1981 Chevrolet El Camino SS: The V8 Upcharge Shrinks to $50

This record's own overview states that Tradecraft Specialties lists RPO Z15 as the El Camino's Super Sport package throughout the 1978-1987 run, named "El Camino SS" for 1981, 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 Chevrolet priced the 1981 El Camino Super Sport, model 1AW80 with Z15, at $7,217.40 MSRP against $6,988.40 for the base 1AW80, for cars built from January 5, 1981. They add that the 305 four-barrel LG4 V8 option cost only $50.00 over the standard V6 for 1981 and was rated 145 net horsepower in every state, a single unified rating that this record's own engines section states explicitly applies the same in California as elsewhere.

This record's own production rows carry a single figure from a separate source, 37,533 El Caminos built for 1981 across all trims, and the record's own note says plainly this total is not an SS count and that the article reporting it does not name its own source for the year. The production notes state that no Chevrolet production report was seen for this year, so an El Camino SS-specific count exists only as an unverified lead rather than a row in this record's own production table.²

This record's own unpublished leads section flags a Wikipedia claim of 36,711 total production with 3,769 SS units, sourced to a page that redirected to a paid-access gateway and so could not be verified, the same unresolved lineage problem this record's own production notes describe for the year's total-production figure. This record's own conflicts section is empty for 1981, with no disputed figure flagged anywhere else in the record; every price and production count this record carries is attributed to exactly one source rather than reconciled across two.²

This record's own engines section documents a 110-horsepower LC3 229 V6 standard with NA5 standard emissions, a 110-horsepower LD5 231 V6 available only with YF5 California emissions and the automatic, a 115-horsepower L39 267 V8 optional at $50.00 with standard emissions, and the 145-horsepower LG4 305 V8 also at $50.00, the two V8 options priced identically within this record's own options data. Its transmissions section documents a standard three-speed limited to the 229 V6, a four-speed manual for the 305 V8 alone and not available with California emissions, and an automatic offered with every engine.

This record's own options section prices the L39 267 and the LG4 305 identically at $50.00 each, and the MX1 automatic at $349.00, all effective with vehicles produced on and after January 5, 1981. Its specifications section documents a 3,266-pound curb weight for the six-cylinder El Camino against 3,279 pounds with Z15 fitted, a 13-pound difference the record does not state as a sentence but which follows directly from the two weight figures it carries, a 117.1-inch wheelbase, and a 201.6-inch overall length; this record's own performance and identification sections are both empty for 1981.