This is the perfect example of the incorrect thinking and image the 4th Gen SS has made of the Z28 name to some.

 

well in todays SS, the performance gains are so small, that it does basically seem like nothing more than an appearance package... Im not sure what you are trying to say in your post, but I do know the differences from the 4th gen SS and the Z28 but dont think that GM went far enough on making the SS the "top dawg.." Ive raced my friends stock 96 SS and 1 out of the 3 times we raced I beat him...and Ive hardly done any mods to my car, just CAI and flowmaster exhaust..and the times he did beat me, it wasnt by very much...now if they want to badge the car SS they should at least give it a very noticable HP increase. 10-15hp just doesnt cut it

 

THose numbers are all nice and "bad-***" and they take on a personality of their own beyond the scope of the motor displacement.. but will you ever go around proclaiming your pride for your "SS 346" ? I really doubt it. How many people even acknowledge that their motor is a 346 NOT a 350? It's embarrassing to them because 346 is wimpy-sounding.

4th gen SS is a detriment to F-body heritage. Turning the tables completely upside down for a few years just to make some quick bucks off a glorified appearance package..

Count me in. I agree with all that. In the 4th gen, the Z/28 was the unfortunate victim to be dumbed down for the sake of the underachiever SS. Very shortsighted.

 

I never really liked that Z28SS designation . The Z/28 should have been a real Z/28, and if they wanted to add an SS...then they should have done it correctly.

Stripping the Z/28 of everything that makes it a Z/28...in order to sell more high profit SS's, IMO was a mistake. It created more near term profit....but at the expense of the Camaro brand itself.

And BTW...... for those that feel these debates are meaningless......you couldn't be further from the truth!

Five or six years ago the Camaro team figured, no one knows or cares about the Z/28 or it's lineage, ( HOW THIS INCREDIBLE DILLUSION OCCURED ....I'LL NEVER KNOW!).

Now they know the Z/28 has a fervent enthusiast base that will accept no substitute!

I agree with guion when he said.....The SS was always the common performance model and the Z/28 was always the special performance model.

 

Yup.

But if they kept it Z28/SS it would've at least kept Z28 in there.

 

I wish they'd always kept the Z28 true to its first gen heritage--a low production, trick (like the old Holley carb, aluminum midrise and swirl polished valves), homologation road racer. When the Z28 was resurrected in 1978, I think it was, after the dead years in the mid-seventies, it was really an apperance package w/ a different resonator. The Z28 has never again been quite as exclusive as it was in the first gen.

If this path were followed, then the SS could be what I think it's always been--a max HP, drag racer's special, like the SS 396 Camaro/El Camino/Chevelle/Nova type of vehicle, which is what I think most people think of when you say "SS".

I love my SS, by the way, even if the cold air hood, suspension, wheels, tires and cat-back system don't give me much more horsepower. It was the top the factory had to offer at the time, and that was that, even if the differences were small. Would I have liked it if the SS were more of a Z06? Yes, but you take what you can get.

 

[Five or six years ago the Camaro team figured, no one knows or cares about the Z/28 or it's lineage, ( HOW THIS INCREDIBLE DILLUSION OCCURED ....I'LL NEVER KNOW!).

Now they know the Z/28 has a fervent enthusiast base that will accept no substitute!


Hmmmm....I've been a member of the Camaro team for quite some time and I've never heard someone say that no one knows or cares about the Z28 or its lineage.............................and I'm not sure who made that statement......but I guess I kinda resent the implication...............

You also imply that "Now they know...." Sorry...but you are wrong again.................. I can tell you that Jim Perkins and John Heinricy and Harry Turner and Jim Taylor and **** Almond and Cheryl Pilcher and Ted Robertson and John Cafaro and Jerry Palmer and a whole lot of others (including myself) have always understood the importance of the Z28 moniker......


Methinks you need to go back to 1995 and snoop around and find out how the SS came about............

