2006 Chevrolet Impala SS

Cranky old-timers who complain about the new Dodge Charger's four doors will hate what Chevrolet is doing with Super Sport. How dare Chevy hang an SS badge on the boxy, utilitarian Malibu Maxx or on a whiny, blown four-cylinder Civic coupe wannabe Cobalt--or anything else with front drive? It's the risk automakers take when they tangle with their heritage. Never mind that SS versions were first and foremost a way to get bucket seats and more chrome trim on Chevy II Novas and 327 Impalas. It's the muscular 1966 Chevelle 396, 1970 Chevelle 454, 1960s Impala 396s, 409s, and 427s, and the Camaros we remember as standard-bearers of the SS emblem--the cars that today command big prices at classic-car auctions. The theoretically possible 1961 six-cylinder Nomad SS station wagons had been sold for scrap metal long before the Carter administration.The new SS strategy is step two, "great sub-brands in Super Sport and for off-road trucks, Z71," in Chevrolet's three-step strategy to overtake Ford for the number-one sales spot in the U.S., says Jim Campbell, director of Chevrolet car marketing. That step is bookended by (one) "great mainstream vehicles" and (three) "great image vehicles" in Corvette and the truck that revived Super Sport two years ago, the SSR.

The strategy is--listen up, old-timers--remarkably similar to what Chevy did in the 1960s. There'll be no SS for every model, unlike what Mercedes-Benz AMG seems to be doing. "So you won't have an Uplander SS," Campbell says to the auto world's relief. But it has eight SS models in the pipeline, plus two more variations of the Cobalt SS on the way, all designed to bring power, handling, and pizzaz to the people. SSR and Silverado SS are on the market (the new rear-drive Silverado SS is tested elsewhere in these pages), with the Cobalt SS Supercharged making its way to customers now, and the SS TrailBlazer, Impala, Monte Carlo, Malibu, and Malibu Maxx in the pipeline in time for the 2006-model-year launch. And Chevy is prepping a 170-horsepower, 2.4-liter, naturally aspirated Cobalt SS sedan and coupe for autumn. It'll offer young buyers a lower entry point and potentially better insurance rates as an easy way into the SS line. Chevy won't talk about it yet, but expect an HHR SS with the 2007 Pontiac Solstice's 240-horsepower turbo four next year.

SS editions, like the new Impala/Monte Carlo, TrailBlazer, and the two Malibus, will "be the top-level performer for an individual line," Campbell notes. "It'll be competitive. It may not always be at the top" versus the competition. So if the 303-horsepower Impala SS doesn't take the title of best-performing front-drive midsize sedan under $30,000, it'll at least be the best-performing large-midsize sedan at Chevy. The 391-horsepower TrailBlazer SS nearly matches up with the 415-horsepower Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 to take on BMW X5s and Porsche Cayennes. GM figures that selling maybe 125,000 SS models per year works better for Chevy than selling a few thousand best-in-class performers the average Joe can't afford or can't find because of limited production. "Look at what happened to Lightning," Campbell says of the SVT Ford F-150. "They had high-performance specifications. Guess what? They didn't make it." While SVT has been limited to the Ford division, Chevy SS shares most of its stuff with Pontiac or Saturn. The TrailBlazer is the only SS that doesn't share its engine, an LS2 6.0-liter small-block, with any of its platformmates, although it does share the engine and four-speed automatic (beefed up for SUV use) with the Corvette, SSR, and Pontiac GTO.

Of the new SS iterations, the TrailBlazer is the only one GM High Performance Vehicle Operations director John Heinricy worked on, along with midsize-truck vehicle-line executive Tom Wallace. "This being John's and my baby, we like this one best," Wallace says. It has towing capacity (6500 pounds for the all-wheel drive and 6700 pounds for the rear drive) that makes it a real SUV for boat owners. Like any automaker, GM performance mavens such as Wallace and Heinricy are constantly looking for more power, and Chevrolet's ability to get more horses out of the small-block hints at what they can do to narrow the TrailBlazer's 24-horsepower deficit versus the Jeep SRT8. But Wallace says it's not just about ponies. "We don't want to be in a horsepower war. We want a good, balanced package," he says. It's a BMW M approach, and it's how today's SS models have it all over the SS Chevelle and Camaro of yore. "Guess what this does? It stops and it goes around corners. It's raising the bar for the DNA of what SS is."

"There weren't many SS models of the past that went faster than this truck," Heinricy says, promising a low-14-second quarter.