The 2002 35th Anniversary SS

The 35th Anniversary package was Chevrolet's send-off for a Camaro it was about to stop building. For the story of the generation behind it, there is more on the fourth-gen cars in the full history. This piece sticks to the anniversary SS itself: what it was, what came with it and how to tell one from a red SS with a stripe kit.

What the 35th Anniversary Camaro actually was

It was an appearance package, sold under RPO Z4C and available only on the SS, which was RPO WU8. Buyers paid $2,500 for it, on top of the $3,625 they had already paid for the SS package. Chevrolet sold 3,369 of them.

There was no extra power. The 2002 SS made 325 hp and 350 lb-ft from its LS1, the same as any other 2002 SS, and the anniversary package did not touch the engine. MotorWeek tested a 2002 SS 35th Anniversary with the manual gearbox and recorded 0 to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds and the quarter mile in 13.5 seconds at 108 mph, with an as-tested price of $32,780. That is the performance of a 2002 SS, which was plenty, wearing a party outfit.

LSX Magazine's production breakdown splits the 3,369 into 1,971 T-top coupes and 1,398 convertibles, with 3,000 cars for the United States and 369 for Canada. By gearbox, 1,646 cars had the six-speed manual and 1,723 the automatic. One convertible stayed in the GM Heritage collection.

One color, one interior, one set of wheels

The package left very little to choose. Here is what a window sticker for one of these cars calls for.

The paint name causes small fights. MotorWeek called it Rally Red, and Hagerty's valuation tool lists Bright Red, but the window sticker reads Bright Rally Red, and the window sticker wins. The stripes deserve a note too. The SS cars of 1998 to 2002 were built at Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, and then shipped to SLP Engineering in nearby LaSalle for the hood, spoiler, wheels and suspension. For 2002, SLP also added the stripes, the scoop and any other SLP content.

The Brickyard cars and the early shutdown

The anniversary began before the 2002 model year did. Chevrolet built 45 early 35th Anniversary SS convertibles for the 2001 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Separately, 57 buyers paid $650 for a 2002 Brickyard 400 package. If someone shows you a 35th with an Indianapolis story attached, these are the two groups the story has to fit into, and the documents should say which one.

The 2001 model year paid for the head start. Production stopped early so the plant could prepare the 35th Anniversary cars, and Camaro output for 2001 fell to 29,009, the lowest of the whole fourth generation. A car that was supposed to be a celebration arrived on the back of the weakest year of the generation.

"Stripes come in a kit. A window sticker with Z4C on it does not. When someone tells me a red SS is a 35th, I ask to see the glovebox and the paperwork before I look at the paint."

Wayne Coburn

The glovebox kit and the paperwork that proves it

Here is where the 35th Anniversary earns its reputation as an easy car to verify, provided the owner kept the pieces. Each car came with a glovebox case holding an inscribed tire-pressure gauge, a depth gauge, a pen, a sticky-note pad, a history booklet and a polishing cloth. Nobody buys a Camaro for the sticky notes. But a complete, unused case is a small sign that a car has been looked after by people who keep things.

The red paint and silver stripes alone prove nothing. A red SS with stripes added later looks much the same at a glance, and stripes are stripes. What separates the real car is the combination: the SS code, the anniversary code, the T-tops on a coupe, the interior trim and the papers. Owners who kept all of it are holding the car's whole case in a folder.

Where it sits at the end of the line

The 35th Anniversary SS was part of the final year of the fourth-generation Camaro. In 2002, 11,191 buyers took the SS, about 45 percent of the 24,805 Z28-based cars sold that year. The last fourth-generation F-body, a red Z28 convertible, came off the line at Sainte-Thérèse on August 27, 2002, and the plant closed the next day. The reasons GM let the car go are their own subject, and the 2002 ending covers them in full.

On value, the honest answer is that a reliable current figure for the 35th SS has not been pinned down here. What can be said is what Hagerty's Greg Ingold said in 2018: the 1996 to 2002 SS has the best collectibility outlook of the standard fourth-gen cars, and "any SLP car is significant and desirable." The anniversary SS sits inside that group, with a smaller production number and a fitted case of paperwork.

If you are looking for one, 2002 Camaros for sale is the place to start, and the glovebox is the place to finish. Open it before you open your checkbook. The Camaro name came back for 2010 on an all-new car, but the 2002 cars were the last of the originals, and the 35th Anniversary is the one that came with its own receipt.

Sources and notes

• LSX Magazine: End game, the 2002 35th Anniversary Camaro SS
• Hagerty valuation tools: 2002 Chevrolet Camaro
• Hagerty Marketplace: 2002 Camaro SS 35th Anniversary listing
• MotorWeek: 2002 Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird road test
• Hagerty: Is the fourth-gen Camaro collectible?
• Wikipedia: Chevrolet Camaro (fourth generation)