 

You have to remember that not all of us have access to GM's time travel machines, and therefore this is a difficult task.

 

If I recall correctly, SLP approached with its idea to make a slightly upgraded, overpriced Z28, and you guys thought, why not bring back SS and call it that?? Wthout thinking of the reprocussions. Thats what it seems like anyway.

Then the Z28 became the V6 Camaro with a V8 and supposedly a lesser car than the SS in all performance areas which was wrong. A undistinguishable mid-model, that is not Z28. *Doh*

 

But I have....and more than once. (not from you BTW)

 

Well... they went on to sell a LOT of SS's for a premium.... that's the 'reprocussions' I see.

And the Z28 didn't change. It looked like it looked from the beginning...

Saying it looked like the V6 because of the SS is wrong. It pretty much looked like the V6 from the beginning of the 4th Gen.

That is not the SS's fault.

Like Red Planet said in another thread, Chevy decided to make the V6 looks like the Z28 , because 3rd gen RS sales shot up quitre a bit when they started to look like the IROC-Z / Z28. IMHO that plan backfired because the V6 never looked different from the Z28 in the 4th gen, so you never get the feeling that the V6 "looked like a Z28" , but the other way around...

 

I wouldn't say they sold alot, the numbers 96-02 are the lowest consecutive year Camaro sales of all time. The reprocussion was devaluing the Z28 name. And you could tell a 93-95 Z28 apart from an V6 easier than the LS1 years' V6 from the Z28. The SS got the appearance the Z28 should have or it shoulda had some more distinction to it. But distinction was not the 4th Gens thing. *Doh*

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Like Red Planet said in another thread, Chevy decided to make the V6 look like the Z28 , because 3rd gen RS sales shot up quite a bit when they started to look like the IROC-Z / Z28. IMHO that plan backfired because the V6 never looked different from the Z28 in the 4th gen, so you never get the feeling that the V6 "looked like a Z28" , but the other way around...

Yeah, you know just as well as I do that it was done right in the Third Gen. There were differences that let you know right away whether it was an RS, IROC-Z, or Z28. And every other model for that matter. But the 4th Gen, nope.

 

Now, you tell me ONE THING that let's you differentiate a 93-95 (throw 96-97 in there too if you like) Z28 from a V6 more than and LS1 Z28 from a 98+ V6!!! C'mon.. just one thing. There is nothing. That is just flat out

And the proportion of SS sales , especially in the LS1 years, is quite significant, especially when you figure the $4000 premium that people had to pay for it.

I do agree however, that the Z28 should have looked at least somewhat different from the V6's from the beginning, like the last 3rd gens did with the spoiler / hood buldges, etc... The SS proably should have been the Z28, but then a lot of people didn't want to pay the extra for that stuff and still wanted the V8, so it's a big catch 22.


Well, ya, that's what I was getting at. I think the idea was there to carry over a success from the 3rd gen, but it failed because the 4th gen never was seen in the same situation that the 3rd gen was...

 

People who don't know Camaros much, like the ricer croud, and younger people, think lowly of a Z28. "The SS is just so much faster". They think the SS has such a large performance edge on a Z and if you run into an SS you better watch out. They have no idea that the two are almost indistinguishable performance wise. I guess it does have to do with the scoop, spoiler, and wheels. I like to tell my friend with an SS that he bought the ricer package with all the scoops, spoilers, and rims for a car that isn't really faster....................I get a real kick out of that.


I like when it was really considered a Z28SS, I think that is better fitting than a whole new model.

 

Black headlight pockets which the Base cars did not have during the LT1 years. And if driving lights were optional those years I don't know, but if they weren't on Base cars that would be 2. Not sure.

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Well, ya, that's what I was getting at. I think the idea was there to carry over a success from the 3rd gen, but it failed because the 4th gen never was seen in the same situation that the 3rd gen was...

And because it looked like something from space.