Chevrolet Camaro SS 396-1968 images

The 1968 Camaro SS 396 could be ordered with three different versions of its big-block engine, ranging from a mild 325 horsepower to a genuinely quick 375-horsepower L78. Most buyers stuck with the base setup, which is exactly what makes the rarer combinations so collectible today. Here’s a breakdown of the engine options Chevrolet offered and how many of each actually made it out the factory door.

1968 Chevrolet Camaro SS 396 CID V8 4-Speed manual

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Order a Camaro SS in 1968 and Chevrolet handed you a choice that could turn an ordinary weekend cruiser into something far more serious, if you knew which box to check. Under the SS badge sat not one 396 but three distinct versions of it, each built to a different level of aggression, and the wrong guess on the order form meant leaving real horsepower on the table. Most buyers played it safe. A small minority didn’t, and what they got is still argued about at car shows five decades later. Which version ended up in this particular car, and how rare was it really?

Three 396s, One Badge

Chevrolet offered the 1968 Camaro SS 396 with three distinct big-block configurations: the L35, rated at 325 horsepower; the L34, bumped to 350 horsepower; and the solid-lifter L78, an underrated 375 horsepower with 415 lb-ft of torque thanks to an aluminum high-rise intake, a Holley carburetor, and a more aggressive cam. All three shared the same basic 396-cubic-inch big block, but the L78 turned the Camaro into a genuine street brawler rather than just a sharp-looking cruiser.

Just How Rare Was the Top Engine?

Chevrolet built roughly 235,147 Camaros for the 1968 model year, 214,713 sport coupes and 20,434 convertibles, but only a fraction of those left the factory with the 396 big block at all, and fewer still with the range-topping L78. Of the SS 396 Camaros built that year, most carried the milder 325-hp L35, while only about 4,500 came equipped with the 375-hp L78, making it one of the more sought-after combinations from the ’68 model year today.

The Camaro’s Response to the Pony Car Wars

Chevrolet launched the Camaro for the 1967 model year specifically to answer Ford’s Mustang, and by 1968 the second model year brought a round of refinements, revised styling, a smoother ride, and improved ventilation, while keeping the same fundamental formula that had made the first-year Camaro an immediate hit against its Dearborn rival.

The RPO Codes That Built a Serious Muscle Car

Building a genuinely quick 1968 Camaro SS meant navigating a stack of factory option codes beyond just the engine choice. A close-ratio four-speed manual, a heavy-duty rear end with a numerically higher gear ratio, and upgraded cooling all had to be specified correctly to unlock the L78’s full potential on the street. Buyers who understood the order sheet could build a genuinely formidable street car; those who didn’t often ended up with a Camaro that looked the part without quite delivering the performance.

The Multi-Leaf Rear Suspension Behind the Power

Big-block Camaros for 1968 rode on heavier-duty, multi-leaf rear springs designed specifically to handle the added weight and torque of the 396, along with front disc brakes that became increasingly common as buyers realized a car this quick needed to stop as well as it accelerated. Those chassis upgrades, easy to overlook next to the engine specs, were just as essential to making the SS 396 package work as a complete performance car.

A Four-Speed Manual as the Enthusiast’s Choice

While Chevrolet offered the SS 396 with either a three-speed automatic or a four-speed manual, serious performance buyers gravitated toward the manual, prized for giving the driver full control over when the big-block’s torque came on, particularly with the solid-lifter L78’s more aggressive cam profile, which rewarded a driver willing to keep the engine in its power band.

Why the L78 Commands a Premium Today

Because so few 1968 Camaros left the factory with the L78, and because the option required buyers to actively seek it out on the order form rather than simply checking a single “SS” box, surviving, documented L78 cars occupy a different tier of the collector market entirely from the more common L35-equipped cars, often commanding significantly higher prices at auction.

The Camaro’s Rivalry With Its Own Corporate Sibling

Beyond competing with Ford’s Mustang, the 1968 Camaro SS also had to share showroom space with GM’s own Pontiac Firebird, a nearly identical platform-mate with different styling and engine options. That internal competition pushed both divisions to differentiate their pony cars through unique trim, distinct engine lineups, and separate marketing identities, even though the two cars shared the same basic underpinnings.

How the SS Package Differed From the Later Z/28

While the SS 396 focused on straight-line big-block power, Chevrolet’s Z/28 package, aimed at SCCA Trans-Am racing homologation, took the opposite approach with a smaller-displacement, high-revving small-block tuned for balance and handling rather than raw torque. The two packages appealed to genuinely different buyers, one chasing quarter-mile bragging rights, the other chasing a car that could hang with imports through a road course, and Chevrolet kept both alive simultaneously to cover both bases.

A Second-Year Camaro Still Finding Its Footing

By the time this car left the factory, Chevrolet had spent a full model year gathering feedback on the original 1967 Camaro’s shortcomings, and the resulting 1968 refinements, better ventilation, revised suspension tuning, and cleaned-up styling details, gave the SS 396 a noticeably more polished feel than its debut-year sibling, even as the core big-block performance formula stayed largely unchanged.

For a buyer weighing a 1968 SS 396 today, the second-year refinements are a genuine reason to prefer it over the debut-year car, even setting aside the specific engine and options fitted to any individual example, since Chevrolet used that extra development time to iron out real shortcomings rather than simply chasing a styling refresh, and that maturity shows up in how the car actually drives today on real roads, not just in the numbers printed on its original window sticker.

Even among big-block Camaros, the specific combination of body color, interior trim, and factory-installed options on any individual 1968 SS 396 can meaningfully affect its standing with collectors, since documented, original-paint examples in less common color combinations routinely draw more attention at shows than a more commonly ordered configuration.

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