The Chevrolet SS (Super Sport) was built to be a pure muscle sedan. This one-generation vehicle was based on the Australian Holden Commodore and given to the U.S. based on its success down under. The name was from Chevy's long-time favorite trim on its best sports cars and is now made to represent the 415 horsepower 6.2-liter V8 sedan. Having both a manual option and being only RWD makes this ideal for drag racing and creating a monstrous sleeper.

To really get the most out of your SS there are options that will make it look better without infringing on the sleeper aspect and there are also certain mods that will take your horsepower and performance up the most effective that everyone with an SS should at least consider. Not much was done to allow one Chevy SS to cream a Challenger Hellcat at the Christmas Tree.

10 Blackout and Chrome Delete

blacked out chevy ss chavrolet
gmauthority.com

No matter what color your SS is, nothing is quite as Cadillac and old-fashioned on it as the chrome trim around the grille, foglights, and windows. To professionally get them "chrome deleted" you just need to take it into any autobody shop and get a quote. Since it's not your entire car don't expect to pay more than $1,000 for what will ultimately be a refining look. Tinted windows will also tell car people you mean business while leaving the uninitiated to assume you're just a normal Chevy sedan.

chrome-delete-ss-facebook-1
facebook.com

Beware! Painting over the badges and chrome yourself will almost certainly look like crap. Replacing the decals and badges with real black or even red replacements will speak to the car's sportiness. The next step would be to get new rims since the stock ones look too much like what comes on the Malibu. Black or graphite really go a long way, and BBS rims or bronze make it seem younger and sportier.

Related: Blacked-Out Third-Gen Camaro Is A Mean And Clean Racing Machine

9 Lowering Springs/ Coilovers

lowered chevy ss
gmauthority.com

One of the best things for a heavy V8 that puts 415 to the back wheels is stiffer suspension. Reducing body roll means you can accelerate better, brake smoother, and turn safer. It enables more precise drifting and less uncontrolled wobbling, and that's just with stiffer suspension. Such springs can be found for $330 or so for a good set.

lowered chevy ss holden authority
holdenauthority.com

Lowering it has more advantages. At this point, you do risk giving up sleeper status to some degree, but you get the advantage of better aerodynamics and a sportier look. Keep in mind this might limit what tires you can fit on it, especially if you plan to put on radial drag racing tires. Then you might need to deepen the wheel well, a complicated but sometimes necessary task.

8 Cold Air Intake

Cold Air Intake Chevy SS
Via: Roto fab

One of the first and most simple horsepower increases is a cold air intake. It's one of the first things car people spot when looking under a hood at a show or a meet, and it's the first step in any forced induction, which we will discuss later. With as much air being sucked in as 6.2L, making all that air cold will have a much higher impact than, say on a Subaru with 2.5L.

cold air intake amazon chevy ss
amazon.com

After installing one you typically don't have to tune the engine, though it doesn't hurt. From an untuned install alone you can expect a 10 to 20 horsepower increase, enough for you to notice on a pull. Because it's a simpler part you can expect to pay around $500 for a quality intake with a clear cover that promises 11 wheel horsepower, or around $350 for a great one from Amazon.

7 Subtle Body Upgrades

chevy ss maverick man carbon
https://www.maverickmancarbon.com/

This is the owner's call, but throwing on a wing, lip spoiler, or other extravagant aero upgrades might be beyond the ideal scope of what most SS owners are going for. Keep in mind, some upgrades work because they create drag, like canards, while others are ideal for what the SS is made for: straight-line speed.

holden commadore chevy ss red widebody
gmauthority.com

Some of the sexiest low-key improvements are a front splitter, side skirts, a diffuser, and possibly a small lip spoiler or something with less drag made to work at around 100 to 140 mph, or the speed you can expect to finish a quarter or half-mile drag race at. If it's in your liking and you want better handling, widening the stance and getting a widebody kit or fender flares are not a bad idea.

Related: The 10 Best Body Upgrades for Any Muscle Car

6 New Brakes

access speed willwood carbon ceramic brakes
accesspeed.com

There isn't a car in the world that couldn't benefit from upgraded brakes. The most common upgrades are made to grip harder and cool off so they can last longer without getting warped or damaged. Stock sizes are 14" x 1.26" wide, and 14.2" x 1.1", though bigger rims will allow for bigger brakes and that's one upgrade that can not only save your life but also greatly improve performance and daily driving.

brembo brakes chevy ss
ssforums.com

There are benefits to drilled, slotted, vented, and even the costly ceramic options but it just depends on how much you want to spend and how hard you plan to brake. Trading out for more or bigger pistons such as switching to Brembo is a great look and great improvement, and can often be done by oneself with some YouTube guidance. Be sure to practice braking in empty parking lots in case you screwed it up or it grips way harder than you expected so you don't make your passengers barf or exit through the windshield.

