A Brief History of the Chevy “Super Sport”

Toss the “Super Sport” title onto any Chevy—vintage or modern—and it immediately makes things a lot more interesting. But a popular misconception is that the “SS” badge automatically denoted the top-dog performance trim.

….And that’s not exactly true.

So let’s dig into some history behind the term and see how it was applied to a handful of popular models from Chevy’s lineup of cars & trucks.

The Origin of Super Sport

For starters, you may be shocked(!) to learn that Chevy wasn’t the first automaker to use the phrase Super Sport.

Although it was pluralized, Crosley Motors of Cincinnati, Ohio first applied the term “Super Sports” to its plucky Hotshot coupe back in the early 1950s—several years before Chevy would christen the singular Super Sport term. Read all about America’s first postwar sports car, the Hotshot, here.

Fun Fact: Crosley also coined the phrase “Sports Utility” in reference to its wagon models.

In Chevy parlance, the Super Sport name first appeared on the Corvette Super Sport concept car released in 1957.

Years later, Super Sport would officially become a trim level on the 1961 Impala SS.

But contrary to popular belief, the Super Sport trim was just as much an appearance package as it was a performance upgrade. In other words, seeing an “SS” badge on a Chevy didn’t automatically indicate the car was capable of tire-shredding performance.

For example. when the Super Sport trim debuted on the Impala back in 1961, the SS kit didn’t automatically earn you the coveted 409 big block—the SS just meant some interior and exterior enhancements, along with some upgraded suspension and brake parts.

If you wanted the extra cubes with your Super Sport, you had to add it on the order sheet separately.

Super Sport on Two Wheels?

Before we get too far, it’s worth mentioning some two-wheel Super Sport models here too.

And it all started during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Honda exploded onto the scene with a lineup of reliable, affordable, and rev-happy motorcycles—and it christened many of those models as Super Sports.

Take the 1959 CB92 Benly Super Sport for example—a screaming 125cc twin that announced to the world that Honda could make some seriously potent performance bikes that were well-mannered enough for the average rider.

Honda would later go on to apply the Super Sport name on several of its CB-series motorcycles throughout the 1960s and 1970s—including the game-changing CB750 in 1969.

Pretty soon, the Super Sport moniker was truncated to Supersport and it was adopted by all the major motorcycle manufacturers to refer to an entire class of performance motorcycles—though it’s common to use Supersport to define any performance-oriented bike, depending on the context, the name is often applied to the middleweight 600cc class.

Early Examples of Chevrolet Super Sport Models

But we digress…we’ve already mentioned the 1961 Impala as the first Chevy to carry the SS badge, but it was soon applied to other vehicles in the Bowtie stable—starting with the Nova in 1963.

As with the Impala SS, the Nova’s Super Sport trim by itself didn’t give you much in the way of neck-snapping acceleration—it was primarily an aesthetic upgrade, with features like a floor console and unique gauge cluster.

In fact, when the SS package launched on the Nova in 1963, you couldn’t even get a V8—however, checking the RPO Z03 Super Sport box on the option sheet automatically bumped you up from the base four-banger into a mix of Chevy’s inline six engines. (Chevy quickly saw the appeal of V8 power, and the trusty 283 small block V8 became a Nova option in 1964.)

1964 brought us the introduction on the new Chevelle. Chevy made sure to bring along the SS trim on its freshly-minted A-body midsize but, here again, it didn’t offer much from a performance standpoint.

Only available on the upper-tier Chevelle convertible and Malibu trims, the Super Sport package offered similar badging and interior embellishments, but you could still get it with pretty much any engine combo—including the base “Hi-Thrift” inline six and its modest 120 horsepower.

The party really got going in 1965 when the Z-16 package quietly made its way onto the Chevelle order sheet. Checking that Z-16 “SS 396” box got you the brand-spanking-new Mark IV 396 Big Block, along with a fully boxed chassis and a host of other requisite steering, suspension, and brake upgrades.

