Chevy’s First Answer to the Mustang: 1967 Camaro SS

Chevrolet showed up to the pony car fight two and a half years late, and its first attempt had no room for a learning curve. The 1967 Camaro SS answered the Mustang GT feature for feature, then went further with a big-block option Ford could not match. Of 220,906 first-year Camaros, only about 34,000 wore Super Sport badges. Read on for why the first-year SS still sets the template every Camaro since has chased.

Classic black 1967 Chevrolet Camaro parked on a street.

Chevrolet was late to a party Ford had been throwing alone for two and a half years, and everyone in Detroit knew exactly how late. When Chevy’s answer finally reached showrooms, it did not get the luxury of a soft launch or a second-year fix, because the Mustang had already sold in numbers that made hesitation expensive. It had to match the Mustang GT feature for feature in its very first model year, and it had to do it while being visibly, obviously better in at least one dimension or nobody would bother switching. What Chevrolet’s engineers put together did not just answer the Mustang. In several specific ways it went past it, and the car that resulted started a nameplate that is still running.

A First Year With No Room for Excuses

The Camaro launched in the fall of 1966 for the 1967 model year, and the Super Sport package arrived alongside it as Chevrolet’s direct counterpunch to the Mustang GT rather than as a second-year addition. That timing is the whole reason the first-year car is interesting. Ford had been refining the Mustang since April 1964, working out what buyers actually ordered and where the money was, and Chevrolet had to absorb all of that secondhand and arrive with a complete, credible answer on day one. There was no room for a model year of learning. Everything Chevrolet believed about what a pony car buyer wanted had to be right the first time, priced correctly, and sitting on dealer lots the same autumn the 1967 Mustang went on sale.

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The Panther That Became the Camaro

Development had run under the internal codename Panther, and the press spent months chasing rumors about what Chevrolet would eventually call the thing before the Camaro name was finally announced. What mattered more than the name was the architecture underneath it. The new F-body platform used a front subframe bolted to a unibody rear structure, an approach that let Chevrolet tune ride isolation more precisely than a full unibody would allow and made engine bay packaging far more flexible. That flexibility is exactly why the big-block story below was even possible, and it is why the same basic architecture carried Chevrolet through the 1969 model year with only detail changes before the far more radical second-generation car arrived.

What the Super Sport Package Included

Order the Super Sport and the car announced itself. A bumblebee nose stripe wrapped the front end, the hood picked up a simulated louvered treatment with non-functional air inlets, and SS badging appeared on the grille, the fenders, the fuel filler cap, and the horn button. Underneath the appearance items sat the parts that mattered: a heavy-duty suspension, wider wheels, red-stripe wide-oval tires, and the reinforced components needed to cope with the available engines. The package was deliberately legible from across a parking lot, which was the point. Chevrolet was not trying to build a sleeper. It was trying to make sure that a buyer standing next to a Mustang GT could tell at a glance that the Chevrolet was the more serious-looking of the two.

Small-Block or Big-Block, Your Choice

The engine choices are what separated the Camaro from its rival. Buyers could take the 350-cubic-inch small-block making 295 horsepower, an engine that made its debut in this car, or step up to the 396-cubic-inch big-block, offered at 325 horsepower in its milder form and 375 horsepower in the L78 version. Ford had nothing in the Mustang engine bay that answered a 396 in 1967, and the mid-year arrival of the SS 396 package made the point louder still. That is the detail that made the first-year Camaro a genuine multi-engine performance platform rather than a one-trick pony car, and it forced Ford’s hand for 1968 in a way the base Camaro alone never would have.

RS, SS, and Z/28 Could Be Stacked

The option sheet also allowed combinations that still confuse people at car shows. The Rally Sport package was an appearance and lighting group centered on hidden headlights behind electrically operated grille doors, and it could be ordered together with the SS, producing the RS/SS cars that are the most sought-after of the standard first-year Camaros. Separately, Chevrolet built the Z/28 for Trans-Am homologation, using a 302-cubic-inch small-block rated conservatively at 290 horsepower, and only 602 of those were built for 1967. An RS/SS convertible paced the Indianapolis 500 that year, which gave Chevrolet the kind of first-season publicity that money genuinely cannot buy.

The Numbers That Make a Real SS Rare

The production math is why a documented first-year SS matters. Chevrolet built 220,906 Camaros for 1967, an impressive figure for a car entering an established segment cold, but only around 34,000 of those were Super Sports. That works out to roughly one car in six, and the big-block share of that group is smaller still. Riding on a 108.1-inch wheelbase and weighing somewhere near 3,180 pounds depending on options, the car was compact by modern standards and well balanced for its era. Half a century later, a correctly optioned and properly documented 1967 SS, particularly an L78 396 car, is a genuine find rather than something you stumble across at a weekend show.

How It Actually Drives Compared to a Mustang

Driving one back to back with a period Mustang is instructive. The Camaro’s front subframe and wider track give it a more settled feel over broken pavement, and the steering, while slow by any modern measure, is more consistent than the Ford’s. The big-block cars carry obvious weight over the nose and want a firm hand and good tires, which is why plenty of experienced owners argue the 350 SS is the better all-around driver. Front disc brakes were optional and are worth seeking out, because the standard drums are the weakest part of the package. What the Camaro does not do is feel small. It feels planted, deliberate, and slightly heavier than the Mustang, which is exactly what Chevrolet was aiming for.

What to Verify Before You Buy One

Verification is the first job with any first-year SS. Because the SS was an option package rather than a separate model, cloning is common and often well executed, so the cowl tag, the trim tag, and the engine block casting and stamping codes all need to be read carefully rather than taken on faith. A genuine L78 car should carry documentation, and the absence of it should be reflected in the price. Structurally, look at the rear frame rails, the trunk pan, the lower quarters behind the wheel openings, and the subframe mounting points, which take a beating on cars that have been driven hard. Reproduction parts support for the 1967 to 1969 Camaro is excellent, but that only helps if the car underneath is straight. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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