This is a guest post by James from Car Throttle - your performance car experts!

A favorite genre of many auto fiends is the “sleeper” - a car that looks like grandma’s Mercury but goes like stink. In this day and age of flashy, showy performance - with all the standard body kits, huge spoilers and obnoxious red badging automakers seem to believe belong on performance cars, the sleeper is a dying breed. The streets used to be littered with them, too. Buick Regal T-Types with Grand National running gear and a freaking landau roof, Galant VR-4’s with turbocharged 4G63’s and 4WD stuffed into an innocuous Galant body, heck - even the Fox-body Mustang LX 5.0 was a sleeper, with the thundering fuel-injected 302ci “5.0″ (actually a 4.9L) V8 but none of the GT’s plastic trashy bodywork.

Still, for those that would rather not have any show with their go, there are still sleepers left to pick from - if you know where to look. Sometimes you have to look in the strangest of places, but you can find burly horsepower under the hood of some unassuming cars these days. Let’s take a look at the top ten.

10) Toyota Camry SE V6

“A Camry? Really?” I know, I know. The Camry is the equivalent of the Antichrist to anyone that actually likes cars. But that makes it the perfect sleeper, at least in SE V6 trim. You see, under the hood is a very modern 3.5L 24v V6, which makes a rather considerable 268 horsepower coupled with a 6-speed auto.

Without a doubt, the rest of the car is mind-numbingly boring - but if you’re after velvety-smooth horsepower and strong mid-range in an utterly unassuming wrapper, the Camry SE V6 has got you covered. Just remember to take a No-Doz on long trips… the Camry might’ve misunderstood what “sleeper” means, and when you’re not smoking tires with your torquey V6, it’s likely to put you to sleep. Fast enough to embarrass a V6 Mustang, and good enough for 10th place. Continue Reading…

Yet another rumor that I wish and hop will turn out to be true. Current scuttlebutt is that the next generation Lotus Esprit will get its power from a Lexus sourced V10. Given Lotus’ penchant for lightness, that kind of power-plant could be a serious way to motivate you down the road … wait, Lexus it going to be making a V10?

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Looks like Toyota is wanting to clear out some of the garage space in their Cologne Germany GP headquarters, because they’re selling off some race used bits and bobs. Man, I could have titled this post, “Chris, give me a raise.”

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Probably, the Toyota Prius is the most talked about car currently on the road. Toyota essentially re-wrote the book about what an eco-conscious car is with this thing. Sure, it’s not without its negatives (weight, battery recycling, highway fuel mileage etc.) but overall, if you want to show the world your green cred while tooling around the Toyota Prius is pretty much THE way to do it. Just ask Honda, who’s going pretty much goofy trying to get people into their Insight hybrid. At the rate Toyota sells these things, pretty soon, saying “hybrid” to a person will give them a mental picture that equals “Prius”. Unless there are more alternatives out there for sale, Prius will be to hybrid what Kleenex is to wiping your nose. The name will simply become the product.

Speaking of selling, Toyota, who just rolled out the latest generation of Prius, has finally gotten around to announcing prices.

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OK, not ‘here’ exactly, but the new Prius has just bowed at the Geneva Motor Show, and to say that this car is highly anticipated is like saying Amy Winehouse has a slight drinking problem.

It won’t hit the showrooms until this spring, but when it does the new 2010 Toyota Prius will set new standards for innovative hybrid performance with a combined EPA estimated fuel efficiency rating of 50 miles-per-gallon.

Let’s dig a little deeper under the hood, cause we know there’s an engine in there somewhere.

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The Detroit auto show has come and gone, and has left the automotive industry with a little more to chew over. As a final wrap-up to quite possibly the most important auto show in America, we chose 10 cars that summed up the best of the show. We chose based on significance and looks, which is why you will see Honda’s Insight on the same list as the Fisker Karma. After much deliberating, here are the 10 we think are the best.

10) Volkwagen BlueSport Concept

Starting at the No. 10 spot, the BlueSport made this list because it is an honest effort to make a sporty car by a company whose most engaging vehicle to date is the Golf GT1 (no, the Bugatti Veyron does not count). It’s not the sexiest roadster available, as the Saturn Sky debatably holds that spot (key word: debatably. Check out the comments at the link above, and add your own opinion). While not terribly exciting to the eyes, it does feature that solid, reliable look that has come to define VW’s “German Engineering”. 57 miles to each gallon of diesel just adds to the charm.

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