And it was the arrival of the Big Block Chevy engine that officially put the “Super” in Super Sport.

The SS Stands Alone in 1966

While the Impala SS and Nova SS continued merrily along, things changed for the Chevelle in 1966.

That year, the big block-powered Chevelle SS broke off into a standalone model—which earned it a distinct “SS 396” moniker and requisite badging.

And that’s a big distinction, because when compared to the traditional Super Sport Chevelle models, the SS 396 was a full-fledged performance package.

At the heart of the SS 396 magic was, of course, the eponymous 396 Mark IV big block and, for the 1966 model year it came in three flavors: a 325 hp L35, a 360 hp L34, and the top-dog L78 which made 375 hp.

Then, when the fearsome 454 broke cover in 1970, the Chevelle SS 396 welcomed the SS 454. This also included the mighty LS6 option—which at 450 horsepower, was one of the few street cars that could make 426 Hemi owners nervous.

And lest we forget about the El Camino, it got its own SS trim when the A-body line got a refresh in 1968. Given that it was a close cousin to the Chevelle, the SS options between the two shared similar features.

Speaking of A-body derivatives, when the Monte Carlo debuted in 1970, Chevy put an exclamation point on its SS package by offering it exclusively as the SS 454—complete with a 360 hp Mark IV big block under the hood.

Now, remember the Nova? It followed a similar path, with Super Sport models splitting off from the Nova mothership to become bona fide performance cars.

As an example, in 1968, checking the Super Sport box automatically earned you the freshly-minted 350ci V8 good for close to 300 horsepower.

Sadly for the Nova and the Chevelle, the SS packages gradually returned to being more of an appearance trim before fading away entirely by the mid 1970s.

Fun Fact: The El Camino holds the distinction for the longest run of the Super Sport badge, first offered on the A-body El Camino in 1968 and continuing through the 1970s until the demise of the G-body after 1987.

Camaro Enters the Chat

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Chevy’s then-new Pony Car, the Camaro. Given its sporting pretenses, Chevy offered an SS trim on the car from the get-go in 1967.

From the onset, the SS trim on the Camaro was positioned as a true performance package and, as such, it made a V8 mandatory—either the venerable 350 small block or the mighty 396 big block.

Depending on the year, the engine was accompanied by a host of chassis upgrades, along with special badging and cosmetic enhancements—things like hood louvers and stripe packages evolved throughout the early years of the Camaro SS.

The SS trim carried on in both SS 350 and an SS 396 flavors as the Camaro entered its second generation update in 1970. Curiously, the Z28 trim proved to be a better marketing draw, and both SS packages disappeared from the options sheet in 1972.

The Camaro wouldn’t see a return of the SS badge until 1996.

The Post-1970s Super Sport

The stalwart El Camino kept the SS legacy alive during the 1970s, and the Monte Carlo rejoined the Super Sport party in the 1980s.

Together with its G-body cousins like like the Pontiac 2+2 and Hurst/Olds, the Monte Carlo SS was one of the last body-on-frame V8 throwbacks to the muscle car’s golden age of the 1960s.

While power was down compared to the big block-powered Super Sports of the late 1960s, the SS package on the G-body Monte Carlo still maintained a vestige of performance thanks to a high output version of the 305 Chevy small block.

(It’s worth mentioning that the SS badge would return to the Monte Carlo during its stint a a front-wheel drive model from 2000-07 as well.)

Then, after a brief flirtation with various Z-inspired suffixes during the 1980s (like the Cavalier Z24, Beretta Z26, and—gasp—the Lumina Z34) Chevy increasingly leaned on the SS badge with the hopes that its nostalgic cachet would attract buyers.

For instance, there was an interesting branch on the SS family tree with the addition of the 454 SS—a big block-powered version of the Chevy C1500 half-ton pickup truck.

