Car Features 7 min read

The Split-Bumper Rally Sport, 1970 to 1973

The split bumper Camaro was the RPO Z22 Rally Sport, 1970 to 1973. What the package added, how it changed, and how to check one before you pay.

Mike Sullivan

October 18, 2026

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1970 Chevrolet Camaro RS, split bumper in the rain

This is about the package itself: what it put on the car, how it changed over four years, and how to check one with your own hands. Why the whole second generation, RS included, showed up in February 1970 instead of the fall is covered here.

What the Z22 package put on the car

1971 Chevrolet Camaro Rally Sport, cabin view in a night garage

The Rally Sport was RPO Z22. One 1972 factory text calls it Z23, but Z23 is the Special Interior Group in the same source's 1970 text, so treat that as a typo. Z22 is the code.

For 1970 the package added RS emblems and the split front bumpers, meaning the two bumperettes flanking the grille. It moved the parking lamps down into the front valance. It added Hide-A-Way wipers (C24), which park out of sight below the hood line. And it included everything in the Z21 Style Trim group, so a 1970 RS came with the bright trim whether you wanted it or not.

The grille is the point. The face of the 1970 car took its cue from the 1968 Jaguar XJ6, and with a full-width bumper in the way you only get half the effect. Split the bumper and the grille stands alone. The design side of that is its own story; from the garage floor, it means the RS front end has more separate pieces, more brackets and more places for things to sit crooked.

Four years of the split bumper Camaro

The package did not stay the same for its whole run. Two changes matter if you are looking at a car.

For 1972, the Z21 Style Trim and the RS became separate packages. That means a 1972 or 1973 RS can legitimately have no bright trim. A plain-sided RS from those years is not a stripped car or a parts-bin car. On a 1970 or 1971 RS, missing bright trim is a question worth asking.

For 1973, the last split-bumper year, the bumpers got extra reinforcement so the car could pass the first federal bumper test (5 mph at the front, 2.5 mph at the rear). It is the only year with that reinforcement. The federal bumper rules were already squeezing the design. During the 1972 strike at Norwood, about 1,100 partly built cars were scrapped because they could not meet the 1973 bumper and safety standards. Then 1974 brought aluminum bumpers front and rear and a new nose, and the car grew 7 inches. The split bumper did not get phased out gently. It got regulated out.

The Rally Sport name came back late in 1975 as a paint and trim package, and from 1978 it was a separate model with standard two-tone paint. Neither one has the split bumper. If a seller calls a 1976 RS a split-bumper car, he is selling you a different car.

Year	What to know about the RS
1970	RPO Z22, $168.55; includes Z21 Style Trim contents
1971	Split bumper continues; available with six, SS or Z/28
1972	Z21 Style Trim and RS become separate packages; RS without bright trim possible
1973	Last split-bumper year; only year with extra reinforcement for the 2.5 mph test
1974	Aluminum bumpers and new nose end the split-bumper front

RS on anything, from the six to the Z/28

The RS was not a performance package. It could be combined with the six-cylinder car, the SS or the Z/28. So a split-bumper car can have a 250 six under the hood, and plenty did. That is fine. Just do not pay Z/28 money for a six with nice chrome.

The combination everyone wants is the split-bumper RS with the LT-1 powered Z/28. That is the car that carries the money, and it is also the car most worth faking, because the VIN will not help you. On a 1970 or 1971 Camaro, the VIN only tells you six or eight cylinders. A 1970 Z/28 VIN reads the same as any V8 coupe, and nothing in it says RS either.

Production numbers will not save you. Per-year RS production for 1970 to 1973 has not been pinned down from a primary source. A 1970 figure of 27,136, roughly one car in five, is repeated in enthusiast write-ups, but we could not trace it to a factory record. Treat it as a rough guide. Assume nothing. Check the car.

Checking a split bumper Camaro before you pay

An RS front end is a bolt-on. That cuts both ways. It makes the car easy to restore, and it makes a clone easy to build. Get the car on a lift, or at least get on your back with a light.

The rest of the body is a normal second-gen inspection, and you should do all of it. A clean front end on a rotten floor is a nice front end on a project car.

"The bumperettes are the cheapest part of a split-bumper car to buy and the most expensive part to believe. Pay for the paperwork and the floor pans. The chrome is extra."
Mike Sullivan

What the split bumper is worth

The market pays for it. As of October 2018, a split-bumper RS/Z28 brought up to a 20% premium over a normal Z/28. That number is old, it is a ceiling and not an average, and it applied to Z/28s. It does not mean a six-cylinder RS deserves 20% over a six-cylinder base car. One Hagerty Marketplace listing for a 1972 car says the long hood, egg-crate grille, Frenched headlights and chrome bumperettes of the 1970 to 1973 cars "arguably symbolize the purest of the breed." Fair enough. Purity still has to be documented.

When you start comparing Rally Sport Camaros for sale, sort them by what they can prove, not by how they photograph. A real RS with its original drivetrain and paperwork is worth chasing. A base car wearing the parts is worth what a base car is worth, plus the price of the parts. For the rest of the second generation, from the bumper years through 1981, read more here.