Curbside Classic: 1999 Chevy Camaro SS SLP – Catfish With Tuner Job?

 

On one of my drives through the town where I had found a gray import Land Rover Defender, I noticed another curbside gem. A facelifted fourth-generation Camaro with a special little SLP badge. I decided to take a closer look as it seemed like a well optioned “catfish” Camaro (Catfish being the name often given to this generation). The SLP badge, nor the aftermarket pieces, were familiar to me, but turned out to be a rather exclusive tuner package. The question was, was it the real deal?

Being in my late 20s, I grew up around a lot of these late 90s to early 00s sports cars. Not necessarily as brand new vehicles, but rather as the cars that filled the parking lots of high schools 15 years later. At the time, the new edge Mustangs were absolutely everywhere; for example, I had two friends who owned one, a V6 convertible and a Mach 1. The thing I observed, however, was that GM F-body cars were a rare sight. I knew of a single kid with a Pontiac Firebird convertible; that was about it. Roaming around SoCal I would see a couple of these era of F-body cars, but mainly of the pre-facelift variety. I would always hear about how fast they were and how they were the ultimate gateway into the LS engine.

 

Rather than the preserved C5 Corvettes that can be found in garages across America, the Camaros were hiding behind strip clubs. They were living hard lives, and frankly, generally didn’t make it down to new owners. At least that’s my theory of it. Today’s find is about as good as it gets for a curb parked Camaro of this vintage, limo tint, peeling paint and all.

This specimen is a modified 1999 Camaro Z28 SS. More specifically, an SLP modified SS, which I’m assuming is what attracted me to it. Doing research for this has been more difficult than I imagined; despite what I believed would be easy to find, information on these SLP tuner jobs comes back to dead links, conflicting information, and other odd ends.

 

The background on the fourth-generation Camaro is an easier start, however. Launched in 1993, they really trimmed down on this generation compared to the third gens. Still running on the same F-Body platform, the car was revised into its new aerodynamic form; with lines that echoed the 1986 Corvette Indy concept car. Still a large car, it attempted to cut some weight from the earlier models; so these new cars featured fiberglass and plastic body panels. Configured correctly, they could come in at just under 3,000 lbs. Final assembly of these moved from California’s infamous Van Nuys plant to Sainte-Thérèse in Canada.

 

The pre-facelift cars ran from 1993-1997 and originally featured either the (207cid) 3.4 liter V6 or the (350) 5.7 liter LT1 V8. Both were available in either an automatic or manual. In 1995, the venerable 3800 series II was added as an option, and in 1996, the 3800 replaced the 3.4 entirely.

 

The post-facelift cars ran for the remainder of the fourth generation run, from 1998-2002. They still used the same 3800, but upgraded the V8 lineup. The new for ’98 V8 was the LS1, part of the famous LS family of engines. The 3800 made 200 horsepower in this application while the LS1 made 305 horsepower in the RS. The SS package, when added to an RS, upped the power to 320 horses.

These engine statistics are important because they don’t quite represent the full picture for the fourth generation Camaro. Remember what I said about SLP upgrades? Chevy had been working with the folks at Street Legal Performance with0 the F-bodies for a while. As such, they developed a few engine packages together and added them as upgrades/trims to some Camaro/Firebird years.

In the mid 90s, GM had worked with this aftermarket company to produce a new Super Sport Camaro, and the first year to see the fruit of this labor was 1996. Instead of the LT1 making its standard 275 horsepower, it was beefed up with freer breathing intakes and exhausts, helping it push out 305 horsepower (more than the base Corvette!). This was in addition to a few other goodies like a Torsen limited slip and a Hurst shifter.

 

1997 would take the stakes even higher with a special SLP edition Camaro added on top of SS Z28 models. Using the LT4 engine out of the upgraded ’96 Corvettes, the SLP Camaro produced 330 horsepower and 340 lb/ft of torque. This pushed the Camaro well into Corvette territory, even with the introduction of the new for ’97 C5. And I mean that in both price and performance. The model’s launch coincided with SLP’s peak production, with 7,900 upgraded F-bodies. Most being Firebirds, for available Camaro numbers indicate only 100 cars were built for the US market, and a total of 6 for the Canadian market.

From 1998-2000 there was a bit of a hiatus for the SLP tuned Camaros. The LS1 engine had been released and the SS’s performance saw an increase in its numbers (’98 Z28 and ’96 SS both make 305 hp), now making 320 horsepower if optioned on top of the Z28.

 

The 2001-2002 saw some changes despite being late in the fourth generation’s life. Power saw another increase with the Z28 producing 310 horsepower and the SS making 325 horsepower. SLP offered their own special edition on top of the SS, making 335 horsepower while offering the other goodies as it did before. With production of the fourth-gen F-bodies coming to an end in 2002, the SLP’s run came to an end. Not that SLP itself lasted much longer, closing doors in 2003.

So what was a 1999 Camaro doing with SLP badges? Wasn’t there a hiatus in the trim packaging with them? The main reason for these badges are likely that the owner purchased the upgrades aftermarket and applied them to his Camaro. So, an SLP reproduction. Given the price hikes that some dealerships seemed to have placed on some of these vehicles, that may have been the way to go.

There may be other options to consider, but I find them to be less likely. The first being that the car was simply up-badged and retrofitted to look like a higher-performance variant. The average person likely wouldn’t know the difference, especially given that a ’99 looks nearly identical to a ’01. They added a GM mark of excellence to the fender. Why stop there?

They also could have taken those parts from a real SLP package Camaro and placed them on theirs. The problem is that with such limited number of original SLPs, I don’t think that would be the case. Especially to grab some of the badging to go with it. Looking at the car, it doesn’t have the later model exhaust ports either.

Finally, it could be a legitimate SLP car from the factory. There seems to be conflicting theories in the forums about whether they ever made any to begin with, and if so, how many were available. The general consensus has been if the car includes the Y2Y RPO Code, it would indicate it has an SLP package. However, the production numbers don’t indicate any being produced that year. At least what I could find on the internet. I’m sure the production numbers are somewhere given it would have to bounce between both GM and SLP. If anyone knows, leave it in the comments section.

As for the Camaro as a whole, it eventually came back for the fifth and sixth generations before being cancelled once more. While I don’t find this generation to be more desirable than the others, it was important to the lineage in that it helped the Camaro see real power numbers after the malaise era, even if it took a couple of decades. It also shared a unique aerodynamic look based on the FWD GM-80 cars that never made it to production. I’m sure some will consider this a future classic. For me, it depends on the future of the Camaro name. I guess only time will tell if or when the next Camaro comes out and how it represents the storied name on the market.

 

Additional Reading:

COAL: 4th Gen. Camaro – I Wear my Mullet on my Chest

Curbside Classic: 1997 Chevrolet Camaro – Conspicuously Purple