Related: How To Bleed Brakes Explained And If You Should Do It Yourself

5 Race Tires

chevy ss track day
maverickmancarbon.com

What's your poison? Drifting? Street speed? Drag racing? Track racing? Canyon driving? Springing for a nice set of tires is one of the best ways to truly enjoy the otherwise limited potential of the Chevy SS. In fact, it's probably the first upgrade we would recommend. Without the right tires, you don't know what your SS is really capable of! How fast it can accelerate, how hard it can hit corners, or if the rain will send you into a ditch.

best tires
michalin.com

Tires that go above your car's performance, even cheap ones just for special occasions, will make sure you stay safe and get the most out of your car. Who knows? You might not need an extra 50 horsepower if every time you accelerate you get massive amounts of wheelspin, typical for even a stock Chevy SS. If all you're doing is drifting or practicing on the track, you can actually find cheap or free used tires that will most likely blow, so cheap rims are also recommended. You will not get a good grip on any such tires but you will get practice without blowing $1,000 a day.

Related: Here’s The Different Types Of Tires And Their Uses

4 Cat-Back Exhaust

chevy ss catback exhaust
maverickmancarbon.com

If you are letting the government's emission laws and Chevy's stock exhaust silent your LS3 engine, then you are just such a silly goose! Don't do that! Your car needs to rumble and it needs open airflow, especially once you start increasing its power. For $600-$2,000 you can get a premium system like $650 Force II that sounds incredible.

A catalytic converter is always important, though it does stifle airflow if you plan to keep driving on U.S. roads. A cat-back allows for better airflow and will be louder, so make sure you're keeping it under the noise ordinance limit, usually 80-100 decibels at 20 feet depending on the city. While there are ways around this for $120, they're not always legal but defiantly useful if you plan to quietly drive to a competition where it is fine to open it up.

3 Short Throw Shifter

If you have an automatic, manual conversion is possible and recommended as it will be more valuable down the road. If you have a manual, a short-throw shifter is the logical next step in making your control over the car better. A short-throw shifter can be installed for around $400 or less and will enable you to switch between gears faster.

chevy ss shifter
chevrolet.com

After you've used a short-throw shifter once then anything else feels like awkwardly fumbling with a broomstick. It refines you as a driver and makes the racing experience far more enjoyable. Most importantly, it shaves some of the biggest wasted chunks of time in a drag race when you can't shift fast enough to keep the RPMs up.

2 Turbo or Supercharger

shopify chevy ss turbo
gmauthority.com

This is the big fish. Captain Ahab's White Whale. Potentially the most expensive and yet the most worthwhile boost to your car's horsepower. Cue turbo noises. When you're working with eight cylinders and 6.2 L of displacement then any increase in airflow makes a major difference. With a supercharger, you can expect to pay a lot more and will most likely need the help of a specialized shop to install it. On the plus side, you get a steady increase in toque because the forced induction is caused by the engine's own spinning.

engineswapdepot
engineswapdepot.com

A turbo is cheaper, makes more recognizable noises with the combination of a blowoff valve or wastegate, and is more efficient since it runs purely on exhaust gasses and not the engine's power. The drawback is boost lag, where it takes a certain level of RPM for the turbo to kick in, typically between two and four in V8s. A bonus is that onlookers will instantly recognize and admire either one when you pop the hood, and nay challenger at a red light will know they've lost the first time you rev up.

1 A Tuner

from tufftruckparts.com

COBB doesn't make a tuner for the SS, but Car iD offers a range of alternatives that work great, many with pre-loaded options. If you have one with a display most often it will be able to show you things like a boost gauge and oil pressure and other things a normal gauge cluster doesn't cover.

chevy ss henessy tuned dyno
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Jgn2dTAEvsV9YezsV3mSQ

One of these is cheaper than taking it to a dyno-tuner, but not nearly as effective and sometimes frustrating to figure out unless you know what you're doing. Tuning will, however, be necessary if you plan to do more for your SS and make it truly formidable.