1978 Chevrolet El Camino Super Sport: A Trim Package, Not a Series, on a Downsized Car

This record's own overview states that Tradecraft Specialties lists RPO Z15 as the El Camino's Super Sport package throughout the entire 1978-1987 run, named "El Camino Super Sport" for 1978 specifically, and describes it as up-level trim with SS badging and rally wheels rather than a distinct model line. This record's own dek identifies the car as the fifth-generation El Camino, with no production count from a verifiable source found for the SS package itself.¹

This record's own key facts state that about 1,200 Black Knight El Caminos, RPO Z16 combined with Z15, were built in 1978, and that Chevrolet priced the 1978 El Camino Super Sport, model 1AW80 with Z15, at $4,832.10 MSRP against $4,653.10 for the base 1AW80, for cars built from February 6, 1978. They add that the 1978 Super Sport package deleted the wheel-opening and rocker moldings and added a front air dam, black grille, Super Sport door and tailgate decals, lower-body accent paint, and Rally wheels painted to match, while the Black Knight package itself listed at $64.00 and was available only with code 19 Black paint.¹

This record's own production rows carry the 1,200-unit Black Knight estimate, explicitly marked "estimated" and sourced to the phrase "about 1,200," alongside a separately sourced 54,286-unit total for all El Caminos that the record's own note says is not an SS count and whose original source is unnamed by the article that reports it. The production notes state plainly that no Chevrolet production report was seen for this year, so the SS-specific count exists only as an unverified lead rather than a row in this record's own production table.^1,2

This record's own conflicts section documents a genuine price dispute: the GM information kit's $4,832.10 MSRP for the SS with V6, effective with the February 6, 1978 schedule, against a magazine-reported $5,022 with no schedule date stated, and the record's own treatment explains that Chevrolet raised prices several times within the model year, so the magazine figure likely reflects a different schedule and neither number replaces the other. Its own unpublished leads section separately flags a Wikipedia claim of 54,286 total production with 12,027 SS units, sourced to a page that redirected to a paid-access gateway and so could not be verified.²

This record's own engines section documents a 95-horsepower L26 200 V6 standard outside California, a 105-horsepower LD5 231 V6 for California only, a 145-horsepower LG3 305 V8 optional and requiring power steering, and a 170-horsepower LM1 350 V8 optional under the same requirement, the 305 and 350 both carrying a second, lower California rating. Its transmissions section documents a standard three-speed limited to the 200 V6, a four-speed manual for the two V8s outside California, and an automatic that the record notes was the only transmission offered in California at all.

This record's own options section documents Z15 and Z16 as unpriced trim-package entries sourced to the Tradecraft reference rather than the GM kit's price schedule, a gap this record carries without substitution since the two source documents cover different aspects of the same package. Its specifications section documents the car's standard equipment dimensions from the GM information kit, and this record's own performance and identification sections are both empty for 1978.¹