Camaro By The Letters: RS, SS, Z28

If you’ve been a Camaro owner, builder, or restorer over the past five decades, you know what the letters RS, SS, and Z28 mean. For those who have recently discovered their passion for Chevrolet’s longtime Mustang-fighter, here’s a quick tutorial.

Hideaway headlights and upgraded trim for just $105 extra? That was how Chevy packaged and priced the first Rally Sport option in 1967 — something that Ford didn’t come close to matching. (This 1967 Camaro sales brochure excerpt, and the other Camaro sales brochure images seen in this story, are courtesy www.lov2xlr8.no

RS stands for “Rally Sport,” which was an option package on the first-generation Camaro, starting in 1967. For just $105 more than the base Camaro price, it included dress-up items like chrome wheel well and roof drip rail moldings, a wide, lower body molding, RS emblems, and its most distinctive feature — hideaway headlights.

In its first year, the “Command Performance” Camaro came in three flavors — standard (background), Rally Sport (middle-right) and Super Sport (foreground).

Also priced at $105 that year was the Super Sport (SS) package. Since mid-year 1961, all steel-bodied, front-engine-powered Chevy car lines had a Super Sport version. The SS was equipped with bucket seats, distinctive SS wheel covers and exterior trim, as well as engine options ranging from cruiser 327 cubic-inch small-blocks to tire-frying 396 and 427 cubic-inch big-blocks, all of which came under a distinctive SS-specific hood. The Camaro SS option was the only way to get a 350 cubic-inch small-block that first year, with the 325 horsepower 396 cubic-inch engine joining the SS option list in November of 1966.

At some point, Chevrolet’s Product Planning department asked, “How about offering the RS and SS packages together?” (This was when more options meant more money could be made on a car by Chevrolet and the dealer.) So, ordering the RS and SS package together, created the RS/SS. The SS emblems replaced the RS emblems, while keeping the Rally Sport’s hideaway headlights

This strategy continued through 1968 and 1969. The most famous RS/SS being the Pacesetter Camaro built as replicas of the Indianapolis 500’s Official Pace Car. The Z28 could be ordered with the Rally Sport package, but not the SS option.

Here’s a look at the 1969 Camaro Pacesetters, and the Chevy trucks provided to the Speedway’s safety crews for the 1969 Indianapolis 500-mile race. Image courtesy www.camaros.org

For Camaro’s second generation, a distinctive front grille and split-bumper combination became the Rally Sport’s signature styling cue. And, yes, it was also available with the SS package, at least through the 1973 model, when the last second-gen Camaro SS was built.

As for Z28, that moniker stood for “Camaro Special Performance Package.” Product Promotion Engineering specialist Vince Piggins initiated the Z28 to make Camaro a force in SCCA’s Trans-American Sedan Championship series.

We’re sure you would rather drive a Blazer to that ski resort. But, the new Camaro stood out, no matter where they were photographed!

A special 302 cubic-inch small-block (a 327 with a 283 crankshaft), a heavy-duty Muncie four-speed, and heavy-duty chassis hardware “borrowed” from bigger Chevy car lines, made up the package. The SCCA approved this as Camaro Z28. The Z28 wasn’t listed in the 1967 Camaro sales literature, so savvy Chevy shoppers had their dealer confirm with Chevrolet that it was available. Buyers ordered 602 Z28s that year.

For 1974, the big five-mph bumpers were engineered into Camaro’s body and chassis. The L82 engine made its last appearance in the ’74 Z28.

Again, any Z28-equipped Camaro could be ordered with the Rally Sport package, but not the SS package, as Z28 upgraded much of what came with the Super Sport group. Z28 Rally Sports were available in Camaro’s second generation until January 1, 1973, when the new, Federally-mandated 5 mph bumper standard meant the RS’s split-bumper front end had to go.

Tighter emissions rules killed the Z28 after 1974, but it reappeared in 1977 using the base 350 with a special chassis and appearance group. By then, Rally Sport had returned as an optional two-tone paint scheme/trim option, but it wasn’t available on the late-second-generation Z28.

During Camaro’s third generation (1982 through 1992), Z28 was the performance version, and the IROC-Z appeared in 1985. Z28 made a return in 1990, and the Rally Sport option was retired after 1981, and did not appear on Camaro again until 1989.

The fourth-generation Camaro did have a Z28 option, but no Rally Sport when they appeared in 1993. The RS re-appeared as a trim option in 1996, the same year that SS was revived as a special, ultra-high-performance Z28. It continues to be the moniker for the top-performance regular-production Camaro.