The 454 SS had some other styling upgrades, along with enhanced steering and suspension parts to complement the 230 horsepower fuel injected 454 big block under the hood. It was a relatively short-lived model, with a production run that extended from 1990 to 1993.

Chevy also resurrected the O.G. Super Sport with a new Impala SS model in 1994. Still riding on an updated B-body chassis, the Impala SS was a stablemate to the redesigned Caprice Classic that bowed in 1991.

But unlike the original 1961 Impala SS, these new versions put performance at the forefront, thanks to a mandatory 260 horsepower V8 that was based on the LT1 found in the Corvette. And better still, the Impala SS was able to poach a lot of the upgraded chassis and steering parts used in the police package installed on the contemporary Caprice Classic too.

(Just as we saw with the Monte Carlo mentioned earlier, the SS badge returned to the front-wheel drive Impala from 2004 to 2009 as well.)

When the fourth-generation Camaro was released in 1993, the Z28 was still the top performer, and the SS package was conspicuously absent from the options sheet.

All that changed in 1996 though—when a fresh SS option added a bit more oomph to the Z28 thanks to an upgraded intake/exhaust combo that was factory-installed by the aftermarket tuning experts at SLP (the same folks behind the Firehawk Pontiacs).

Even after the 2003-09 hiatus, Chevy would continue to apply the SS badge regularly to the Camaro up until the pony car was halted again in 2024. And while the SS badge didn’t always represent the best-of-the-best performance option on the Camaro (*cough*ZL1*cough*), thanks to a modern Gen. V 6.2L LT1 V8, the SS made an eye-watering 455 horsepower.

Chevy also tossed the SS badge on a healthy portion of its catalog during the early 2000s. The Silverado, Trailblazer, HHR, Impala, Malibu, and compact Cobalt also enjoyed the Super Sport treatment.

While the primary focus was on appearance, there are a few notable things to point out. For example, thanks to supercharging and (later on) turbocharging, the Cobalt SS was a potent performer—capable of sub-14 quarter-mile ETs.

Then, there’s the Trailblazer SS. Introduced in 2006, the TBSS came with a 6.0L LS2 engine that was heavily derived from the same LS2 found in the contemporary Corvette. That specific LS2 “truck” engine variant found in the Trailblazer SS is highly prized due to its unique intake manifold—often regarded as the best-flowing factory LS manifold GM made.

The SS As Its Own Model—Twice, Sort Of

Finally, we’ll wrap up this increasingly not-so-brief history of the SS with a pair of interesting standalone SS models. The first is the SSR.

Short for “Super Sport Roadster”, the SSR was born out of a concept showcased in 2000 that borrowed heavily on the styling cues of Chevy’s beloved Advance Design trucks. Thanks to the concept’s warm reception, Chevy greenlit production of a street version.

Intended to be less of a truck and more of a sporty cruiser, the SSR was fitted with a retractable hardtop and, depending on the year, was offered with either a 5.3L LM4 or 6.0L LS2 V8 (yup, the same LS2 found in the Trailblazer SS). Later in the production run, Chevy introduced a six-speed manual option as well.

Not the strong seller Chevy had hoped for, SSR production only ran from 2003 to 2006.

Finally, there was simply the Chevy SS.

Essentially a re-badged version Holden Commodore from GM’s Australian division, the Chevy SS was a legit sport sedan that picked up where the freshly-cancelled Pontiac G8 left off.

With rear wheel drive, a 415 horsepower 6.2L LS3 V8, and an optional six-speed manual, the SS was a true performance car worthy of its Super Sport etymology.

Sadly, when GM announced the demise of the Holden marque altogether, it meant that the United States only got to enjoy the Chevy SS from 2014 to 2017.

The Future of the Super Sport?

With such a long legacy that winds its way through Chevrolet heritage, we’re willing to bet the “SS” badge will reappear somewhere in the GM portfolio. Perhaps through its own standalone brand—a performance-only offshoot that houses sports cars and off-roaders?

Time will tell.