A little history...
The Super Sport name goes back quite a ways with Chevrolet, At least 64 and maybe back to 61 or 62. It wasn't platform specific and it indicated that the car in question had a performance option of some sort - usually a better engine.
For the 1st Gen Camaro, the SS came with two possible engines in a variety of flavors. There was the 295 hp 350 (first year for the venerable 350, and at the time, the only place you could get one was a Camaro), and later on in 67 there were 325 hp, 350 hp, and 375 hp 396 big blocks. There were a few factory aluminum head variants on the big blocks, but they were exceedingly rare and prone to head gasket leaks.
GM banned putting anything over 400 cubic inches in intermediate or smaller cars, so there was never a SS 427 in a Camaro, but as mentioned above, a few dealerships like Nickey, Berger & Yenko made their own 427's by either switching in a 427 or by ordering a Camaro with one through the back door COPO process. in 69, GM made a few more, including a handful of ZL1's with all aluminum 427s. They still didn't call them SS Camaro's though. You COULD get an SS 427 in a full size Chevy.
The Z/28 name is a bit more interesting. Back in 67, Chevy wanted to get into the Trans Am racing game, but it required a couple of things:
1) the engine displacement had to be under 305 cubic inches (5.0 Litres).
2) the car had to be offered for sale to the general public
Chevy accomplished the first by creating a 302. They either used a destroked 327 or a stroker 283, but either way, the result was a very potent, high reving screamer. It was rated at 290 hp, which was correct... at 4800 RPM. The beauty of the beast showed its face at around 6,000 to 6,500 RPM.
So how could you order a car with a 302 in it? Check the box for option Z/28 when you ordered the car. Thats right, the legendary Z/28 started out life as nothing more than an option code. They only made 602 z/28's in 67, and they came with no outside badging or identification other than the racing stripes. It wasn't until mid year 1968 that the badging ever showed up on the car.
By the mid 70's, performance was no longer a priority at Chevrolet, and the SS and Z/28 names were both dropped for a while. The Z/28 name was brought back in 1977, and it remained the performance option almost continuously from then on. There were a couple of years where it was replaced with IROC but Z/28 never really died as a brand identifier.
In the mid 90's, they created a SS Z/28 which was basically an aftermarket ram air Z/28 that could be ordered through any dealership. After that, I get a little fuzzy... I don't know if the SS became a separate and distinct car or if it remained an option for the Z/28.
The above information has been taken from memory, so if I have a few of the facts off a little bit, please forgive. The general gist of the story is about right, though.
At the end of the day, what do I think they should call a 427 Camaro? I kind of like the idea of calling it a ZL1. Second to that, I would probably vote for SS. While it isn't the case any more, I have always thought of Z/28's as being small block cars and I have always thought of big blocks (396's and 427's) as being SS Options. Since the LS7 is basically a Small Block 427, I guess it could go either way, but in my way of thinking, Chevy should use their most recognizable brand name option (the Z/28) for their standard perfomance options, and use something special for the really cool stuff.
Just my 2 cents worth.
G
