want to fly under the radar while having the best time of your life behind the wheel? Then buying a sleeper car is your best bet. Sleeper cars are the true definition of understatement in the automotive industry. They are high-performance vehicles dressed in an unassuming exterior with indecent bodywork, loud paint jobs, or oversized aerodynamic parts, all of which are far from attention grabbers.

In the car enthusiast scene, the sleeper car is a well-respected hot-rodding tradition still alive in garages and streets across America. Nothing beats deploying a home-built supercar slayer against ego-prone drivers and beating them in their uber-expensive cars. While most sleeper cars are custom-made and start as unwanted orphans, manufacturers sometimes slap overpowered motors in average everyday cars, turning them into legit sleepers. Read on to find out our selection of the coolest American sleeper cars of all time.

10 1987 Buick GNX

Black 1987 Buick GNX
Via Mecum Auctions

The Buick Grand National remains an icon of American automotive engineering to this day. It was a highway terror built out of an 80s wannabe sports sedan; what was aimed at beating the Corvette ended up smoking the Ferraris and Porsches at the time. The car had humble roots in auto racing and got its most boost in its final form with the 1987 model.

Black 1987 Buick GNX
Via Fox News

Thanks to the 276hp and 360lb-ft of torque, the Buick GNX was blindingly quick and accelerated 0-60mph in 4.7 seconds. This, in 1987, was in supercar territory.

RELATED: Honda Insight Sleeper Becomes A Whippled Mustang's Worst Nightmare In Drag Race

9 2004 Chrysler 300M

2004 Chrysler 300M side profile
300MClub

This car might not be easy on the eye to most folks, which makes it one of the most dubious sleepers ever made in America. When the Chrysler 300M first hit the full-size luxury sedan market, much of the performance-leaning consumer base wrote it off. But then its 255hp producing V6 motor turned out to be a monster that would enable its bulky body to get up and get going without hesitation.

via autoevolution

The 300M is both powerful and easy on the gas compared to the other luxury cars in its class, making it an interesting and fun daily driver.

8 Mercury Marauder

 Mercury-Marauder-F-Bring-A-Trailer
Via Bring a Trailer

In over five decades in operation, Mercury gave the American automotive market some of the nicest cars like the 1950 Mercury Eight, 1964 Comet Cyclone, or the 1969 Cougar Eliminator. Then in their final years, they produced the Mercury Maraud that was probably the last decent vehicle produced by the outfit.

Mercury Marauder 2003 rear
Mecum

It was a tame, unassuming sedan that was more powerful than it looked. Mercury built it to be efficient, practical, and dependable. That and plenty of power from its 4.6-liter V8 engine saw it adopted by American police forces. Also, it was quite agile for its power and size.

RELATED: These Japanese Sleepers Are Insane With Some Under-The-Hood Mods

7 Chevrolet Cobalt SS

Chevrolet Cobalt SS
via driving.ca

The Cobalt was a solid, attractive car that was quite reliable and easy on the gas. But it wasn’t known for its outright acceleration. That is why the SS version of the car can easily pass by as an average car for boring folks because it comes clad in the same clothes as the standard sibling. However, like any Chevy with an SS badge, the Cobalt SS was special. Chevy built it aiming at the tuner market as a supercharged coupe with salon, turbo, and naturally aspirated trims to follow.

Chevrolet Cobalt SS
Via Topspeed

The supercharged and turbo variant were no slouches getting off the line and could compete against Mustangs. True to Chevy’s intentions, the Cobalt SS gained popularity with the tuning scene and even made several appearances in Need For Speed games.

6 GMC Typhoon

motorious.com

The GMC Typhoon was a humble SUV until you popped the hood and met the twin-turbo 4.3-liter V6 motor that turned it into one of the craziest sleepers ever made. With 280hp and 350 lb-ft of torque, the seemingly boring SUV could accelerate from 0-60mph in 5.3 seconds.

via Hemmings Motor News

It was quicker off the line than performance sports cars favorites like the Ferrari 348TS or the Nissan 300ZX. While car enthusiasts will have no problem picking out the Typhoon from a crowd, many people will view it as just another SUV until they try to beat it in a straight line.

5 Ford Flex Ecoboost

via Car and Driver

Thanks to its boxy shape, the Ford Flex Ecoboost gets a huge shout for the most ridiculous sleeper to roll off Ford’s factories in recent times. Few will find any form of attraction from the box of an SUV, with even a smaller number thinking of it as more of a performance vehicle than a boring commuting tool. However, the Flex Ecoboost packs loads of boost from a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 motor that is good for 365hp.

via Car and Driver

If you thought the weight body would prevent these numbers from making a difference, you are wrong. The Flex can launch to 60 mph in less than 6.2 seconds, which is quite impressive.

RELATED: Low-Key 1983 Toyota Celica Is A Seriously Impressive JDM Sleeper

4 Ford Taurus SHO

Ford Taurus SHO Front Quarter Ruby Red Metallic Tinted Clearcoat
Ford

In its over three decades of production, the Ford Taurus was just another everyday car unlikely to draw any form of attention from onlookers. These largely unassuming looks coupled with the competitive levels of power in an AWD platform help turn the SHO trim of the Taurus into a truly affordable sleeper in its stock form.

2015 Ford Taurus SHO
Ford

The SHO is used as an undercover car thanks to its ability to blend easily and the adequate 365hp and 350lb-ft of torque generated by a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 powerplant. Also, tuning enthusiasts have found the SHO quite receptive to power-enhancing mods.

3 Chevrolet SS

Chevrolet SS Sedan
Via: jlord8 On Instagram

The now-discontinued Chevy SS Sedan was an average-looking car with a boring exterior that made it easily fly under the radar. People who haven’t driven it don’t know that the car was a genuine performance monster, and some owners even called it a muscle car, since it drove like one. It rolled off Chevy’s factories with a supercharged 6.2-liter LS3 engine that produced an excess of 415hp and 415lb-ft of torque to pass it as a certified sleeper car.

2017-chevrolet-ss
via caranddriver

With this amount of power, the Chevy SS Sedan was able to take on and smoke many high-end sports cars.

2 Dodge Magnum SRT8

Front 3/4 view of the Magnum SRT8
favcars.com

Few cars make better sleepers than station wagons since they are more focused on transporting cargo, thanks to a spacious cargo area accessible via a fifth door. The normal Dodge Magnum passed the regular wagon test, but its more powerful SRT8 sibling was a different animal. Though not much by the looks because the only differences were bigger wheels, a hood scoop, and a few SRT badges. But underneath, it packed a Hemi V-8 engine that transformed it into a sleeper wagon.

Imagining a new Dodge Magnum
Via Futurecarimages.com

Adding performance to the practicality of the Magnum made the SRT8 an interesting vehicle that you could use to smoke sports cars without drawing unnecessary attention.

RELATED: 5 Classic Sleeper Cars That Won't Fool Anyone Today (5 New Ones No One Will See Coming)

1 Cadillac CTS-V

Front 3/4 view of the CTS-V 1
Cadillac

While the Cadillac CTS-V looks identical to the normal CTS, it is practically a Corvette Z06 under the hood since they share a supercharged V-8 engine good for 640 horsepower. Add a responsive eight-speed automatic sending all power to the rear wheels with an electronic limited-slip differential, and you have a sleeper sedan that will keep up with most supercars without breaking a sweat or raising an eyebrow.

640-Horsepower 2019 Cadillac CTS-V Sports Sedan
Via: GMChina

The CTS-V is a muscle car in a four-door luxury sedan’s body. Also, it is a highly refined vehicle that offers a pleasant and relaxed driving experience for when you are not to break straight-line performance records.