SS

Make
Chevrolet
Segment
Sedan

We called the Chevrolet SS "the most underrated car of our time" for a good reason. The four-door sedan packs a 415-horsepower V8 engine and starts at just $46,000. Oh, and it's rear-wheel drive and offered with a manual. Unfortunately people haven't been buying the SS in droves, or at all really, which means it's headed for the chopping block once the Holden Commodore on which it's based goes out of production in 2017. But according to Australia's Perth Now the SS is seeing a late rally with 1,000 additional orders put in by Chevy.

As mentioned before the SS isn't a hot seller, with just 2,895 units moved in 2015 (its best sales year). So far Chevy has moved 2,148 examples of its speedy sedan in 2016. As such this large order-when compared to overall sales at least-initially caught us by surprise. Then we realized Chevy is likely just stocking up for its last-ever run of SS models. That's the glass half empty view, anyway. The glass half full view has us thinking that some of these 1,000 cars may be the rumored special editions packing GM's supercharged LSA V8 engine. After all, the Commodore's send off includes a few ridiculously powerful special editions so why wouldn't the SS get the same treatment?

The LSA V8 is used in both the Cadillac CTS-V and the Camaro ZL1, with the former spec offering 556 hp and 551 lb-ft of torque and the latter making 580 hp and 556 lb-ft of torque. Obviously we'd like more power but either tune would be a substantial boost over the sedan's aforementioned output of 415 ponies. The SS is a bit of an oddball that was never destined to be a volume seller so it's death isn't all that shocking. Here's hoping that GM at least sends it out in style by offering at least some of these 1,000 new models with a bonkers engine paired to a six-speed manual.